State and federal agencies are expected to reduce annual regulatory reporting costs by $29 million with a proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) electronic reporting mandate. With less time spent on filing reports to regulatory agencies through the paper-based system, utilities will be able to focus on infrastructure management. This in turn will result in improved water quality and better compliance rates.  

The Electronic Reporting Rule is part of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. The NPDES requires all utilities to monitor and report data on pollutant discharges. The eReporting mandate is currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Inherent in the Clean Water Act, this rule will convert current reporting of Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs), Notices of Intent (NOIs) and other reports from a paper-based to electronic filing system.

Water/wastewater facilities will be required to submit electronic reports directly to their  appropriate state regulatory authorities through a web portal. This change should reduce the number of man hours currently needed to manually input reports to the EPA database. It will streamline the submission of facility-specific information like inspection and enforcement history, pollutant monitoring results and other data by state reporting authorities. Proponents insist uniform electronic reporting will increase transparency, reporting compliance and provide immediate public access to utility reports on the EPA website.  

A Two Phase Roll-out Expected

Water/wastewater utilities will be required to submit data electronically one year after final approval of the NPDES mandate by the EPA. Facilities with limited Internet access may opt for a one year extension to convert to an electronic reporting system and still be in compliance. Electronic reporting will be rolled out in two phases as per EPA guidelines. The first phase will be completed by January 2014 and the second phase by January 2015.  

Mission Helps Simplify Regulatory Report Creation

Mission Communications built its reputation on offering ready-made reports and data folders to ease management and help customers compile data for regulatory compliance reporting. Featured information includes rainfall data reports, flow data for inflow/infiltration and analog data for chlorine, turbidity pH and more. Mission also offers specialty reports such as Sanitary Sewer Overflow/Combined Sewer Overflow (SSO/CSO), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and Chlorine reports that are specifically available to simplify compliance reporting.

While regulatory changes can be burdensome, Mission plans to ease some of that stress by adding data reporting formats that reflect electronic reporting requirements once they are firmly established by the EPA. This will provide a consistent template to assist customers in their electronic reporting changeover and make eReporting much easier.

"We will provide the tools to make it as efficient as possible for our customers to electronically file reports based on the data from our system," says Forrest Robinson, President of Mission Communications. "We are always looking for ways to make our customer's jobs easier." 

EPA Requesting Public Input

New electronic reporting requirements should not come as a surprise. Several state regulatory agencies have already switched to electronic reporting systems. Pennsylvania has been electronically filing discharge management reports for about five years. Electronic reporting is also not new to the EPA. The federal agency has utilized electronic filing for its Integrated Compliance System (ICIS-NPDES) and NetDRM for quite some time. Electronic submissions by regulated utilities have been voluntary, accounting for less than half of the data the EPA receives. Electronic submittals will be mandatory under the new rule.

The EPA is requesting feedback on the best platform to implement for electronic reporting. EPA officials have yet to choose the reporting tools and protocols required for electronic submittals. They want to select the best possible platform and find out if third-party software should be available to input data into the EPA database. Agency officials say they want an open platform where NPDES-authorized facilities, states and third parties can all use software developed for the EPA.

The EPA is also requesting additional comment on aspects of their proposal relating to pre-treatment programs, combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and separate municipal storm sewer systems (MS4s). The EPA wants to determine whether sewer overflow, sanitary sewer overflow and bypass reports should be electronically filed and how to properly standardize reports required for MS4 permits.

Public comment can be sent to the EPA on or before October 28, 2013. More information on the proposed rule can be found here.

Control Your Access Gates with Output Relays

Hillview Water Company supplies water to thousands of customers in the mountainous terrain

Access gate.

that surrounds Oakhurst, California. The utility lies in a valley, drawing its water from sources several miles away. Most of their tank, well and treatment sites are very remote. Some of these sites are gated for security reasons. Each of the remote terminal units (RTUs) are equipped with three output relays which are used for

control applications.

Hillview not only uses the output relays to

control wells that feed their tanks with water, but they also use them to remotely open and close an entry gate for maintenance and service visits. The normally-open output relay is wired to a dry contact actuator in the gate control box. Utility personnel open the gate before they arrive at the site by logging on to the mobile website and closing the output relay. This method makes it easy to give electricians and other third parties access to the site. Using the output relays for gate control gives users fewer codes to remember and a lighter key ring to carry. 

"If someone needs access for service, we no longer need to provide them with a code or a key," explains James Foster, manager of Hillview Water Company. "We simply open it remotely when they call us to let us know that they are on site. You can really get creative with what you do with the system. It's given us the ability to simplify the way we operate."

Are you using the output relays on your RTUs for a special application? If so, we want to hear about it! Send us an email at news@123mc.com with a description of the application.