Introduction
The Kentucky Center for Wastewater Research (KCWR) at Western Kentucky University (WKU) provides technical, managerial and financial support for communities in Kentucky and the surrounding states dealing with the establishment, management and operation of public wastewater utilities and decentralized wastewater treatment systems. This project seeks to address capacity and infrastructure needs through the provision of technical, financial and managerial assistance to small and decentralized wastewater treatment systems. In doing so, it is anticipated that the potential negative environmental impact of poorly functioning
small and decentralized wastewater systems will be limited resulting in greater protection of public health. This project targets all organizations including utilities, municipalities, both community and noncommunity systems as well as individual homeowners by providing technical assistance, training, demonstration and analytical support for management and operation of small and decentralized wastewater systems.
Activities and Outcomes
Task 1:
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">Center for Water Resource Studies (
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS)
Public Relations
During the quarter,
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS personnel conducted multiple outreach activities. The
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS display was exhibited at the KY/TN Water Professionals Conference in Louisville, KY on July 15-18 Dr. Andrew Ernest attended two Hardin County Wastewater Disposal Alternatives meetings in Elizabethtown, KY during the quarter. Jana Fattic attended one Barren River Area Development District (BRADD) Water Management Council meeting in Bowling Green, KY. Dr. Ernest attended three KY Board of Certification of Wastewater System Operators meetings in Frankfort, KY during the quarter. He also met with officials in Glendale, KY twice during the
quarter to provide them with advice and direction on the future of their wastewater system.
Data Mining
The use of data mining in water quality management has opened the way for the creation of tools for analyzing water quality data. The tool developed in the previous grant year for mining the water quality data in spatial data format is currently being refined as an extension to the webbased GIS (see Task 2). The KCWR web site has been revised to allow memberships and file upload. The web site may now be accessed at http://waterky.org/index.php?q=KCWR or through a link at water.wku.edu. This site is currently linked to a database back-end that will be modified to allow for the linking of GIS to the data.
Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Support
During the quarter,
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS visited the City of Loyall and the City of Harlan to finalize details on assistance with their Combined Sewer Overflow plans. In the coming months,
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS will be aiding both of these cities in generating the necessary information to meet requirements of the State, including the Long Term Control Plans (LTCP), Early Action Plans (EAP), and Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance (CMOM).
Task 2: Spatial Data Integrations, Inc (SDI)
During the fourth quarter of the wastewater grant, SDI continued to develop the web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) for small wastewater systems. All user tools and interface have been completed to include advanced editing tools containing topology rules, a complete geometric network and online help documentation. The
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS servers located in Bowling Green, Kentucky have been configured and currently host the web-based GIS application, which can be accessed by navigating your web browser to http://sdi.waterky.org/sdimaps_web_editor/. A username and password are required in order to gain access and can be obtained by contacting Trey Lyon at tlyon@sdimaps.com or (502) 213-0981.
The system is approximately 95% complete. Requests for beta testers were sent to 13 wastewater utilities and 2 rural water associations. To date, we have received confirmation from 3 wastewater utilities and 1 rural water association, and have received 2 completed questionnaires.
Current efforts are being devoted to obtaining additional wastewater utilities to further test the application and to obtain additional feedback. Any issues that are submitted shall be resolved with anticipation of the application being finalized and turned over to the
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">Center for Water Resource Studies (
Water and Wastewater Laboratory Analysis
DNA Cloning and Sequencing
Operational Troubleshooting
Specialized Training
Mapping and Modeling
Sampling and Monitoring
Applications Development
Proof-of-Concept and Technology Verification
The CWRS is organized into three divisions - The Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services laboratory consortium, providing state-of-the-art water, wastewater and microbiological analytical services; the Environmental Informatics and Information Technology division, specializing in expert systems technology and environmental software applications development; and the Field Operations and Outreach division, providing in-field technology verification, mapping and monitoring services.">CWRS) in December 2007.
SDI continues to provide approximately 300 square feet of office space and high-speed Internet access to KCWR staff and student workers, along with technical assistance with KCWR’s geospatial related projects.
Task 3: Water Analysis, Training, Education and Research Services
(WATERS)
During the quarter, WATERS Lab prepared 18 Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) for 9 different wastewater systems. As discharge permits are being renewed in Kentucky, many of the permits are being revised to require E. coli monitoring rather than fecal coliform. A presentation was made in London, KY on September 18 regarding why the changes were made and how it affects the treatment systems.
Seventeen wastewater operators were in attendance, and were offered continuing education credits.
Task 4: Kentucky Rural Water Association (KRWA)
Financial and Managerial Assistance During the fourth quarter from July 1, 2007 to September 30, 2007, financial and management assistance was provided to seven wastewater utilities. The following provide summaries of assistance in these notable instances:
Boyd County Sewer
KRWA’s Financial Analyst has begun working with this unique utility to help in their effort to merge their sewer operations with a neighboring utility, Boyd County Sanitation District #4. Boyd County Sewer is set up as a department of the Boyd County Fiscal Court (perhaps the only example in Kentucky). The burden of operating a sewer utility by a county fiscal court has exceeded what began as a solution to providing sewer service to a particular area of the county that was experiencing commercial growth with no other sewer service provider with the capability or desire to serve at the time. The county was able to acquire state financing for the project under this unique structure as a county department. Since this time the Boyd County sewer department has grown to more than 3,500 equivalent/connections (mainly commercial and industrial) and the new County Judge/Executive has decided to investigate the possibility of merger so that the County can concentrate on providing services that are more traditional to county government in Kentucky. The Boyd County Sanitation District #4 is a willing participant in the merger idea. KRWA will be assisting the entities with separate rate analyses and a combination rate analysis
that will provide unified rates for a merged utility.
City of Barlow
KRWA has completed work with the City of Barlow on a water and wastewater rate study. Barlow is located in extreme western Kentucky and serves 348 water customers and 302 wastewater connections. The study is awaiting presentation to the City Council.
Technical Assistance
During the fourth quarter, the Wastewater Technician logged 560 hours. Of that time 59% of the total was spent directly assisting systems or their personnel including 225.25 hours on-site time working with systems, 103.5 hours developing plans, reports, and maps for systems, and 9.25 hours providing formal training.
The majority of the time was spent assisting systems with video inspection of the collection systems to identify inflow and infiltration problems. Significant assistance included:
Lewisport Municipal Waterworks
Lewisport is a community in Hancock County, Kentucky with 650 wastewater connections. Brent Wigginton, City Administrator for Lewisport, contacted Kentucky Rural Water Association to request video inspection of a portion of the collection system to find causes for the inflow and infiltration problems they experience. In August, 2007 Kentucky Rural Water Association inspected 2,097.4 feet of collection system. A report was generated for the work performed including a detailed pipe segment report, a graphical view detailed report, a print out of all still images captured for major defects, and DVDs of all video recorded. The cost at $0.60
per foot for the camera work would be $1,258.44 with an additional cost of $1,500.00 for assessment and generation of reports. The total savings to the system was $2,758.44, with additional savings after repair of the defects that were found.
Fordsville Water System Fordsville is a community located in Ohio County, Kentucky with 230 wastewater connections. Ernest Priddy, chief operator for Fordsville contacted Kentucky Rural Water Association to request video inspection of a portion of the collection system. Mr. Priddy has large amounts of infiltration and inflow at the wastewater treatment plant during heavy and moderate rainfall, causing washout and other treatment problems. In August, 2007 Kentucky Rural Water Association inspected 1,178.8 feet of sewer line in Fordsville to help identify locations of inflow
and infiltration. A report was generated for the work performed including a detailed pipe segment report, a graphical view detailed report, a print out of all still images captured for major defects, and DVDs of all video recorded. The cost at $0.60 per foot for the camera work would be $707.28 with an additional cost of $1,500.00 for assessment and generation of reports. The total savings to the system was $2,207.28, with additional savings after repair of the defects that were found.
Arlington Water and Sewer
Arlington is a community located in Carlisle County, Kentucky with 196 wastewater
connections. Kentucky Rural Water Association was contacted by Arlington to request video inspection of their collection system to identify areas in need of rehabilitation. Arlington has done some relining of the collection system and continues to have inflow and infiltration problems. Kentucky Rural Water Association inspected 270.3 feet of sewer line after experiencing difficulty with the camera and line sizes. A report was generated for the work performed including a detailed pipe segment report, a graphical view detailed report, a print out of all still images captured for major defects, and DVDs of all video recorded. The cost at $0.60 per foot for the camera work would be $600.00 (1000 feet minimum) with an additional cost of $1,500.00 for assessment and generation of reports. The total savings to the system was
$2,100.00, with additional savings after repair of the defects that were found.
Wingo Water and Sewer System
Wingo is a community located in Graves County, Kentucky with 255 wastewater connections. Charles Shelby, mayor of Wingo, contacted Kentucky Rural Water to request video inspection of their collection system for future rehabilitation projects. Kentucky Rural Water Association inspected 1,875.8 feet of sewer line in Wingo, finding many problems, including root blockages and broken pipe. A report was generated for the work performed including a detailed pipe segment report, a graphical view detailed report, a print out of all still images captured for major
defects, and DVDs of all video recorded. The cost at $0.60 per foot for the camera work would be $1,125.48 with an additional cost of $1,500.00 for assessment and generation of reports. The total savings to the system was $2,625.48 with additional savings after repair of the defects that were found.
Planning
The anticipated goals of the planning effort in Hart and Barren Counties were to (1) involve local groups and individuals in developing local solutions to wastewater collection and treatment challenges within the county (2) accurately assess the existing methods and conditions for wastewater disposal and treatment for all households within Hart and Barren Counties and (3) develop strategies for expanding wastewater service, improving existing methods of collection
and disposal, and proposing and implementing innovative solutions for identified wastewater challenges in Hart and Barren Counties During the fourth quarter from July 1, 2007 to September 30, 2007, no work was performed, as all planning assistance for Hart and Barren County has been completed. We have met with
representatives of the community and the wastewater utilities in the county. The KRWA intern worked with the utilities to gather GIS/GPS data within the county. A mailed survey was sent to residents of Hart County to gather data on existing wastewater services. Barren County data was easier to obtain for households from the Property Valuation Assessor’s office. The data from these surveys was entered into spreadsheets by the intern and maps were prepared for use by the utility. The City of Bonnieville has recently completed constructing a sewer collection system
which will be operated and managed by Caveland Environmental Authority. The intern worked with GPS to gather all the features of this new system. The KRWA intern found full-time employment in late May 2007 after graduating from WKU.
