Planning for Now and the Future – The Development of a Process Control System (PCS) Master Plan for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District

Faced with aging process control system infrastructure at three wastewater treatment facilities and a collection system, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), also referred to as the “District”, developed a Process Control System (PCS) Master Plan to upgrade and modernize the control systems and to provide a framework for enhanced data management across all the facilities. The central feature of the PCS Master Plan is the development of a roadmap to provide operational and system reliability improvements through a series of PCS projects which can be phased across multiple years. The phased projects approach ensures operational continuity, while building a foundation for robust and reliable PCS that is scalable and maintainable. In addition, this method will facilitate a phased approach to future maintenance and upgrades while supporting a streamlined cash flow. This approach can be applied to both large and small treatment facilities. The Master Plan projects are being implemented in two phases realizing the technical objectives of the Master Plan and while providing a manageable cash flow and the opportunity to implement any significant improvements in the second phase.