About Sacramento Suburban Water District
The Sacramento Suburban Water District (SSWD) strives to be a leader in innovative methods of optimizing their water system operations. They have implemented and piloted several programs since the water district’s creation in 2002. Dan York, Assistant General Manager states that “we are typically the first to try things out in our region, always running thorough pilot programs and others water districts wait for our findings.”
The Challenge
The SSWD monitors 85 ground water wells, and needed a database to house data for over 2200 samples collected annually and analyzed by their labs. Prior to implementing WaterTrax, they were tracking their water quality data in spreadsheets, spending hours reviewing the data and entering it into spreadsheets. One thing that worried them was the lack of notifications or warnings when exceedances occurred in their water. They wanted to find a system that was more efficient and would reduce the amount of errors in data entry which was potentially exposing them to risk.
We wanted some kind of alarms, and needed data automatically placed into a database from a laboratory which would notify us if we were exceeding an MCL, and would alert us of the detection limit on a constituent. That is exactly what WaterTrax provided us.
The Solution: WaterTrax
One thing that attracted them to WaterTrax was the automated alerting feature and the laboratory data transfer functionality. The automation that WaterTrax offered was a huge improvement to their existing operations at the time. Since implementation, they have found that they have been able to decrease the amount of manual data entry and validation and reducing the errors in water quality data. Previously, they had to check through every single lab report and line item on their water quality results. WaterTrax eliminated both of those time consuming tasks.
To increase automation and efficiency in their operations, they utilize the built-in Sampling Planner tool in WaterTrax to help them keep track of this intense sampling schedule. Prior to finding WaterTrax, SSWD was looking for something more efficient that would let them know if they were over the detection limit. “We wanted some kind of alarms,” explains Dan. “At that time, we wanted the data automatically placed into a database from a laboratory which would notify us if we were exceeding an MCL, and would alert us of the detection limit on constituent. That is exactly what WaterTrax provided us.” Since implementing WaterTrax as their water quality data management system, the SSWD has reported huge amounts of time savings in terms of labor costs when it comes to data entry, data reviewing and reporting for Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR), water quality reports and trending. “We are very happy with how WaterTrax improves efficiencies and has optimized the way we manage our water quality program. We are always looking for ways to improve our processes and currently we are working with WaterTrax to help us enhance our program further.”
The Benefits
WaterTrax helps the SSWD to collect over 100 regulatory constituents every three years, in addition to monthly and quarterly monitoring. Mr. York has noticed that since implementing WaterTrax, they have reduced the amount of manual data entry by 25 hours per month and reduced manual QA/QC of data by at least 8 hours per month. “We are very happy with how WaterTrax improves efficiencies and has optimized the way we manage our water quality program”, explains Dan. “We are always looking for ways to improve our processes and currently we are working with WaterTrax to help us enhance our program further.”
Solution Highlights
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Save time and reduce data errors by eliminating manual data entry, and validation
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Automated notifications keep track of sampling schedules and detection limits