Garrett County seeks $140,000 ARC grant to modernize water/wastewater SCADA systems

The Garrett County Department of Public Utilities asked commissioners for $140,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission to modernize SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems across county water and wastewater treatment sites.

Nathaniel Watkins, who leads the county’s information-technology work for the request, said Garrett County has “roughly a dozen water and wastewater treatment plants” where sensor and monitoring data are siloed and not centrally reported. That gap, he said, can allow undetected water losses when a pump runs continuously after a line break and go unnoticed for months because meter readings occur only quarterly.

Watkins described a pilot installation in Kitzmiller that provides tank-level data and allows operators to run pumps based on real-time conditions. He said the SCADA upgrade would let supervisors and operators view data on a web platform and receive alerts to generate work orders and take corrective action sooner — for example, to catch abnormal pump vibration before a failure and to avoid wasting treated water.

Why it matters: the presenter framed the project as both a cost-saving and environmental-protection measure, citing lost treated water, electricity and chemical costs associated with undetected breaks and continuous pump operation.

Discussion and next steps: Watkins asked the board for $140,000 in ARC funds to scale the system across plants; the board will include the request in its ARC project ranking for submission to the Tri-County Council of Western Maryland by May 16. No formal county appropriation or vote to fund the work occurred at the meeting.

Background: the county said meter readings currently occur quarterly and that SCADA would enable near–real-time monitoring, alerts and preventive maintenance.