What did one water tower say to the other water tower? In Baldwin right now, the answer is ‘nothing.’
Baldwin City leaders voted to spend $22,500 to install a new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. It will allow the towns’ primary water tower to “talk” to workers and give early warning when something goes wrong.
SCADA is a series of sensors inside tanks and pumps that, combined with a computer program, allow city workers to, at a glance, make sure key elements of the Baldwin water system are working properly. They can also control the whole system through a computer or smart phone.
Baldwin Public Works Director Scott Barnhart says they could have used such a system earlier this year, “We had a bladder go bad in a pump and the pump kept running, didn’t shut off like it was supposed to, we ended up getting calls saying the tank was overflowing we lost a lot of water there,” he explains. “(with SCADA) if the pump doesn’t shut off you get an alarm. If the water level is too high you get an alarm. If the water level is too low you get an alarm. We’ll be able to respond faster and a faster response means less water lost.”
Mayor Jerry Neace says Baldwin has some old SCADA sensors in place currently but most don’t work and don’t cover the whole system. He says investing in a new SCADA to cover Baldwin’s entire water and sewer system would be an investment that could save the city money in future, “If we have a big rain event and one of our pump stations doesn’t function properly and it floods, it could easily be a $10,000 a day fine until we get it cleaned up. With this system in place we get an alarm as soon as something goes wrong and the sooner we know about it, the sooner we can fix it.”
Baldwin is contracting with a Lawrenceville, Georgia company called Processworx for the new SCADA system at the water tank. The contract calls for the work to be done within 6 to 8 weeks.
