Thirty-nine teams from municipalities, utility agencies and Water Environment Federation Member Associations are gearing up for the 2010 Operations Challenge. The event runs Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 4 and 5, at the WEFTEC 2010 conference in New Orleans. Here are summaries of the five events:
Process Control -- Teams must answer a number of multiple-choice questions, some short math questions, and four operational-type scenarios with four to six questions each that may require considerable calculations. The categories will be collection systems, energy management, lagoons, and odor control. A maximum of 25 minutes is allowed for completion. If a team completes the test before the end of the event, its actual time is recorded. The test includes a mandatory problem set.
Wilo Maintenance -- This event will test the teams’ ability to respond to separate and simultaneous “moisture reset” failure conditions for a Wilo USA FA 10.33 submersible pump and TR 50-2 submersible mixer. The pump and mixer will be in adjacent simulated sliderail-mounted installations. Teams will safely remove the units from service, perform and document the required service to repair them, then place them back into service.
Collections Systems. Teams will remove a section of in-service 8-inch gravity PVC, fabricate a replacement section with a 4-inch service saddle, and install the replacement section with flexible repair couplings. Teams also must install a Sigma 900MAX sampler, manufactured by Hach Co. After completion, judges will evaluate the repair’s water-tightness.
Safety. Teams will conduct two simultaneous rescue efforts. While one team member responds to an unconscious heart attack victim, the others begin rescue efforts for an unconscious colleague in a manhole. After testing the atmosphere and ventilating the confined space, they will assemble Safe Approach fall-protection equipment and descend from a Fibergrate training platform to retrieve the victim. The victim will be revived with an automatic external defibrillator training module.
Laboratory. Teams must perform all steps of an E. coli membrane filtration analysis using products from Hach Co. Teams must follow all method requirements and asceptic techniques as outlined in the Hach m-ColiBlue24 method and Method 9222B of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater.
