Redundancy a Key For Managing Critical Water Systems

In part two of our interview with Water and Wastewater Treatment Managers Howard Buffi and Kevin Levandosky, we look into planning ahead for both the needs of the town and the needs of the department.

It’s in talking to Levandosky, who is still learning the trade, that we really see the scope of the responsibilities of the department, from routinely checking on all the infrastructure to getting out into the community to deal with water meters and shutoffs, to keeping meticulous records of chemical levels, water usage, and system load. That information is not only necessary for the daily operation of the systems but for planning for future needs.

One of the big concerns of the department as a whole is redundancy. Because a system failure could be catastrophic for the town, every system needs at least one backup in order to remain operational. As well, because systems need to be cleaned or parts swapped out, they always need to be able to swap to a secondary system. Succession planning is another part of that redundancy–having just one person fully understand or be able to manage the systems is a recipe for disaster.

Buffi tells us that in order for Manitoba Water Services to supply part of the cost of replacing or upgrading systems, you have to get onto their queue years in advance, so you have to be on top of any usage trends or changing technological needs. That’s where those years of data and data trends work to the community’s advantage.

The newest piece of Neepawa’s Water and Wastewater Treatment service is the new wastewater plant, which is partially operational at the moment. Buffi and Levandosky take us through the entire plant, explaining the systems and indicating which pieces of the treatment are on the old lagoon system and which are already in the new plant.

We get a good look at the UV disinfection in progress and Buffi explains the microbed bioreactor which is expected to go online some time next year. After the new system becomes operational, we’ll take another trip out to the plant to see it in action.