Anti-terrorism water quality monitoring system

• US 8,504,305 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2010
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hach Company (Veralto Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Hach Company (Veralto Corp.)
• Inventors: Wolfe, Thomas D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Teixeira Moffat, Jonathan C
• Assistant Examiner(s): VO, HIEN XUAN
• Application Number:
  US12/710,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: 702/22, 702 30- 31, 702/188, 700270-271, 210/141, 210/634, 210/638, 210/660
• US Class Current: 702/22
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 61/12 Controlling or regulating
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 61/22 Controlling or regulating
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 47/14 Controlling or regulating
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/008 Control or steering systems not provided for elsewhere in subclass C02F
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/001 Upstream control, i.e. monitoring for predictive control
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/003 Downstream control, i.e. outlet monitoring, e.g. to check the treating agents, such as halogens or ozone, leaving the process
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/006 comprising a software program or a logic diagram
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/008 comprising telecommunication features, e.g. modems or antennas
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/02 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/05 Conductivity or salinity
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/06 pH
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/11 Turbidity
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2209/29 Chlorine compounds
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/18 Water
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 21/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0221 Preprocessing measurements, e.g. data collection rate adjustment; Standardization of measurements; Time series or signal analysis, e.g. frequency analysis or wavelets; Trustworthiness of measurements; Indexes therefor; Measurements using easily measured parameters to estimate parameters difficult to measure; Virtual sensor creation; De-noising; Sensor fusion; Unconventional preprocessing inherently present in specific fault detection methods like PCA-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0224 Process history based detection method, e.g. whereby history implies the availability of large amounts of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G16C 20/90 : Programming languages; Computing architectures; Database systems; Data warehousing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 : specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 20/152 : Water filtration

Abstract

An Anti-Terrorism water quality monitoring system for continuously monitoring a potable water treatment system and related potable water distribution network that provides potable water to a municipality, city, housing development or other potable water consumer. The system includes the collection of data from the water distribution system and from the water treatment facility and from advanced separation processes which are integrated into analytical instruments. The data collected are stored in a remote database on a remote server computer or bank of computers and accessible by Homeland Security or its designated agency. Preferred parameters of monitoring include the turbidity and disinfectant such as chlorine, hypochlorous acid, sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, ozone, chlorine dioxide, chloramines, hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid.

Claims

1. An anti-terrorism monitoring system that provides for the remote monitoring of a potable water treatment system and associated potable water distribution system which is positioned downstream from the potable water treatment system and is configured to distribute water treated by the potable water treatment system to a potable water consumer, said monitoring system being configured to:

(a) access raw operating and performance data from one or more sensors positioned within the potable water treatment system and from one or more sensors positioned within the potable water distribution system;

(b) transmit said stored raw data via the world wide web using transmission methods to a remotely located Internet server computer;

(c) store said raw data remotely;

(d) determine a selected performance parameter within said potable water treatment system based on the raw data obtained from said one or more sensors positioned within the water treatment system;

(e) determine a corresponding selected performance parameter within said potable water distribution system based on the raw data obtained from said one or more sensors positioned within the water distribution system;

(f) compare the selected performance parameters within said potable water treatment system with the selected performance parameters within said portable water distribution system to produce a comparison result; and

(g) generate an alarm signal if the comparison result exceeds a predetermined threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected performance parameter includes chlorine residual.

3. The system of claim 1, further configured to predict a selected performance parameter within the potable water distribution system based on the selected performance parameter within said potable water treatment system.

4. The system of claim 3, further configured to compare the determined selected performance parameter within the potable water distribution system with the predicted selected performance parameter.

5. A system for remote monitoring of a municipal potable water treatment facility and associated potable water distribution network, the network being configured to receive treated potable water from the water treatment system and distribute treated potable water to consumers, the system comprising a remote computer processor configured to:

(a) receive data from one or more sensors positioned within the potable water treatment system and from one or more sensors positioned within the potable water distribution system;

(b) determine a selected parameter within said potable water treatment system based on the data obtained from said one or more sensors positioned within the water treatment system;

(c) determine a corresponding selected parameter within said potable water distribution system based on the data obtained from said one or more sensors positioned within the potable water distribution system;

(d) compare the selected performance parameter within said potable water treatment system with the selected performance parameter within said portable water distribution system to produce a comparison result; and

(e) allow authorized users access to the comparison result.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the remote computer processor is further configured to receive data from said one or more sensors positioned within the potable water treatment system and from said one or more sensors positioned within the potable water distribution system via the world wide web using a transmission method.

7. The system of claim 5, further configured to generate an alarm signal when the comparison result exceeds a predetermined threshold.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the selected parameter includes chlorine residual.

9. A method for remote monitoring of a municipal water treatment system and an associated water distribution system which is configured to distribute water treated by the water treatment system to consumers, the method comprising:

(a) receiving data from one or more sensors located within the water treatment system and one or more sensors located within the water distribution system;

(b) determining a selected parameter within said water treatment system based on the data obtained from said one or more sensors positioned within the water treatment system;

(c) determining a corresponding selected parameter within said water distribution system based on the data obtained from said one or more sensors positioned within the water distribution system;

(d) comparing the selected performance parameter within said water treatment system with the selected performance parameter within said water distribution system to produce a comparison result; and

(e) allowing authorized users access to the comparison result.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the selected parameter includes chlorine residual.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating an alarm when the comparison result exceeds a predetermined threshold.