United States
                    Environmental Protection
                    Agency
Water Engineering
Research Laboratory
Cincinnati OH 45268
                    Research and Development
EPA/600/S2-87/088 Apr. 1988
&ER&         Project Summary
                    Decision Support  System  for
                    Drinking Water  Research  Using
                    Microcomputers and Mainframes

                    Rolf A. Deininger, Robert M. Clark, and Benjamin W. Lykins, Jr.
                      The U.S. Environmental  Protection
                    Agency's  (EPA) Drinking Water Re-
                    search Division (DWRD) is responsible
                    for performing research to maintain and
                    improve the quality of drinking water.
                    With passage of the Safe Drinking Water
                    Act  in 1974, DWRD's extramural and
                    intramural research  activities  and
                    budget significantly increased. In
                    response to these challenges, DWRD
                    developed a Decision Support System
                    to manage and analyze research data.
                      The system  uses a mainframe com-
                    puter for  archival purposes and for
                    major computations.  It  had  evolved
                    from a relatively primitive  system
                    towards the use of a state-of-the-art
                    IBM 3090  mainframe, with IBM PC-
                    AT's* as intelligent terminals and as
                    standalone computers. The system has
                    been highly successful and has signifi-
                    cantly enhanced  DWRD's ability to
                    support Agency policy-making functions
                    as well as to provide polished informa-
                    tion  to the drinking water community
                    outside of EPA.
                      This Project Summary was developed
                    by EPA's Water Engineering Research
                    Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, to announce
                    key findings of the research project that
                    Is fully documented In a separate report
                    of the same title (see Project Report
                    ordering Information at back).

                    Introduction
                      According to the 1972 annual report of
                    the  U.S. Council on  Environmental
                    Quality, "... accurate  and  timely in-
                    * Mention  of trade  names or  commercial
                     products does not constitute endorsement or
                     recommendation for use.
formation on status and trends in the
environment is necessary to shape sound
public policy and to implement environ-
mental quality programs effectively." The
need has never been greater that it is
now.
  In 1974 with passage of the Safe Drink-
ing Act,  DWRD experienced expanded
research  activity and massive increases
in data flow. These activities created many
data analysis problems and, in response
to these challenges, DWRD developed a
Decision  Support System (multiple deci-
sion  assistance mechanisms usually
based on computer technology) to manage
and analyze research data; its purpose is
to help managers and other users make
key decisions. The development of such a
system and its basic elements will be
discussed in this Project Summary.


Development of Data
Management Functions
  In 1975, EPA began a series of field
projects to assess the removal of organics
from drinking water and needed to com-
pare the  data across different  projects.
The data arrived in highly varied formats
and with errors. These difficulties, to-
gether with the sheer mass of data and
the lack of a suitably sophisticated data
processing  methodology, provided  the
impetus for developing a new decision
support system. The DWRD staff and the
University of Michigan  collaborated to
develop a system  for  managing  and
analyzing these data in a way that would
satisfy the  needs  of the research
community.
  The system for storage, retrieval, and
analysis of drinking water data evolved

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over time and was governed by the avail-
ability of both  hardware and software
and by the willingness of personnel to be
trained.
  The system that was developed used a
mainframe computer as a central host.
Inhouse data entry and analysis  were
done initially through dumb terminals,
and an inhouse minicomputer was used
for transmission purposes. Direct data
entry was than  instituted to include
laboratory instruments, graphics  termi-
nals,  word processors,  and intelligent
terminals (e.g., personal computers); entry
was achieved directly from extramural
projects as well as from inhouse points.
Data  from all these  sources and from
existing Agency databases were merged
as necessary into  larger databases for
easier use.
  The following data  bases were devel-
oped as part of the project.

  • ICDATA —  roughly 1000 water
    supplies and 45 water quality pa-
    rameters organized under the data-
    base  management system  at the
    University of Michigan (MICRO) con-
    tains the data of the last update of
    the Interstate Carrier Program of
    EPA.
  • ICDATA/M — roughly 2000 records
    on about 1000 water supplies; con-
    structed using all available informa-
    tion from past EPA records.
  • NORSDATA  —  EPA's National
    Organics  Reconnaisance Survey
    (NORS).
  • NOMSDATA — three phases of the
    National Organics Monitoring Sys-
    tem (NOMS) of EPA's Office of Drink-
    ing Water; also contains data on
    trihalomethanes  and such conven-
    tional parameters as CCE, TOC, and
    COD.
  • CWSSDATA, including  the  Com-
    munity Water Supply Study (CWSS)
    — drinking water quality data in the
    State  of  Vermont and in selected
    areas in the United States that EPA
    surveyed in 1969.
  •  DURFOR  — the drinking  water
    quality data of the 100 largest U.S.
    cities; exists under both MICRO and
     MIDAS and  is based on  a  1960
    survey by the U.S. Geological Survey.
  • THOUWATER, the so-called "1000
     City Survey" — inorganic parameters
     of raw,  finished,  and distributed
     waters for about 600 cities.
  •  CARDIO/M  — cardiovascular
     disease motality rates by county,
     available under MIDAS; contains
     age-adjusted, 3-year-average, stan-
    dardized  cardiovascular  disease
    mortality rates for both sexes.
  • CANCER/M —  age-adjusted,  20-
    year-average, cancer mortality rates
    for each race and sex group in a
    selected set of counties.
  While developing these data bases.
DWRD staff entered data from field and
inhouse projects  that were ultimately
used  in the Decision Support  System.
Typical of this approach were projects at
Thornton, Colorado, and Charlotte Harbor,
Florida.
Thornton Project
  Drinking water for Thornton is produced
by two treatment plants with  a  total
capacity of 20 mgd. The raw water source
for one plant  is affected by upstream
wastewater discharges to the South Platte
River. The major concerns are high con-
centrations of ammonia, organic precur-
sors  that form trihalomethanes greater
than  established limits,  and  other
potentially harmful organics.
  The  large amount of data gathered
during the course of the project delayed
its reporting  and analysis. Data  from
notebooks  compiled  in Thornton were
entered in Cincinnati and transmitted to
EPA's National Computer Center (NCC) at
Research  Triangle Park, NC.  Both the
project manager and project personnel
needed early  access  to the data  and
wanted to analyze the data jointly.
  In  August 1982, an Apple II+ system
with floppy disk drives, plotter, printer,
and communications was installed at the
Thornton  water treatment  plant. This
permitted direct entry and verification
and previewing of the analyzed results.
The system was later upgraded with  a
Tektronix graphics emulator chip to allow
direct viewing of the graphs generated at
EPA's NCC.
  The  software provided for word  pro-
cessing,  plotting,  and communications.
The major need at the beginning was to
enter the  data directly into the NCC
system. A program was written that would
allow off-line data entry into the Apple,
editing of these data,  and  subsequent
submission of the data at maximum speed
to NCC. Calculations and transformations
of the data were done at the NCC.
Charlotte Harbor
  The Charlotte Harbor Water Association
(CHWA) has been conducting pilot plant
studies since 1979 because of the need
(1) to develop data on  reverse osmosis(
(RO) treatment to remove inorganic con-
taminants listed in the National Interim
Primary Drinking Water Regulations and
(2)  to  develop  low-pressure RO
membranes.
  The considerable amount of data that
were generated were recorded in note-
books, transcribed into quarterly reports,
and  sent to EPA for  key-punching. The
EPA project manager wanted to receive
the data in a timely fashion and wanted
to ensure  some data quality  control
because the several transcription steps
introduced errors at every step.
  In  August 1982, an Apple II  micro-
computer system with floppy disk  drives,
plotter, and communications was installed
at the CHWA. The software provided for
word processing, communications, spread-
sheeting, and  plotting.  This system al-
lowed local  recording of the data in  a
machine-readable form and a review and
preliminary analysis  of the data.  To
transfer the data, floppy disks were ex-
changed, although direct phone transfer
was also tested.
Evolution of the
Computer System
  The system has thus developed from
the original University of Michigan main-
frame  development (using for input
Apple-based  systems and  floppy disk
drives) to the EPA NCC IBM mainframe
(3090), (using as input/output  devices
IBM  PC-AT's with fixed  disks to con-
siderably enhance standalone computing
power.)
  The  incorporation of recent personal
computer  hardware and  software  and
telecommunications provides a powerful
analytical  tool for (1) extramural  plant
personnel, (2) DWRD staff, and (3) other
members of the drinking water research
and regulatory community to obtain rapid
and precise research results and a much
better understanding of treatment plant
design and performance parameters.


Conclusions
  The development of the Decision Sup-
port System  has led to an extensive col-
lection of drinking water quality data on
the major water supplies in the United
States. Using large central computer sys-
tems with easy access over the telephone
networks  allowed  potential  users to
access the data from any point in the
United States. The significant amount of

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training fostered "computer" literacy that
will be of great use to DWRD in the
future.
  Using microcomputers to acquire and
analyze data at several pilot plants proved
quite successful. Newer data sets will be
added to the existing ones to provide a
long-term record of the drinking water
quality in the United States.
  The full report was submitted in ful-
fillment of Cooperative Agreement CR-
808857 by the University of Michigan
under the sponsorship  of  the U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency.
Rolf A. Deininger is with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109;
  the EPA authors Robert M. Clark (also the EPA Project Officer, see below)
  and Benjamin W. L ykins are with the Water Engineering Research Laboratory,
  Cincinnati, OH 45268.
The complete report, entitled "Decision Support System  for Drinking  Water
  Research Using Microcomputers and Mainframes," (Order No. PB 88-114
  079/AS; Cost: $14.95, subject to change) will be available only from:
        National Technical Information Service
        5285 Port Royal Road
        Springfield, v'A 22161
        Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
        Water Engineering Research Laboratory
        U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
        Cincinnati, OH 45268

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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
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