Development and Evaluation of a Decision Support System for Operation of Small Water Treatment Systems

Abstract

Operation of a water treatment plant (WTP) requires understanding of treatment technology and how operations are affected by source water quality. Small WTPs generally rely on less experienced operators who may not be able to adapt to the changing conditions, or quickly identify problems. A decision support system (DSS) was developed for small WTPs to assess the treatment of microbial pathogens with common treatment technologies. The DSS includes fault trees, performance functions, quantitative microbial risk assessment, and data management capabilities in an integrated spreadsheet (Excel based) tool that could be coupled with an existing SCADA system. The utility of the DSS was evaluated based on eight case-studies using data from small WTPs in Alberta. It was determined that the DSS was able to effectively identify poorly performing WTPs that inadequately treat source water. Implementation of the DSS into an operating WTP is required to determine whether this tool can be utilized by operators in real world applications.