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 ------- 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 ------- 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 ------- United States Environmental Protection Agency Center for Environmental Research Information Cincinnati OH 45268 BULK RATE -.i>. _ _ //:sT;E 0.2 5 Official Business Penalty for Private Use $300 EPA/600/S2-87/088 \ 0000329 PS U S ENVIR PROTECTION AGENCY REGION 5 LIBRARY 230 S DEARBORN STREET CHICAGO XL 60604 •6 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1988—548-013/8703 ------- |