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By Nikki Stiles
With more than 4 million residents, Harris County, TX, is one of the most populous counties in the United States, and along with all those people comes a large number of onsite wastewater systems needing to be maintained. To assist with this endeavor, on Oct. 1, 2006, Harris County became the first county in the United States to require all commercial systems to use the newly erected NSF Onsite Monitoring Program.
NSF combined efforts with RMSYS Inc., a Texas-based company that has extensive knowledge and expertise in remote telemetry and critical onsite system information and tracking to create the NSF Onsite Monitoring Program. The NSF Onsite Monitoring Program is available for use on any wastewater treatment technology for the life of the system. The system remotely monitors maintenance activity and provides immediate notification of alarm conditions through a telemetry device that communicates with a secure, proprietary NSF database through an existing telephone line and a toll-free telephone number. Service providers are notified of alarm activity immediately via e-mail, cell phone or pager text message. The database information is available to health and environmental regulatory agencies, onsite service providers and homeowners through a secure NSF Web site.
The Need For The Program
“Advanced systems require routine maintenance in order to produce high-quality effluent. Many government agencies around the country do not have the means to adequately inspect and insure that advanced onsite systems are properly maintained,” says Paul Jackson, program manager for water and wastewater treatment units for NSF International. “The NSF Onsite Monitoring Program provides public health officials, service providers and installers, and homeowners with independent, third-party verification of system maintenance and alarm status.”
Lack of maintenance is one of the biggest issues facing the wastewater industry today.
Poorly maintained onsite systems lead to system failures, which in turn lead to environmental and public health endangerment. “We wanted to use the monitoring program for two reasons,” says John Blount, deputy director of planning and operations for Harris County. “First of all we knew that in some cases that the maintenance wasn’t being done, because we had numerous complaints from homeowners saying that they were paying for these maintenance contracts but yet the maintenance wasn’t being done.”
Now with the NSF Monitoring Program, Harris County officials are able to log onto the NSF Web site and immediately know if and when treatment systems have been serviced, when maintenance is scheduled to occur, when alarms are activated, responded to and by whom, and when service contracts are set to expire.
The second reason Harris County is using the monitoring system is that it requires less paperwork. The county typically requires four quarterly inspections a year and that means four maintenance reports to review on each system as well. “If we have 13,000 systems and we get four quarterly inspection a year that’s 52,000 maintenance reports that we have to review and enter into our system. This eliminates all of that and prevents us from having to hire additional people,” says Blount.
Not only will it save money by alleviating the need to hire additional staff but also the monitoring program will save the homeowner money as well since the county typically charges $10 for every maintenance report that they have to review. Residential onsite wastewater treatment systems equipped with the NSF Onsite Monitoring Program are also granted a reduction in maintenance requirements. This reduction, which includes the elimination of sampling and analysis requirements, will save service providers and homeowners time and cost.
The NSF Onsite Monitoring Program itself is very affordable. The system has two models of communication devices from which to choose, one being a landline and telephone-cable-required system (RMS-100), and the other being a landline and cordless system (RMS-300). The hardware for the RMS-100 is $100 and the hardware for RMS-300 is $163. The cost of the Web site/database subscriptions is $24 for residential and $36 for commercial application per year. Use of the program Web site is provided at no charge to regulatory agencies. The hardware is fully warranted and set up and technical support is provided at no charge.
Clearstream Wastewater Systems in Texas is making the NSF Onsite Monitoring Program available in every control panel that they produce according to Wayne Peyton, national sales manager for the company. “The reason we really push it is because these ATU systems have to be maintained, because they have mechanical parts and much of that maintenance is not being done. We look at this remote monitoring as a way of knowing that is being done and it’s good for the county and the homeowner,” he says.
At one time, ATUs were banned in the state of Texas because of lack of maintenance, Peyton says. “Since we’ve gotten them back in the state and we’re using them, we want some accountability, we want people to be accountable, we’re accountable as a company.”
More to Come
Texas is not the only state signing up for the Onsite Monitoring Program. Jackson reports that NSF has recently activated accounts in Colorado and California. “Those systems have been brought on line by service providers and installers who see the value to their businesses even though they are not required by public health agencies to use the program. Numerous other states and counties around the county are in various stages of consideration of the NSF Onsite Monitoring Program,” Jackson says.
“We’re really excited about the monitoring program and to be working with NSF. I think it’s going to be a really good mix to have a third-party independent person making sure that maintenance is getting done,” Blount says. “And the alternative is that the county spends a lot of money doing the monitoring as opposed to the technology. We think the move in the onsite industry is towards higher technology and the NSF Monitoring Program is one of the first moves.”
Nikki Stiles is a freelance writer based in the city of Fairmont, WV.
To Learn More
To view a demonstration of the NSF Onsite Monitoring Program, visit the operational Web site at http://treatmentdatabase.nsf.org. Enter in user name “agency” and password “demo” to view demonstration data. |
OW - January/February 2007 |
