How does AVEVA industrial supervision help meet EPA environmental standards?
Boise's Dixie Drain facility removes up to 140 pounds of phosphorus per day, or 10 tons per year, and 8,000 tons of wet solids, thanks to AVEVA System Platform, Historian, SCADA and InTouch. Real-time industrial supervision ensures compliance with EPA directives requiring a 98% reduction in phosphorus. This traceability makes it possible to continuously demonstrate regulatory compliance and document every treatment cycle, a major issue for water operators subject to strict environmental standards.
Why standardize Public Works on a single AVEVA platform?
Before AVEVA, Boise managed different proprietary technologies across several sites without centralized monitoring, which complicated training, maintenance and costs. Standardizing on System Platform, Historian, SCADA and InTouch optimizes efficiency, reusability of configuration objects and operator training. A team can now work on any site with the same tools and the same logic, significantly reducing operating and support costs.
How does the Dixie Drain approach compare with traditional wastewater treatment?
Rather than upgrading existing plants at great expense, the City of Boise built Dixie Drain downstream, where agricultural irrigation naturally picks up more phosphorus before it is discharged into the Snake River. For every pound not removed upstream, 1.5 pounds are captured at Dixie Drain. Controlled by AVEVA, this approach removes 50% more phosphorus for the same budget. It is an example of digital transformation that creates environmental and economic value.
What role does AVEVA Historian play in environmental traceability?
AVEVA Historian archives high-resolution treatment data from Dixie Drain: volumes treated, removal rates and physicochemical parameters. This industrial database feeds the regulatory reports submitted to the EPA and makes it possible to prove, month after month, compliance with phosphorus thresholds. For water operators, systematic historization has become essential, not only for compliance but also to continuously optimize treatment processes.
What financial benefits does AVEVA supervision bring to a public water operator?
By avoiding the costly upgrade of existing plants, Boise achieved significant capital savings while obtaining a better environmental result. AVEVA standardization also reduces recurring costs: simplified training, shared maintenance and reuse of configurations. For a public water utility, these savings translate into controlled rates for users and preserved investment capacity for other critical infrastructure projects.
