Water Tech Leaders Discuss Issues Facing Utilities in Smart Water Era

Nobel Systems executives joined more than 280 water technology leaders from 13 counties and 36 states from across North America at the World Water-Tech, North America 2019 summit in Los Angeles the last week of October. Topics of discussion during the three-day event addressed progressive water technology innovation and the future of water efficiency and resiliency.

Nobel demonstrated its GeoViewer Real-Time, Location-Based Operations Management System during the networking events and activities at the summit.

Water-Tech Attendees started the three-day event with a tour of the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant. Hyperion, operating since 1894, is one of Los Angeles’ largest and oldest wastewater treatment facilities. An average of 275 million gallons of wastewater enters the plant daily during dry weather, which can double on rainy days.

Despite its age, the Hyperion treatment plant has been updated and expanded throughout the years, and it is an example of how innovative water and wastewater operations management technology is applied to increase efficiency and overall operations.

The World Water-Tech attendees focussed their discussions on such innovation for the future to address water efficiency, technology integration with operations management, data standardization, and Smart Water Network Integration. Also, the issues of cybersecurity and physical security in the Smart Water Era were discussed.

Panelists highlighted the need for people working within water management organizations to create collaborative, innovative work environments to encourage the adoption of new water technology.

In a discussion entitled “Asset Optimization: Locking in Resiliency” session chair Cristina Ahmadpour, President of Isle Utilities, noted that the American Waterworks Association State of the Industry Report 2019 identified renewal and replacement of aging assets, capital improvement financing, and the availability of long-term water supply as the top 3 issues impacting the water sector. Other issues in the report that are cause for concern are an aging workforce, affordability, and contaminants.

However, Climate Risk and Resiliency were identified as 30 on a list of top 30 categories of concern. Ahmadpour pointed out that recent research shows that by 2100, up to 60% of East and Gulf Coast communities in the U.S. may face chronic flooding from climate change.

“We’ve seen the impact in Houston, Puerto Rico, and many other communities,” Ahmadpour said during the panel discussion. “The fires in California are a reality for us, where planned and emergency shutdowns are leaving many without extended power, including the water and sanitation services.

“Is resilience just another buzz word that is exciting the sector, or is it changing the types of projects, utility priorities, or driving the selection/procurement process of solutions considering these realities?”

Follow up discussion on Ahmadpour’s comments by utilities and consultants in the water sector centered on innovation, technology, people, and process.

Also discussed during the summit was the need for the private sector to follow through on public commitments on water stewardship during what has become a global water crisis.

More on the other paneled discussions can be found at WorldWaterTech’s Website.