New storm flow monitoring device solves tricky flood problem for water companies

Citation

(2002), "New storm flow monitoring device solves tricky flood problem for water companies", Sensor Review, Vol. 22 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2002.08722caf.002

New storm flow monitoring device solves tricky flood problem for water companies

New storm flow monitoring device solves tricky flood problem for water companiesKeywords: Flow, Environment

Unforeseen increased rainfall in recent years has created a problem for sewage networks and treatment plants across Europe.

Bypass systems – originally designed to protect sewage works from occasional freak conditions – divert excess flows directly into the watercourses. Overflow of sewers and wet-wells is often diverted on to adjacent land. As a result, when flood conditions occur, high levels of untreated sewage flow into the watercourses and on to the land, creating unacceptable ecological conditions.

There is now an urgent need to quantify the problem, so that water companies can design solutions to store or redirect storm flows.

Solartron Mobrey's water industry expert Alasdair Ward explains: "We identified a need among our water company customers to measure the abnormal flows upstream of the sewage plants, in the wet-wells, so they could study the possibilities of redesigning or inter-linking networks in order to spread the load."

In response, the company developed the world's first, and only, integrated level meter, pumped volume flow meter and storm overflow meter: the MCU901 (Plate 2). Thanks to this innovative new device, the water companies now have one single, highly cost-effective instrument which can monitor the flow which did not reach the processing site, as well as the flow entering the works.

Plate 2 Solartron Mobrey's MCU901 control unit is used with a level transmitter to indicate level, total plumped volume and total overflow volume

Trials of the double totalising functions of the MCU901 control unit by a leading water company in France resulted in the immediate commissioning of ten units and plans to install a further 50 units in a number of major cities.

Solartron Mobrey's MCU901 control unit is used with a level transmitter to indicate level, total pumped volume and total overflow volume. The cost of the system is little more than a single conventional open channel flow monitoring system and much less than the cost of investing in two separate systems – currently the only other option.

Alasdair Ward again: "Excessive rainfall, flooding and under-capacity of processing sites is increasingly a problem across Europe. MCU901 offers a cost-effective solution to measurement of the problem, helping water companies to design appropriately sized solutions before the problem becomes a financial, social, or environmental disaster."

For further information contact: Peta Glenister. Tel: +44 (0)1753 756600; Fax: +44 (0)1753 787109; E-mail: peta@solartron.com