Congratulations to our partner, Utility Systems Science & Software (US3), who recently won the Texas Public Works Association Project of the Year Award for its Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Monitoring and Alerting System. The award-winning project took place in collaboration with Itron and the City of Houston.

The City of Houston Wastewater Collection System and Organization is responsible for the maintenance and operation of over 6,950 miles of sewer pipelines ranging in sizes from six inches to 144 inches in diameter and includes approximately 123,000 manholes. Identification and mitigation of sanitary sewer overflows is part of the city’s system-wide operation, maintenance and management plan.

In an effort to mitigate potential overflows in the sewer pipelines, as well as decrease the time it requires to resolve incidents involving sewer pipeline overflows, the Wastewater Organization, US3 and Itron developed a technology-based vision and strategy to address these critical issues. This technical solution focused on leveraging an existing wireless Itron communications network built by the City of Houston’s Public Works Department for remote monitoring and management of water meters, traffic signals and other Public Works equipment and assets.

The SSO Monitoring and Alerting System can quickly identify the source of overflows in the sewer pipelines as well as decrease the time it requires to resolve incidents involving sewer pipeline overflow. In addition to improved operations and responsiveness, the City of Houston will derive additional benefits from the system, including the ability to analyze the data collected. This data will provide insight into the health of the City of Houston’s sewer pipeline and determine ways in which it can be improved based on determining root causes of sewer pipeline overflows.

Itron is proud to be a part of a project that will improve the safety of Houston residents as well as the natural environment.

The awards ceremony took place on June 28, 2018 in Fort Worth, Texas.