Electro Scan Inc. to Inspect Entire Wastewater Collection System of La Grange, North Carolina

Nov 22, 2019

Electro Scan Inc. announced that it has been selected to inspect the Town of La Grange, North Carolina's entire wastewater collection system. Representing over 30-miles (160,000 feet) of sewer main, Electro Scan will use its award-winning and patented Focused Electrode Leak Location (FELL) machine-intelligent technology to locate sources of infiltration and report all leaks in Gallons per Minute (GPM).

"We are delighted to serve La Grange in this important project," stated Mike App, Vice President, Electro Scan Inc."Town administrators had identified several pipes suspected as having leaks, and were surprised when FELL precisely located all the defects they could see and a few others they couldn't," said App.

On September 5 & 6, Hurricane Dorian passed by North Carolina as a Category 2 Hurricane with La Grange receiving 6.5 inches of rain at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Rainfall increased treatment plant flows from 350,000 Gallons per Day (GPD) – the day before Hurricane Dorian – to as high as 2 million GPD after the storm.

"In 2004, our town spent $2.4 million on sewer rehabilitation," stated La Grange Town Manager, John Craft. "That helped temporarily. But, those repairs either failed or other issues developed."

"Given that Electro Scan can find defects that go undetected using CCTV inspection and other methods, and can compute a defect flow in Gallons per Minute, we look forward to pinpointing our defects and prioritizing rehabilitation to address our worst leaks, first," stated Craft.

"Small agencies are usually the first to adopt new technologies," stated Mackenzie App, Director of Field Services, Eastern Region. "If you don't have the luxury to spend money on the same things you did last year – without getting any benefit – you tend to be more selective in your business decisions. Congratulations to La Grange for your pioneering vision – I can't wait to start work on this project," said App.

In the past, cities have been limited to using high-resolution CCTV cameras to detect & catalog infiltration. But, industry experts have long-recognized the drawbacks in using visual inspection that leads to incorrectly prioritizing needed repairs & rehabilitation.

Major Drawbacks of CCTV & Visual Inspection

  1. Can’t decipher cracks that leak from cracks that don't leak.
  2. No repeatability. Two or more operators, same pipe.
  3. No repeatability. Same operator, same pipe, different dates.
  4. Can't assess watertightness of new pipes or CIPP.
  5. Surcharged pipes require expensive bypass pumping. Can’t assess pipe joints inside bell & spigot.
  6. No leakage rates provided by NASSCO CCTV coding.
  7. Risk of selecting wrong pipes to rehabilitate or accept as watertight.
  8. Can't see defects hidden with encrustations, grease, roots, or silt.
  9. Unable to see defects below waterline.

Major Advantages of Fell Inspection

  1. Accurately quantifies leaks in Gallons per Minute.
  2. Automatically provides precise location – within 3/8th inch (1cm).
  3. Unbiased & repeatable results, tested by EPA, WRc & IKT.
  4. Fast rate of inspection – 2-3x faster than CCTV daily production.
  5. No third-party data interpretation required. It’s machine-intelligent.
  6. Approved for all gravity sewer mains & pressurized pipes.
  7. Recommended to test force mains, siphons & large diameter pipes.
  8. Simulating a surcharged pipe, bypass pumping is never required.
  9. Assesses each pipe joint, inside bell & spigot, and lateral connection.
  10. Creates a baseline GPM before rehabilitation.
  11. Able to assess CIPP and Post-Rehabilitation % Effectiveness.
  12. Referenced in US EPA Consent Decrees.
  13. ASTM F2550 (3rd Edition, 2018).
  14. AWWA M77 (1st Edition, 2019).
  15. Data available on cloud app in less than 10 minutes, worldwide.
  16. Cities can add FELL equipment to standard CCTV trucks or vans.
  17. FELL|CCTV Integration Kits for Aries, Cues, IBAK, iPEK, Rausch.
  18. Master Class by WRc, developers of NASSCO CCTV codes.
  19. Used by IKT, world's largest R&D organization, in recent CIPP study.
  20. Partnership with Innovyze®. FELL integrates with InfoAsset Planner®.

The Town of La Grange, population 2,800, is located in Lenoir County which is one of 15 counties within the Central Coastal Plain Capacity Use Area (CCPCUA) as designated by the NC Division of Water Resources, Environmental Management Commission.

Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Kansas City, MO-based Black and Veatch was retained as the town's consulting engineer.

Hickory, NC-based ClearWater Inc. is the exclusive representative of Electro Scan products and services in North Carolina.

Separately, Electro Scan Inc. recently announced another 30-mile FELL inspection project – currently nearing completion – with Hillsborough County, the fourth largest utility in the State of Florida.

About Electro Scan Inc. 

Founded in 2011, the company designs, develops, and markets technology-based products & services for pipeline condition assessment, environmental compliance monitoring, and to determine rehabilitation effectiveness. Headquartered in Sacramento, California, the company sells and licenses equipment to local governments & utilities to conduct their own pipeline testing work and offers a Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS) solution, in partnership with authorized contractors, worldwide.

 

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Electro Scan Inc.

Carissa Boudwin

1745 Markston Road

California 95825-4026 Sacramento

United States

Phone:

+1 916 779 0660

E-Mail:

sales@electroscan.com

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