Chicago water plant pumps on automation

CHICAGO: Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC) will have Emerson install its Ovation expert control technology to monitor and control solids processes at its Stickney Water Reclamation Plant (WRP), Mainstream Pumping Station and associated remote pumping stations and reservoirs that are part of the wastewater collection system.

The Stickney WRP is the largest secondary treatment wastewater facility in the world, with a capacity to process 1.44 billion gallons per day. The facility serves 2.4 million people in a 260-square-mile area including downtown Chicago and 43 suburban communities. The Mainstream Pumping Station, the largest underground sewage pumping station in the world, lifts sewage from a deep tunnel system approximately 300 feet below grade to the Stickney WRP, shares a release.

Emerson Process Management has announced that it has received a contract for the second and third phases of a four-phase, multi-year project to modernize the automation and controls at facilities. This would cover hardware, software, programming, factory testing, training and on-site startup and testing, as well as extended maintenance and service that are all included in the contract.

More specifically, Emerson will deploy multiple Ovation networks for the Stickney WRP and Mainstream Pumping Station.

The Ovation solution will collect and integrate information about surrounding pumping stations and storm water retention reservoirs. This will provide WRP operators at a central location with vital information about influent and other variables from these remote facilities. In all, the Ovation systems will monitor and control approximately 24,000 I/O points.

The first phase of the comprehensive project called for Emerson's Ovation solution to monitor and control a number of processes at the Stickney WRP, including the Southwest Pumping Station. This first phase, which began in August 2006, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2009. The most recent contract, for phases two and three, is scheduled for completion in May 2011.