Kirkland plans $1.8 million SCADA upgrade to modernize water and sewer monitoring

Public works staff told the City Council the city’s supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for water and wastewater monitoring is past its useful life and needs staged replacement, with a planned capital allocation of $1.8 million for implementation.

Tom Crist, the city’s Utility Operations Manager, described the system the city operates and the role SCADA plays in daily operations: “We maintain about 130 miles of both water and wastewater infrastructure. We have 8 pressure gradients. We have suit 6 sewer lift stations. We maintain about 12,000 connections. And we have about 55,000 water and wastewater customers.” He gave a concrete example of SCADA’s operational value: when an alarm announced “low pressure at S3,” operators used flow readings across stations to quickly locate and respond to a contractor’s accidental pipe break before any phone calls arrived.

The presentation summarized work completed and proposed next steps:

- Funding background: an $80,000 strategic plan budget in 2021–2022 was increased by $67,000 (total $147,000) to finish the strategic plan; staff later requested a $1.8 million CIP adjustment in fall 2024 to fund implementation. - Key findings: the city’s existing SCADA server and many field components are out of date or at end‑of‑life; the current communications network relies on copper phone lines and a single main telemetry unit at the maintenance center that lacks redundancy. - Major recommendations: transition remote site communications to a private cellular network (with limited fiber or wireless bridge as appropriate), standardize operator interface screens, adopt next‑generation firewalls and modern password and cybersecurity controls, and procure new programmable logic controllers (PLCs) where necessary. - Implementation approach: prework (cellular study and bid document preparation), phased deployment of dual communications and cutover of remote sites, then final removal of legacy equipment and cancellation of leased radio/phone circuits. Crist said the plan will prioritize an initial subset of the city’s 17 remote SCADA sites.

Councilors asked how the project will be funded and who pays. Crist said the work will be paid from utility rates and not from general property taxes: “This is fully funded out of our utility rates. So just the folks who pay utility rates in Kirkland, so not the NUD.” Council members also asked how Kirkland’s system compares to North Shore Utility District; staff said they plan a site visit and will report findings and noted that coordination with neighboring utilities is already part of scoping.

Council members raised disaster‑preparedness questions about redundancy and communications if cellular service is disrupted. Staff said design will include redundant communications paths when necessary, options to use fiber or wireless links for specific sites, and mechanical redundancy in pumps and controls so that day‑to‑day operations are not wholly reliant on SCADA.

Crist emphasized the implementation will be staged to avoid service interruption and that end users (ratepayers) should notice no negative day‑to‑day impacts; longer term, staff expects improved monitoring, faster incident response, and more in‑house data access for planning projects such as the West of Market sewer basin work.

Next steps: staff will finalize the strategic plan after a final staff review, begin a cellular communications study immediately, complete construction bid documents, and return to council with procurement and scheduling details before starting phase deployments.