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During 2021, the City of Santa Ana’s Water Resources Division continued its transformation into a technology-driven utility powerhouse. 

Over the past 15 years, we have integrated state-of-the-art technology throughout the department to strengthen the city’s resiliency and efficiency, safeguard future services and protect public assets. We have advanced these Capital Improvement Program (CIP) projects while aggressively pursuing grant funding to minimize the financial impact to our customers. 

As two of the following examples attest, these improvements not only contribute to what makes us an award-winning utility, but they are already having a major impact on our ability to better respond to issues throughout our production, treatment and delivery system. 

Santa Ana’s Collection System Wins Statewide Award 

Each year, the California Water Environment Association (CWEA) recognizes the state’s many water agencies for “outstanding maintenance programs, regulatory compliance and safety and training procedures.” In 2021, its award for Medium Collection System of the Year went to the Water Resources Division. 

CWEA representative Jaime Eichenberger (far left) and CWEA President Arvind Akela (far right) presented the award to Santa Ana’s (left to right) Leif Lovegren, Heidi Chou, Alejandro Reyes, DeShannon Braswell and Angel Agosto at the CWEA annual conference in Sacramento.

These honors go to the agency that best meets the various regulations “governing environmental safeguards, safety, and the quality of staff training.” CWEA assesses the equipment to see how well modern technology is being applied as well as the management teams to evaluate how finances are handled. 

Reaching the statewide competition means first winning recognition from the Santa Ana River Basin Section (SARBS), one of CWEA’s seven regional and 17 statewide local sections. 

Our Santa Ana sewer services staff successfully presented our system’s merits to local SARBS judges at the City Yard in November 2021. After winning the local award, we advanced to the statewide competition where an even more detailed overview of our accomplishments was presented to CWEA judges. 

Representatives from Santa Ana’s Water Resources Division swept up the local award at SARBS’ Annual Awards Banquet in March 2022, and a month later, the statewide award during CWEA’s Awards Luncheon in Sacramento. 

This is the second consecutive year Santa Ana’s collection system has garnered recognition. The Santa Ana team first entered the local SARBS competition in 2019, quickly winning the following year’s Award for Best Medium Size Sewer Collection System in 2020. 

GIS Mapping Award Puts Us On The National Map 

In 2021, the City of Santa Ana’s Water Resources Division also earned a place on the national stage by winning one of IDC Government Insights’ two Smart Cities North America Awards. 

The “Smart Water Award” went to Santa Ana’s Water System Mobile Field Data Management and Mapping project for implementing “infraMAP” by iWater, Inc. This cloud-based digital work order management and mapping system is accessible by staff. It allows City maintenance crews and engineering staff to respond quickly to emergencies and lets them collect, store, and retrieve data as well as facilitate routine maintenance on water infrastructure assets. 

Before introducing this software, maintenance of the water and sanitary sewer systems which Santa Ana’s Water Resources Division maintains was tracked on paper—from work orders to maps showing location of assets. Our system, which has an average daily demand of 30 million gallons, creates a mountain of paperwork needed to be transposed and entered into existing management systems. It was a laborious process that could result in outdated, incomplete and unsharable information. Since implementing “infraMAP,” there has been a reduction in down time and improved customer service. 

IDC Government Insights is part of International Data Corporation (IDC). It works with governments throughout the world to digitally transform systems and improve improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and delivery of government programs and services. This is IDC Government Insights’ Fifth Annual Smart Cities North America Awards, which recognize progress by North American municipalities in executing Smart Cities projects.

Our Award-Worthy New SCADA System 

Our upgraded Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA) control system also deserves recognition. 

Santa Ana’s SCADA system aids high-level supervisory management through networked data communications, graphical user interfaces, and peripheral devices like programmable controllers to interface with process plant or machinery. 

The original system was established in 1998 and regularly updated. Now it is being replaced with a technology platform of entirely new hardware and software. The project began in May 2021. After dealing with supply chain delays in acquiring hardware last year, the first installation at the Walnut pump station is now complete. Since the Walnut pump station is our most complex site, this first installation serves as a “proof of concept” and clears the way for deployment throughout all our facilities by first quarter of 2023. 

The Walnut station will also be the second server location, creating a layer of redundancy that is important in the event of an emergency such as a water main break, power failure, or damaging fire.

In the event of a water main break where we may lose pressure in one area, we can turn on other facilities until our maintenance crews repair it. If a power failure occurs, the SCADA system will acknowledge the interruption and turn on generators during the outage, bringing the station back into service and pumping water out to customers. SCADA is highly valuable in the event of a fire when fire hydrants need to be at full strength. With SCADA, we have eyes on the system and can immediately help firefighters with increased pressure without impacting area customers.

According to Water Services Production Supervisor Juan Ramirez, the upgraded SCADA platform is highly adaptable, allowing us to make important enhancements quicker.

“One of the benefits of the more adaptable SCADA platform will be adding equipment and technology specifically for PFAS monitoring,” Ramirez said. “If, for example, the new system detects PFAS and shuts the asset down, we are immediately alerted and can see where it is coming from. We can quickly send staff out to check it and begin fixing it where before the entire system had to be turned off and rebooted if we wanted to add new assets.”