David B. Schendel, Zaid K. Chowdhury, Christopher P. Hill, Scott Summers, Erin Towler, Rajagopalan Balaji, Robert S. Raucher, and John Cromwell

OBJECTIVES:

The focus of this project was to develop a Web-deployed decision-making assistance tool that allows utilities to more simply identify and assess potential simultaneous compliance conflicts and other negative unintended consequences. The Simultaneous Compliance Tool (SCTool) was intended to assist utilities in evaluating appropriate technology choices to comply with multiple and/or conflicting water quality goals.

BACKGROUND:

Utility managers and staff are required to make decisions about competing water quality objectives in the context of rapidly changing regulations and increasingly rigorous customer expectations. Moreover, these utility decisions frequently involve regulatory compliance actions which themselves can increase the potential for conflicts and unintended consequences. Simultaneous compliance conflicts and unintended consequences are frequently associated with modifying existing treatment operations and new technology implementation. Treatment changes can also create new challenges for residuals management and wastewater discharges, as well as aesthetics such as taste, odor, and color. Without careful planning and proper implementation, utility actions originally intended to improve compliance can instead produce adverse unintended consequences.

APPROACH:

The research approach proceeded as follows:

Identify and prioritize compliance conflicts and technology consequences routinely encountered by water utilities

Sort conflicts and adverse unintended consequences around treatment technology scenarios under which they most commonly arise

Develop a technology-based rule framework to assist utilities in making more informed decisions, and to more quickly discern the potential for simultaneous compliance conflicts or negative unintended consequences

Develop a user-friendly Web-based electronic tool that embodies the framework and assembles key issues needed to inform water quality planning decisions and avoid such conflicts

RESULTS/FINDINGS:

The Simultaneous Compliance Tool (SCTool) is intended to assist utilities in making appropriate technology choices to comply with multiple water quality goals, with particular attention toward challenges posed by the source water, treatment, and distribution system conditions/limitations. The SCTool utilizes a framework of technology-based rules to identify potential unintended consequences and simultaneous compliance conflicts associated with a particular solution in the context of system specific water quality, treatment, operational, and management characteristics. The SCTool allows utility users to modify anticipated future system conditions to eliminate or minimize the potential for compliance conflicts, and thereby facilitate more informed decisions about the suitability and implications of new treatment technology or operational practices. In addition to providing direct technology based “on-ramps,” the SCTool also allows the user to pick from a list of potentially applicable technologies based on a utility-specific water quality planning issue or compliance concern. Additional system-specific testing and demonstration may be needed once a short list of suitable technologies is identified using the SCTool.

IMPACT:

The SCTool Web site has been designed to enable users to assess the impact of modifying existing treatment or selecting new treatment technologies to resolve “flagged” water quality and compliance issues. It provides the user with a summary of potential unintended consequences resulting from selection of a particular technology in the context of system-specific inputs on water quality, treatment configurations, operational data, and management characteristics. The SCTool allows users to evaluate the way changes in these system input characteristics contribute to or resolve conflicts and consequences that possibly may occur.

MULTIMEDIA:

The SCTool is a Web-based decision-making assistance tool.

RESEARCH PARTNER:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

PARTICPANTS:

A diverse group of drinking water utilities, regulatory agencies, and engineering consultants participated in this project.