Source Water Management

Our scientists and data analysts can help you develop and implement strategies to protect your utility's source water. Contact us today!

We Provide our Clients Comprehensive Source Water Quality Management Support

Our staff has expertise on a broad range of environmental issues. We understand environmental challenges and their relationship to resource use, water treatment, regulatory compliance, hazard mitigation and investigation of emerging issues.

Service Spotlight

Source water threat identification

Occurrence of Releases with the Potential to Impact Sources of Drinking Water

Corona worked with U.S. EPA’s Water Infrastructure and Cyber Resilience Division to characterize the occurrence of releases into sources of drinking water used by community water systems in the United States. The study evaluated the temporal occurrence of significant releases reported to the National Response Center (NRC) between 2010 – 2019, geographic occurrence of significant releases, type and amount of material released, responsible party and cause of significant releases, and the distribution of the number of releases impacting individual community water systems. Project deliverables included a Qlik dashboard that can be used for additional data analysis and data visualizations as well as the publication of ‘Occurrence of Releases with the Potential to Impact Sources of Drinking Water’. The report provides insights into the risk of acute contamination of source waters and recommendations for how water systems can use the history of spill occurrence to inform their risk assessments and prepare for spills in their source water.

Reservoir Water quality management

Southeast Morris County Municipal Utilities Authorities (SMCMUA), NJ: Clyde Potts Water Quality Management Program

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are emerging across the country and many water utilities are seeking tools to help better manage issues caused by HABs. In addition to taste-and-odor and cyanotoxins, HABs can impact other finished water quality parameters such as increased total organic carbon (TOC) that can result in the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), dissolved oxygen depletion, and changes in treated water pH and alkalinity.

Recently Southeast Morris County Municipal Utility Authority (SMCMUA) has experienced more frequent HABs in their Clyde Potts Reservoir (Reservoir) that serves as the source for their Clyde Potts Water Treatment Plant (CPWTP). The utility engaged the team led by Corona to help provide a better understanding of water quality conditions that would result in increased cyanobacteria blooms in the Reservoir, and to identify mitigation of HABs in the Reservoir and the CPWTP, such that the treated water would consistently achieve desired water quality targets. The Corona team developed a comprehensive plan for monitoring of HABs and indicators, with a goal of identifying trigger conditions that would result in operational changes during HAB events. The project also identified numerous near-term and long-term infrastructure improvements in the Reservoir and at the CPWTP that will optimize operations and result in improved treated water quality.

Emergency response planning

Middlesex Water Company, NJ: Spill Response Drill and Ongoing Emergency Support

Corona has pioneered several of its emergency response planning services through its partnership with New Jersey-based water utility Middlesex Water Company (MWC). In 2018, Corona helped design a spill response drill that allowed MWC to test their emergency response plan and data management systems in response to an acute source water contamination event. The drill was designed using information acquired about MWC’s source water in 2017 in order to provide drill participants with a realistic hypothetical scenario. The drill was attended by a diverse group of participants from the utility’s various departments, as well as representatives from local water management and regulatory agencies, and helped highlight opportunities for MWC to improve their emergency response capabilities and strengthen advantageous partnerships. Also, in 2018 Corona set up an emergency response hotline to provide MWC with analytical support during acute source water contamination incidents.

Environmental Information Systems

WaterSuite: Integrated Water Data Management

The Corona Environmental Consulting team has extensive experience in the design, implementation and maintenance of environmental information systems. Corona’s team successfully developed and spun off a cloud-based system that captures, processes and analyzes complex environmental data for the water community – WaterSuite. The system continues to be adapted to the specific needs of the water community, including data management, prioritization, monitoring, and reporting capabilities for source water protection and emergency planning with a special focus on contaminants stored above ground, including location, quantities, contaminant and toxicological characteristics, contaminant releases, PFAS source locations, other potential sources of contamination, travel time and concentration analyses, and acute spill risk scoring.

Users can securely edit and manage information related to their own set of priority threats and contacts. Additional modules have been added to enable monitoring data submission and visualization and monitoring plan regulatory coordination between utilities and state agencies to support implementation of the Revised Total Coliform Rule (RTCR) and the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). WaterSuite was built using open-source web design and database tools to allow full flexibility for future development needs. The platform currently supports over 400 surface and groundwater systems nationwide as well as monitoring plan regulatory coordination for two states.

Making Better Decisions Starts with Better Data Management

Whether you are looking for an effective way to conduct your source water protection program or a centralized system to manage your water quality data, WaterSuite provides a flexible platform to meet your organization’s needs.

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