Date
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Time
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Location Name
Room 301D
Name
Aging Like Fine Water: How Water Age Affects Quality and How to Combat It.
Track
Distribution
Description
In an effort to continue to understand and improve their water distribution system, the Clarksville Gas & Water (CGW) utility company hired AECOM Technical Services to review CGWs distribution system water age. The distribution system would be modeled using Infowater Pro hydraulic modeling software and evaluated using the Water Age application through the software. The scope of the project includes the following. -Update CGWs existing hydraulic model using the utilities latest GIS and operational information. The update included, oUpdate of systems average day and peak day demand oAddition of 115 flushing locations across the distribution system oAddition of approximately 116 miles of water main -Evaluate existing system conformance to current regulatory requirements. -Develop water age scenarios to evaluate CGWs distribution system. -Prepare a list of operational strategies and infrastructure improvements to implement to improve overall system water age. Some of the key focuses of the system evaluation included the operational effectiveness of tank cycling and strategies that can be implemented to better improve tank turnover, implementing various valving improvements to direct water into and out of areas of high water age, overall effectiveness of flushing strategies, and the addition of pump stations to standpipes to control tank drawdowns. Takeaways form the water age analysis of the system indicated that the overall water age of the system was fairly good. As with most systems, water age increases as you move away from water sources in the system and move out toward the extremities of the system. Interestingly, it was noticed that flushing had minimal effect on water age across the system. Improvements to system water age from flushing were more seen on a more localized basis. Due to the hydraulics of the system, several of the tanks would become “hydraulically submerged” which greatly reduces the turnover opportunity of the tank. Alterative operational strategies and system improvements were evaluated that would improve tank turnover and overall system water age. Key operational improvements targeted a tank turnover of approximately 25% per day. Key infrastructure improvements include the addition of pumping stations at various tank sites. The addition of the pump stations allows for tank drawdown to be controlled while also allowing operational access to the entirety of the tank volume that otherwise may not have been possible.