Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) Utilization For Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance (CMOM) Program Compliance In Wastewater Collection Systems

By John J. Cronley, Mission Communications

CMOM, a widely recognized acronym for the EPA's Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance program, has become a familiar term to the wastewater treatment industry. The 1987 Water Quality Act brought wastewater under the authority of an earlier law, The 1972 Clean Water Act, and required federal oversight of discharges from sewage treatment plants. The CMOM program was established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help reduce regulatory non-compliance in wastewater collection and treatment systems. The CMOM program is a valuable tool which treatment plant operators can use to help demonstrate compliance with federal and state regulations governing the water treatment industry. Used correctly, the CMOM program will help save labor, equipment, and potential fines for almost any wastewater treatment facility. This paper briefly describes the origins of the CMOM program and details the principal ways that the program is applied to wastewater collection and treatment systems. The paper contains real-world examples which illustrate ways in which a properly functioning SCADA system can assist facilities to implement and operate their CMOM programs, helping to avoid potential violations and fines, to optimize efficiency, and to provide proper stewardship of public resources.