BENEFITS OF A WEB-BASED LABORATORY INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR THE CITY OF ATLANTA'S WASTEWATER LABORATORIES

On September 24, 1998 a Consent Order was issued by the U.S. District Court against the City of Atlanta (COA) due to violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Georgia Water Quality Control Act (GWQCA), and the issued NPDES permits. The objective of the Consent Decree is to achieve compliance with the NPDES permits, the GWQCA and the CWA. One of the stipulations of the Consent Decree was to update the City of Atlanta's Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS).In addition to upgrading the LIMS, the City also implement a pretreatment information management system (PIMS) for managing data from approximately 250 industrial clients. 150 of these clients have self-monitoring of their effluent, enter the data into a spreadsheet, print the spreadsheet, and fax it to the City. The City employees then enter the data back into a spreadsheet. The new PIMS system greatly automates that process.