Council to consider water system upgrades (May 3, 2022)
BULLHEAD CITY — Water utilities again will be a topic of discussion at tonight’s Bullhead City Council meeting, as members consider upgrades to the water and wastewater systems.
Three of the eight action items on the council’s agenda concern updating the former EPCOR utilities supervisory control and data acquisition — also known as SCADA — systems.
“(SCADA) systems allow water providers to collect and process water usage and flow data in real-time,” said Robin Graber, WaterSMART Small Scale Efficiency Projects program manager. “This allows entities to more accurately delivery water.”
According to the agenda item, the city’s SCADA system “is outdated and many components do not currently work properly.”
Specifically, the city will need new radio, server and network hardware to improve communication and data storage capabilities.
Upgrading the system will cost a little more than $100,000 in parts and almost $270,000 for installation.
The utilities department will be seeking permission from the city to apply for a federal WaterSMART grant to replace 25 of its meter readers for large water users.
The council also will consider retaining Southwest Automation Services for on-call SCADA support, for $82,000 per year.
Previously, on-call SCADA support was provided by a city employee, who reportedly resigned without notice.
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Source: Mohave Valley Daily News