Tribal knowledge has long been the cornerstone of operations for water and wastewater treatment plants – but your most valuable resource might be hiding in plain sight, says Dave Rutowski, Aquatic Informatics.
Treatment plants have relied on experienced operators with instincts and accumulated wisdom to make crucial decisions, but increasing staff shortages, service populations, and stricter regulatory requirements have created a need for a more systematic approach to plant management.
The most valuable resource in overcoming these challenges could lie in your data.
Hidden Value
Every wastewater treatment facility generates thousands of data points daily, from flow readings and chemical dosages to laboratory results and equipment performance metrics. Hidden within this sea of information lies the potential to optimize operations, reduce costs, ensure compliance, and extend asset lifespans.
The challenge isn’t gathering more data, it’s transforming the data you already have into actionable intelligence.
When a seasoned operator with decades of experience retires, they take with them invaluable knowledge about how the plant responds to specific conditions, which pump tends to struggle during heavy rainfall, how chemical dosing should be adjusted during temperature fluctuations, or which processes need special attention during seasonal changes.
Without a systematic way to capture and transmit this knowledge, plants are at risk for operational inefficiencies, compliance violations, and significantly higher costs.
Bridging Silos
Modern data management software helps wastewater treatment plants break down data silos and transform scattered information into operational intelligence. It starts with a centralised platform where data from multiple sources – SCADA systems, laboratory results, and field observations – converges into a unified, accessible resource.
Today’s treatment plants require more than just readings – it needs intelligent integration of information across all five layers of plant operations:
1. Physical Infrastructure: The foundation of any plant – pumps, tanks, pipes, and treatment units – must be properly maintained and monitored.
2. Sensors and Controls: Strategic deployment of reliable instrumentation to track critical parameters and enable responsive process control.
3. Data Collection and Communication: Secure systems that gather readings from SCADA, field observations, laboratory analyses, and other sources.
4. Data Management and Display: Centralised platforms that organise information and make it accessible through intuitive dashboards and reports.
5. Data Fusion and Analytics: Advanced tools that transform raw numbers into actionable intelligence through alerts, trends, predictive models, and automated responses.
Each layer builds upon the previous one, creating a powerful ecosystem where data flows seamlessly from collection to analysis to action. The result is better compliance and potential for significant operational optimisation.
Trends Tell a Story
Data tells stories that even the most attentive operator might miss. Consider a chemical discharge pump that has been on its lowest setting for months. To the operator who sees it daily, this condition becomes normalised – just another quirk of the system. But when plotted on a trend line alongside flow data and effluent quality, the oversized pump reveals itself as a critical point causing chemical overdosing, wasted resources, and potential compliance risks.
These data-driven narratives provide compelling evidence for capital improvements, process adjustments, or maintenance interventions. Instead of relying on anecdotal observations, operators can present decision-makers with clear, objective evidence of operational challenges and potential solutions. This transforms the conversation from “I think we need a new pump” to “Here’s the data showing how this oversized pump is costing us £30,000 annually in wasted chemicals.”
Resilience
Treatment plants must adapt to increasingly volatile environmental conditions.
By aggregating historical performance data, current operating conditions, and even weather forecasts, these systems can help operators anticipate problems before they occur.
Defence and Security
Every time information is manually transferred, from a sticky note to a bench sheet, from a clipboard to a computer, opportunities for errors multiply. Modern data management platforms eliminate these risks through direct digital capture, automated validation checks, and secure storage with comprehensive audit trails.
This level of data defensibility isn’t just about avoiding transcription errors. It’s about creating an unimpeachable record of operational decisions and compliance activities that can withstand regulatory scrutiny. When questions arise about a particular discharge event or treatment process, operators can retrieve the complete historical context, demonstrating exactly what happened and why specific actions were taken.
Equally important is cybersecurity. As critical infrastructure providers, wastewater utilities must implement robust protections against unauthorised access and potential attacks.
A good data management system needs to have:
Chain of Custody – Complete audit trails tracking every data point from source to report
Validation Rules – Automatic flagging of anomalous readings for verification
Quality Assurance – Built-in protocols to verify instrument calibration and sampling procedures
Secure Access Controls – Role-based permissions ensure that only authorised personnel can view or modify data
Preserving Knowledge
Every wastewater plant benefits from operators with deep institutional knowledge – professionals who instinctively know how the facility responds to changing conditions. However, this represents a significant organisational risk when it exists only in the minds of veteran staff.
Programs like WIMS create a permanent, accessible repository of operational history, capturing the what, when, why, and how of plant operations. This institutional memory becomes an invaluable training resource for new operators, allowing them to benefit from decades of experience even when their mentors are no longer available for direct consultation.
