Miami-Dade County in southeastern Florida in the US has deployed an IoT solution for waste water management to mitigate regulatory issues, prevent sewer overflows, improve water quality, and ensure safety for the public.
Tech company Itron, based in Washington state, has been drafted in by the county’s water and sewage department to devise and deploy the solution, along with Utility Systems Science & Software (US3) and The Avanti Company.
Miami-Dade serves more than 2.7 million residents. The county’s water and sewage department wants to be in a position to “assess, rehabilitate, and improve” its wastewater pump stations to comply with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulations for pump stations.
Itron has developed an IoT solution for flow reduction, based on real-time data from US3’s wastewater sensors, to get a “more accurate and complete view” to mitigate sewer overflows and reduce public health risk.
The solution delivers operational efficiencies, reduces truck rolls for field surveys (by more than 60 percent, according to Itron), and automates reporting for regulatory compliance.
Kevin Lynskey, director of the country’s water and sewage department, said: “This solution equips us to better serve customers by ensuring our sewer collection system meets regulator standards, improving level of service and in the future, assisting in identification of sewer overflows and mitigation of inflow and infiltration into our wastewater collection system.”
Sharelynn Moore, senior vice president of networked solutions at Itron, said: “This innovative programme… is already improving the utility’s ability to address regulatory concerns while increasing efficiencies. Water is a precious resource, and we are committed to enabling a growing ecosystem of technology partners that enable utilities to use water resourcefully.”
Mark Serres, vice president and chief technology officer of US3, said: “We are excited to collaborate with Itron to implement an innovative monitoring solution that combines our instrumentation technology with Itron’s data analytics to ensure efficient water and wastewater management for Miami-Dade.”
Itron and US3 have worked together before on IoT for waste water and sanitation management, including on sewer overflow monitoring and system in Houston, Texas, which won an award from the Texas Public Works Association for ‘project of the year’.
The city of Miami, and the country of Miami-Dade, have been particularly active around deployment of smart technologies. The city ranked top in a study of 111 cities across the globe for connected streetlights.
A ‘robotic supermarket’ opened in Miami in late 2018, using robotics and artificial intelligence to retrieve groceries from closely-stacked shelves and pack them into shopping bags.
Meanwhile, the county was relatively quick off the mark, back in 2017, with a $11.1 million deal, awarded to California-based smart mobility firm Econolite, to rollout smart street lights along its roadways.
Miami-Dade was among AT&T’s earliest ‘spotlight’ partners for testing its various smart city solutions, alongside the likes of Atlanta, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Chapel Hill, Chicago, Dallas, Montgomery County, and Portland. It has tested its smart cities framework, which covers infrastructure, citizen engagement, transportation and public safety, with these partners.
Ford and Microsoft have also put focus on Miami-Dade as part of drives to crowdsource ideas for mobility solutions.
