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Presented April 4, 2024
ABSTRACT
Springfield Water and Sewer Commission (Commission) incorporated the recently constructed Backwash Facility into their existing computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) using a digital twin design to build a user-friendly structure, promote maintenance in a timely fashion, and integrate technological advances. Asset data was collected during construction of the facility, taking advantage of the time available to ensure that the structure was in place soon after commissioning. This work resulted in a user-friendly system that provides access to nameplate data, equipment pictures, operation and maintenance (O&M) manuals, preventative maintenance standard operation procedures (SOPs), and access to work order history.
System Background
Springfield Water and Sewer Commission is an independent public utility established in 1996. The Commission provides drinking water to almost 250,000 people in the lower Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts. Retail water is provided to Springfield and Ludlow, and wholesale water is provided to Southwick, Agawam, Longmeadow, and East Longmeadow.
The Commission's sole water supply is a two-reservoir system located in Blandford, Russell, and Granville, MA. The 2.5-billion-gallon Borden Brook Reservoir was constructed in 1909 and flows into the larger 22-billion-gallon Cobble Mountain Reservoir, constructed in 1931. Water from these reservoirs is conveyed through large-diameter mains to downstream intake reservoirs and treated at the West Parish Filters (WPF) Water Treatment Plant in Westfield. From there, water flows through three transmission mains to the Provin Mountain water storage tanks, where 45 million gallons (MG) of finished water is stored and then out to the distribution system.
At WPF, the construction of the first Slow Sand Filters (SSFs) dates to 1909! WPF relied solely on its 18 SSFs until the Rapid Sand Filter (RSF) plant was constructed onsite in 1974 to modernize the plant to comply with updated drinking water regulations. The SSFs and RSFs now work together as parallel treatment processes, as overlain in a bird's-eye view of WPF in Figure 1.
With the RSF treatment plant being over 50 years old, much of the infrastructure is aging and in need of replacement. The plant's finished water clearwell was repurposed from a 1925-era SSF, which had been in operation for100 years and required replacement due to its questionable structural integrity, issues with rainwater infiltration, and the inability to isolate it...