智能下水道的诞生

1月和2月的一个前所未有的天气事件落入了大约110英寸。沿着马萨诸塞州海岸线的雪在四周的时间范围内。相比之下，平均年度降雪约为43英寸。雪埋葬了一切。旅行和商业停止;没有足够的雪橇可以充分清除道路。与此同时，温度暴跌到录制的低点。总督宣布紧急状态。毫不奇怪，许多公用事业受到不利影响。暴雪之后是多天的冻结温度经常导致服务失败。电力线断裂，水管冻结，以及磨床泵和真空下水道阀等装置可能发生故障。梅花岛是大西洋海岸的障碍礁岛，大约约30分钟以北北北北方波士顿。 The city of Newburyport provides water and sewer services for residents there. As collection system superintendent for the Department of Public Services, I (Jamie Tuccolo) assembled the team that dealt with the incredible storm of 2015. It was a culmination of weather problems that were unexpected and unprecedented—a convergence of circumstances that crippled the sewer system on Plum Island.

像梅子岛(Plum Island)安装的那种真空下水道系统，即使在恶劣的天气里，维护成本也非常低。2015年冬天，在一场暴风雪中，我们的标准警报系统开始收到警报，表明收集线有低压。低真空报警是一种不常见但正常的事件;真空坑阀有时可能卡在开启位置，降低管道中的真空压力。我们的监测设备识别出低压管道，然后我们通过听进气口找到需要注意的准确阀门，进气口位于管道附近的阀门坑附近。一旦找到，阀门可以在几分钟内调整或更换。然而，在2015年的暴风雪期间，由于街道和人行道被埋在近10英尺的雪下，不可能找到单个阀门或阀门坑。进气口高出地面约3英尺，远低于雪堆，雪堆被扫雪机打得更深。很快其他阀门就不能正常工作了，可能是由于阀门打开导致收集管线内压力过低;多米诺效应。 In order to get the system back online, our crews worked three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three weeks. We contacted Airvac, the system manufacturer and an authority on vacuum sewer technology. It immediately sent two of its top people to help solve the problem, but they were stymied as well. There was simply too much snow to find the open valves. Within a few days, much of the sewer system in Plum Island was shut down. As a result, the city had to notify residents that sewer service was temporarily offline and that they were to be relocated to hotels until the situation was resolved.