HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-25-2011 New York City officials see CSOnet demonstration
Office of the Mayor
NEWS RELEASE
March 25, 2011
5:00 p.m.
New York City officials see CSOnet demonstration
Contact:
Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-
1564, or Jeff Bruce, Director of Business Development, EmNet LLC, 855-1012 or (773) 398-1013
Utilities officials from the nation’s largest city today witnessed the operation of CSOnet,
the City of South Bend’s first-in-the-world system to use technology to monitor and
control combined sewer overflows.
Three top officials from New York City Environmental Protection saw CSOnet in
operation, heard firsthand reports about its development and implementation, and visited
locations where monitoring data is transmitted from specially equipped manhole covers
and where smart valves are controlled by computers to maximize storage capacity in the
City’s 500-mile sewer network.
The visiting officials with New York City Environmental Protection were:
James J. Roberts, deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Water & Sewer Operations
John G. Petito, assistant commissioner for operations, Bureau of Wastewater
Treatment
Christopher M. Hawkins, policy advisor for sustainability
Based on research conducted at the University of Notre Dame and Purdue University, the
City of South Bend’s CSOnet was developed in conjunction with EmNet, a South Bend-
based company that has created the software and hardware to implement the wireless
system.
Fully deployed in 2010, CSOnet is the first system to monitor and control combined
sewer overflows in real time through the use of embedded computer sensors in a
decentralized radio network. It also is the world’s largest cyber-physical embedded
sensor network.
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Work first began in 2005 when South Bend became a real-world laboratory in a pilot
study to demonstrate the economic feasibility of the concept. In 2008-09, the City and
EmNet deployed 105 wireless sensors underneath manhole covers citywide. Through an
embedded radio mesh network, these small computers enable crews to monitor
monitoring points, data from sensors is transmitted by radio to a nearby gateway, which
uploads the depth and flow of storm water and sewage in the 500-mile sewer network.
The small computers enabled City crews to monitor 110 strategic points in the City sewer
system in real time.
In the first full year of monitoring in 2009, CSOnet reduced South Bend’s dry-weather
overflows of the sewer system by 66 percent. It allowed the City to achieve several
objectives:
Monitor 36 CSO outfalls, 42 locations throughout major trunk lines, five retention
basins and 27 locations along the interceptor – the primary line that conveys outflow
along the river to the wastewater treatment plant.
Provide an early-warning and prevention system for dry-weather overflows to the
combined sewer.
Discover potential areas for inline storage in larger sewer lines.
Find locations of possible bottlenecks in the interceptor and trunk lines.
Determine the effective storage capacity of retention ponds.
With support from the federal stimulus, crews installed nine “smart valves” with
motorized controls and overflow reservoirs at key locations throughout South Bend in
2010.
“This enables us to use capacity in existing sewer pipes and retention basins to store
excess water until rain stops,” said Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “It maximizes the flow of
wastewater to the interceptor sewer line leading to the wastewater treatment plant and
minimizes combined sewer overflows into the St. Joseph River.”
Over the long term, CSOnet is expected to have a significant impact. A study conducted
by Malcolm Pirnie, an environmental engineering firm, determined that a citywide
installation would reduce CSOs by up to 24 percent, according to Luis Montestruque,
president and primary research investigator of EmNet L.L.C.
That’s not all.
“For a $6 million investment, we’ll save about $120 million by using existing assets to
achieve the same level of benefit as conventional solutions,” said Gary Gilot, director of
the Department of Public Works for the City of South Bend. “This will give us real-time
control to maximize the storage capacity of our conveyance system. It gives us a new tool
to prevent basement backups.”