Keeping Track Of Your Control Valve Information

Water production and distribution in the City of Redlands, California, is managed by the Municipal Utilities & Engineering Department and is supplied from two water supplies, Mill Creek and the Santa Anna River. Treatment is provided at two conventional water treatment plants, Tate WTP and Hinckley WTP, each capable of producing approximately 14 MGD. Water is then fed into 7 different pressure zones due to elevation changes through a series of pump stations.

As you can appreciate, these pressure zones and pump stations require ongoing inspections, maintenance and periodic equipment overhauls. A number of years ago, Tim Neumann, Plant Mechanic II for the City, was asked if he would incorporate looking after 18 automatic control valves into his work schedule. These valves were Pressure Reducing/Pressure Sustaining valves, which Tim quickly realized, had not had real maintenance in a number of years. This is not unusual in any City Water Department as staffing levels have been reduced over the years and operations just get too busy. With repairs and breakdowns, etc. departments can easily lose focus on maintenance.

Tim decided that the only way to stay on top of the situation was to produce a maintenance database, recording everything relating to the valves. He produced in a spreadsheet program, which he wrote himself, and spent hours inputting records and pictures of the valves. Tim felt this was a prudent exercise as this would also provide a written log for future operations personnel if he was not available.

Fast forward a few years and Tim’s method was successful enough that he was now responsible for 92 control valves that he was keeping data base records for. While the program was working, it was not a particularly efficient way to be logging valves.