The Philadelphia Water Department and other water systems in the region that depend on the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers for water supply identified the need for an automated system to detect and alert them about potential water quality problems. To help, CDM developed a comprehensive early warning system (EWS) to monitor water quality and notify water systems about such events as hazardous substance spills or sudden changes in water quality.
CDM began development of the system with a series of workshops involving public regulatory agencies and water suppliers, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey departments of environmental protection. The members of the Delaware Valley EWS program identified the need for redundant notification methods that would provide a detailed description of event severity and location. In addition, users highlighted the need to be advised of downstream arrival times of contaminants and be able to monitor general water conditions.
The EWS network now protects more than 3 million people, serving 12 major water systems in the region. CDM developed and manages the secure, Web-based EWS portal that describes, graphs, and maps water quality events in real time. The EWS includes geographic information system (GIS) mapping of watersheds, water intakes, and user-entered events; calculates the arrival time of when spills will reach affected water intakes; and displays historic and current water quality data. As part of the EWS, CDM implemented automated e-mail and telephone notification to immediately alert water systems. The telephone subsystem is available to report spill events, and then provide notifications. The Delaware Valley EWS meets the advanced needs for communicating and responding to water quality risks using a multi-function information management portal.