2017 PennTec Conference
Real-world water/wastewater system examples that use online GIS applications to transform infrastructure data into an easy-to-use operations asset management system.
Online GIS Applications and Asset Management
This presentation provides real-world water/wastewater system examples that use online GIS applications to transform their infrastructure data into an easy-to-use operations asset management system. This low-cost approach captures vital data within a secure geo-spatial database. By creating customized mobile web applications, field-critical data (material description, installation date, inspection reports and service history) is available when needed most and accessible to operators in the office or in the field.
Public-Facing Maps: Using GIS as a Community Outreach Tool
Be it road closures, boil water advisories, or utility repairs, public notifications play a vital role in municipal government. Many municipalities have adopted web-based notifications as a way to broadcast information to its citizens.
PSATS 2017 Annual Conference
presented by: Alfred Guiseppe, PG | Director, Water Resources
Overview
Designed to provide attendees with examples of how municipalities across the nation use intuitive, interactive online maps to convey important public information to their community, this session will cover a range of public works topics including public notifications, traffic control, road maintenance, water and wastewater infrastructure improvements, source water protection, potential sources of contamination, stormwater best management practices, and asset management.
Be it road closures, boil water advisories, or utility repairs, public notifications play a vital role in municipal government. Many municipalities have adopted web-based notifications as a way to broadcast information to its citizens. The increased popularity of interactive online maps, like Google Maps, have paved the way for municipalities to employ public-facing maps as a means to push important information to the public. Interactive maps can also serve as a two-way information exchange.
Links to Resources
click on the live links below or Download the Resources Sheet
MUNICIPAL GIS EXAMPLES
PUBLIC NOTIFICATIONS & OUTREACH
Chester Co. Water Resources Authority
Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority
Wyomissing Borough Refuse Collection
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
GETTING STARTED
Spottlight - August 2016
Prevent disasters with a proactive approach to water quality. Protect your system with current and comprehensive emergency procedures.Maintain a current Emergency Response Plan to help reduce impacts to your system by unforeseen circumstances, or situations beyond your control.
Six Tips for a Healthy Water or Sewer System
1. Check the Pulse - Through your day-to-day operations of your water/wastewater system, are you keeping your finger on the pulse of your system? One way to do that is to liberate your Geographic Information System (GIS) data through the use of web-enabled mobile applications. Transform your water/wastewater infrastructure data into an easy-to-use operations Asset Management system.
2. Monitor the Pressure - Starting with the first day of pumping, the yield of a groundwater well will slowly begin to decline. The decline in performance is attributed to physical and biological clogging of the well. As water is pumped, fine sediment can be drawn towards the well, plugging the water flow pathways. Biological growth can also develop throughout the well, but especially in the primary water-bearing zones, where the bacteria can effectively reduce the well yield.
3. Protect your Immune System - In the event of an emergency that could impact treatment plant operations, immediate action is often critical in preventing or minimizing the incident. Boost your immunity from disaster by developing a comprehensive emergency response plan (ERP) as required by DEP. Possible emergency situations include a distribution system line break, power outages, drought conditions, disinfection system failure, contamination of supply, pump failure, and prolonged outage.
4. Prevention is the Best Protection - The first step towards prevention is to develop a Source Water Protection Plan. To maintain its usefulness, a Source Water Protection Plan should be updated every five years.
5. Check your Footing - In certain parts of Berks County, the ground can fall out from beneath your feet. What would you do if your utility lines were threatened by a sinkhole? SSM personnel have assisted municipalities, insurance companies, and legal defense teams in settlement instances involving sinkhole and non-sinkhole related damage claims. By observing, evaluating and documenting site specific details, we have often been successful at determining the causes leading to ground failures. Determining these details and causes have often been beneficial to our clientele whereby at times limiting their liability or determining their involvement with remediating sites and damaged infrastructures.
6. Have a Vision - Accurate knowledge of your system asset and infrastructural component locations in your water/wastewater system plays a vital role in healthy operations. Key operational decisions require precise geographic information. Relying on an outdated or incomplete system map will lead to wasted time and potentially costly mistakes. A comprehensive system map will provide the means to effective management. Just as our eyes are the window to the world, your system map is your view to the system as a whole. 20/20 vision of your system requires accurate locational data. Armed with up-to-date and comprehensive infrastructure data, the system can be run with greater efficiency and operational awareness.
Source Water Plan Updates
If your source water protection plan was developed four or more years ago, new tools and technology can improve your plan and make a positive impact on source water protection.
Over the last 10 years, many community water systems participated in various source water protection programs offered by the PA Department of Environmental Protection.
These programs provided free technical assistance for a rigorous delineation of multiple water sources, identification of potential sources of contamination, and the development of a professional plan to address water quality issues. As these plans become older, many aspects of the plan become outdated or not applicable to current practices. If your plan was developed four or more years ago, new tools and technology can improve your plan and make a positive impact on source water protection.
SSM offers a menu of services that keeps your Source Water Protection Plan relevant to your system’s present needs. By using technology advances such as improved Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capability and new publicly-available information, your plan can be on the cutting edge of protection strategies.
- Enhanced groundwater and surface water computer modeling. Is there a particular concern in your area? SSM can use your plan delineation to model flow from a particular operation, or use a more rigorous computer model to track specific contaminants to your water sources.
- Review and update potential sources of contamination (PSOC) inventory. PSOCs can change quickly. Using updated databases, we will help you identify and analyze important changes in PSOCs that may affect your water sources.
- Resource extraction mapping for oil & gas wells and mining areas. SSM can research unconventional well development in your area for the best protection of your groundwater sources.
- Land-use analysis. Current sources of information can help map existing non-point source activities in your protection zones, such as residential, agriculture, and industrial areas.
- Review and add management options that update your system’s strategies for protecting your water sources. Management strategies should be evaluated regularly to ensure they are effective in protecting your water sources.
- Reinvigorate your steering committee. SSM can assist with organizing and conducting strategy meetings that brings new ideas and partners together to improve your plan.
- Contingency planning. After the January 2014 contamination incident in the Elk River and other events , Disaster Planning is the new hot topic. SSM staff can help develop partnerships with emergency responders and early warning networks through training and GIS assistance.
- Update your plan components. SSM can write an addendum to your existing plan, bringing all of your priorities and updates together in one, concise report.
The Source - Spring 2016
regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies for source water protection
regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
What's Inside this Issue
- Hydrogeologic Study Requires Robust Computer Modeling
- Stormwater Modeling Software
- Lower Allegheny Regional Partnership Stakeholders Meeting
Carl D. Kline, Jr., LO Joins SSM Group
Carl D. Kline, Jr., LO joins the staff as a Senior Operations Specialist in the Water and Wastewater Engineering Services Department.
SSM welcomes Carl D. Kline, Jr., LO as Senior Operations Specialist in the Water and Wastewater Engineering Services group.
Mr. Kline will lead the firm’s water, wastewater and industrial treatment plant operations support efforts and will provide new equipment startup, process startup and training on all treatment plant related project initiatives. In addition, his responsibilities will include maintaining client contact and providing ongoing operational support services, advice, training, and troubleshooting, as may be required to assist client operations staff in maintaining treatment process efficiency, effectiveness and DEP compliance.
He has more than 40 years of experience in all aspects of water, wastewater, and public works. That experience includes responsible management of contracts, budgets, and personnel and associated operations, maintenance and safety programs. He has developed and maintains excellent relationships with clients, as well as federal, state, county, and local officials in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
SSM Group, Inc. serves government, education, healthcare, industrial, and commercial clients in Pennsylvania, across the United States and in the Caribbean. SSM offers extraordinary experience in the planning, design, and construction management of wastewater and water systems, piping systems, pumping stations, and treatment plants. We offer solutions for tomorrow through far-sighted water and sewer infrastructure and environmental planning.
Sinkholes and Why They Matter
Sinkholes can be dangerous in many ways. They can cause damage to the foundation of a building, they serve as conduits for surficial contaminants to reach groundwater, and they can cause damage to buried services like water lines and electrical conduits according to Conserve Energy Future. Knowing the risk of sinkhole formation is key to minimizing possible damages.
Sinkholes can be dangerous in many ways.
MEASURING SINKHOLE POTENTIAL RISK
Karst is defined as “a terrain, generally underlain by limestone, in which the topography is chiefly formed by the dissolving of rock, and which is commonly characterized by Karren, closed depressions, subterranean drainage, and caves” by the Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1899. Each component listed above (Karren, closed depressions, subterranean drainage, and caves) are considered karst features, but most importantly, sinkholes are considered karst features.
Sinkholes can be dangerous in many ways. They can cause damage to the foundation of a building, they serve as conduits for surficial contaminants to reach groundwater, and they can cause damage to buried services like water lines and electrical conduits according to Conserve Energy Future. Knowing the risk of sinkhole formation is key to minimizing possible damages.
Since the amount of karst features in an area can be related to the occurrence of sinkholes, an interactive sinkhole risk map was created using the density of karst features within a geologic formation.
Interactive Sinkhole Risk Map
The Interactive Sinkhole Risk Map provides access to searchable and interactive information such as karst density and geologic formations which contain carbonate rocks within Pennsylvania. The map displays only geologic formations in which the geologic unit contains carbonate rocks. There is the possibility of sinkholes forming in non-carbonate environments, but those situations were not considered in the making of this map. Explore the Interactive Sinkhole Risk Map to view the Sinkhole Risk for any location.
If a sinkhole evaluation of a location is desired, SSM Group, Inc. has multiple professionals on staff with years of experience in sinkhole risk evaluations. Feel free to contact SSM Group, Inc. to learn more.
SSM Group, Inc. Announces Management Changes - Brian Kelly named President and CEO
SSM Group, Inc. recently announced a corporate management restructure. Brian R. Kelly has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of the firm. Kelly, who formerly served as the company’s Executive Vice President with responsibility of running the firm’s operations, replaces J. Carlton Godlove, II, who has left the company to pursue other interests.
Kelly is one of four McCoy family members who assumed control and management of the firm in 1996. Kelly has an Associate Degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology from The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining the SSM management team, Kelly was employed at AT&T for more than 17 years in various roles. Kelly resides in Reading with his wife, Kay McCoy Kelly, who is a daughter of the company’s founder, Lewis J. McCoy, Sr. In a prepared statement, Kelly said, “I look forward to leading the company as we embark upon strategic growth and expansion. I am very proud of our exceptionally talented senior leadership team and all of our employees, and I am confident that, with their help and support, we will continue to grow the company and succeed at fulfilling our corporate mission – ‘Enhancing the quality of life for our clients, our employees, and all of the people touched by our work.’ Our work is so important because it touches this generation and future generations with a scope broader than we can imagine – and it leaves a legacy that will live far beyond us.”
“Approximately six months ago we appointed a team of independent professionals to work with us as members of an Advisory Board: Thomas A. Beaver, CPA, former managing partner at RKL; Patricia L. Langiotti, President of Creative Management Concepts; and Mike Shor, former executive with Carpenter. These Advisory Board members have played a key role in helping us plan for our future,” Kelly said.
Kelly also announced that shareholder, Patrick M. McCoy, PE, has been promoted to Executive Vice President. “Patrick will lead the company’s business development and sales and marketing efforts and he will be a strong right-hand man,” Kelly said. Patrick McCoy has been with the firm since 1996. He graduated from Drexel University, like his father, and holds Bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering. McCoy formerly led the company’s Facilities and Site Engineering Division which provides services to worldwide companies such as IBM. Prior to joining SSM, he was with Ortega Consulting, Media, PA, and Gredell & Associates, Wilmington, DE.
Shareholder Lewis J. (Lou) McCoy, Jr. of Reading, who joined the firm in 1985, will continue in his role as Director of Human Resources.
Catherine (Kitty) Bell, who joined the firm in 2004, is being promoted to Divisional Vice President. Formerly the firm’s Vice President of Facility Engineering, she assumes an expanded role, with additional management responsibility for Site Engineering and Survey and Data Capture disciplines (formerly managed by Patrick McCoy). Bell resides in Reading, PA.
SSM Group, Inc. is an engineering and consulting firm founded by Lewis J. McCoy, Sr. in 1967. The company continues to be family owned and operated. Headquartered at 1047 North Park Road in Wyomissing with satellite offices in Harrisburg and the Lehigh Valley, SSM has just under 100 employees and provides services to various types of local, regional and national businesses that include commercial, industrial, manufacturing and telecommunications as well as healthcare and higher education institutions. The company also provides services to numerous local, regional, and county government entities. While the company’s primary market is a regional footprint including Berks County and the Lehigh Valley, SSM serves clients throughout PA and the Northeastern United States as well as to some international clients.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Brian Kelly, President and CEO
brian.kelly@ssmgroup.com | P: 610-621-2000
Aaron Pysher, GIT Joins SSM Group
SSM welcomes Aaron Pysher, GIT as Graduate Geologist. Aaron is a Geologist-In-Training (GIT) responsible for field and technical support of various water resources projects including public water supply development, infiltration testing, sinkhole investigations, and groundwater modeling and analysis. He received his BS in Professional Geology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
The Source - November 2015
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
WHAT’S INSIDE
- Unassessed Waters Project Successful in Berks County
- Strategies for Successful Implementation
- Consider the Source Campaign
- New Faces in Sourcewater Protection
- Good Water = Good Life
The Source - July 2015
July 2015 Inside this Issue:
- Safe Drinking Water Celebrates 40th Anniversary
- WREN Awards $19,000 for Drinking Water Protection Projects in Pennsylvania
- Partnership with PA Manufactured Housing Association
- Challenges of Protecting Pennsylvania’s Unconventional Springs
JULY 2015 | The Source
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
Clean Water Rule
The Clean Water Rule protects streams and wetlands that we depend on for our health, communities, and economy.
INDUSTRY UPDATE: Clean Water Rule
There’s been much buzz surrounding the Clean Water Rule, recently issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While the rule aims to clarify permitting regulations already in place with the Clean Water Act of 1972, many are worried it will create new stringent and burdensome regulations. Sixteen states have filed lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the rule. In an attempt to protect streams and wetlands, the Clean Water Rule simply enhances the Clean Water Act, responding to more than a decade’s worth of requests to more clearly define the water bodies and waterways referenced in the Clean Water Act.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, clarification of the definitions of the waters protected by the Clean Water Act, will protect valuable water resources and help make permitting less costly, easier, and faster for business and industry. This is because it eliminates much confusion over which waterways are regulated, and how they are to be regulated. This reduces the time and resources required to submit and approve a permit. While environmental groups and some businesses support the rule, claiming the clean water is central their operations, other interests have mounted opposition to the rule, citing it as an example of burdensome federal overreach.
The Clean Water Rule is the result of more than 400 meetings with stakeholders from all over the country, over 1 million public comments, and the latest scientific research showing that the health of small tributaries and wetlands play an integral role in the health of larger, downstream bodies of water. By ensuring that our smaller tributaries and wetlands are covered by Clean Water Rule, the drinking water sources of more than 117 million Americans will now be protected that may not have had sufficient coverage under the Clean Water Act alone.
Only types of waters already addressed by the Clean Water Act are included in the Clean Water Rule, which does not create any new permitting requirements for agriculture. It also maintains all previous exemptions and exclusions, including activities like planting, harvesting, and moving livestock. The rule does not regulate most ditches, groundwater, shallow subsurface flows, or tile drains, and only requires a Clean Water Act permit if a protected water is going to be polluted or destroyed by an activity. Moreover, the rule does not place regulations on land use.
Not only is the rule important for the health of the surface water sources we utilize for drinking water, the water ways protected by this rule are beneficial to many aspects of our communities. Wetlands and streams trap floodwaters, recharge groundwater supplies, filter pollution, provide habitat for fish and wildlife, and are important for recreation and commercial value.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Alfred Guiseppe, PG
the Source - January 2015
Source Water Protection News: regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, new technologies
Source Water Protection News
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
the Source - April 2014
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
Source Water Protection News
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
the Source - January 2014
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
Source Water Protection News
Regulatory and legislative updates, best practices, and new technologies.
Protecting your water begins with your land
The Eastern Lancaster County (ELANCO) Source Water Collaborative hosted a workshop entitled, Protecting Your Water Begins with Your Land. The workshop invited government, the local farming community, and environmental organizations to comingle and learn about new findings in farming best management practices.
Elanco Source water collaborative
ELANCO Source Water Collaborative
The Eastern Lancaster County (ELANCO) Source Water Collaborative hosted a workshop entitled, Protecting Your Water Begins with Your Land. The workshop invited government, the local farming community, and environmental organizations to co-mingle and learn about new findings in farming best management practices.
Although the theme of the workshop was farming best management practices, the underlying theme in each presentation was communication. Whether it was a member of a federal agency, a conservation organization or a representative of the Mennonite community, each person that spoke promoted respecting differences, seeing from all points of view and coming together to work towards a better balance of environmental conservation and profit maximization.
The event’s keynote speaker, Ray Archuleta promoted soil health in an informative way that simply made sense. Using fantastic demonstrations, he showed how conventional farming techniques strip the soil of nutrients and the ability to form aggregates and hold water. By improving the health of the soil, not only do we increase farmers’ yields, but we also prevent soil runoff and erosion, improving our water quality. Ray’s speech was so engaging that during the exhibition session, farmers crowded around him to discuss the topics further.
The workshop was an eye opener, not only for the community, who was there to learn about, or possibly criticize, the suggestions the workshop was providing, but to the educators, environmental activists, vendors and agency workers. No one in the room expected such a successful workshop and for so many different people to get along so wonderfully. It really inspired hope that we can work together on these critical issues.
If you’d like more information on soil health, you can check out some of Ray’s demonstrations on his Vimeo page at http://www.vimeo.com/channels/raythesoilguy.
The videos are short (about a minute for most) but really do say a lot.