College developing low-cost fix for water in remote locales.

Sault College may have a low-cost solution to the plight of the Kashechewan Crees and other remote communities suffering chronic water quality problems.

Staff members from several departments there are collaborating with the Sault Ste. Marie Public Utilities Commission and other business partners to develop a remote monitoring technology for water treatment plants using wireless links, cameras and computers.

Their Water Treatment Automation Plant project, started in September 2004, uses real-time video and audio links connected to a master control station. If it proves viable, small rural and remote communities can share a trained and qualified operator who can monitor multiple treatment plants at a distance.

The project should provide some answers to the problem of addressing the shortage of properly trained and certified water treatment operators and technicians in the province.

With a pilot-scale treatment plant already set up on one part of the campus and a master control centre at the other, the wireless network is bridged with roof-mounted parabolic dishes, which can hold a signal from between 17 and 40 kilometres away.

Through touch screen controls, displays and live camera feeds, the master controllers can monitor valves and gauges from a distant water treatment plant. Cameras can even zoom in and scan the main board to read meters and check out dosing pumps.

To avoid tampering at a site, cameras, motion detectors and entry alarms register back at master control.

Later this year, they hope to take the technology out into the field at the water treatment plant in the town of Desbarats, east of Sault Ste. Marie.

Colin Kirkwood, the college's dean of technology and trades, says the origins of the idea for remote water treatment plant control came from the Sault Ste. Marie Public Utility Commission and their desire to develop some business in smaller Ontario communities like Desbarats.

But for a utility, it's a costly venture to have to send technicians out to a water treatment facility or have technicians available on constant standby.

"Even if it's a small problem, somebody has to look at it," says engineering professor Sub-hash Verma. But with remote sensing and a fully automated facility it can be done without a field trip.

The PUCs were interested in operating fully automated facilities.

With the four-phase project moving into its second phase, Kirkwood says it's too early to provide any hard data on the cost savings of remote monitoring versus conventionally operated and maintained facilities.

"The value proposition goes beyond the cost savings," says Kirkwood. "What you're getting is a very reliable and responsive system that doesn't rely necessarily on human intervention to make the corrections required."

Eventually, he says, the cost savings may even be greater for a plant that's located farther away from the master control station.

However, he cautions, the technology doesn't eliminate the need to ever send technicians out.

"In any system you need to do preventative maintenance," says Kirkwood. He says that involves inspection, instrument calibration, filter cleaning and predictive maintenance to check out equipment on the verge of breaking down.

Though the plant technology is a long way from any site commissioning, the college would like an endorsement from the Ministry of Environment at some point.

Kirkwood says if the research project proves successful, the college and the PUC would like to commercialize the technology. While there's been no query calls from the private sector, Kirkwood says, there's been some interest shown from public funding agencies.

"We've not reached the point where we have something that's viable."

But Kirkwood says they do have a sophisticated, leading edge instrumentation and an on-campus facility that few other post-secondary institutions possess.

"We have a state-of-the-art facility that positions us in a very strong place in terms of attracting other public and private institutions that would like to do research."

www.saultcollege.ca

By IAN ROSS 

Northern Ontario Business