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INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
EXPANDING WATER PROVIDER ACCESS TO CANARY THROUGH DEPLOYMENT
Background
As two million miles of United States drinking water
pipelines and infrastructure continue to deteriorate and
leak with increasing age, there is a growing need to detect
and monitor biological and chemical contaminants within
the distribution system. The accurate and precise
monitoring of water within a distribution system can aid
municipalities and water utilities in identifying water
quality and water security abnormalities, or "events." This
data allows authorities to make decisions to protect
against threats to public health. Sensors are currently
being deployed within distribution networks for this
purpose, but signal noise and event detection have been
proven difficult to separate. To solve this technological
gap, EPA teamed with the Department of Energy's Sandia
National Laboratories (SNL) to develop the CANARY
event detection software.
CANARY performs online, multivariate event detection
from in place, networked sensor data, and can identify
them in real time by combining standard statistical
forecasting methods and classification algorithms in an
innovative framework. Irregular water quality sensor data
is filtered to accurately identify anomalous events while
minimizing false positives. Using these techniques,
CANARY detects abnormal water quality caused by
contamination, but also detects unanticipated "normal"
events like pipe breaks, sensor malfunctions, or backflow
events. CANARY produces data that can be connected to
existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) systems, and used by water providers to
comprehensively understand system events. CANARY
was originally designed for drinking water utilities, but
the software is also adaptable to source water, storm water
and wastewater event detection. CANARY has been pilot
tested at the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) in
a real-time, continuous monitoring application since 2007.
It has also been utilized at the Metropolitan Sewer District
of Southern California, the City of Philadelphia's Water
Department, and Singapore's Water Utility Board. This
project aims to identify partners to support, utilize, and
maintain the CANARY software for product licensing and
deployment.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
EPA Cincinnati Water Technology
Cluster Team
On January 18, 2011, EPA Administrator Lisa
P. Jackson announced the commitment of $5
million over the next three to five years to
support the research, development, and
deployment (RD&D) of cost-effective,
innovative water technologies that demonstrate
tenets of sustainability, timeliness, innovation,
and responsiveness.
The EPA Cincinnati water technology cluster
team was created to oversee and promote this
RD&D effort. The cluster team holds the
following goals and objectives as it strives to
help solve water challenges:
• To promote innovation in the water
technology sector in the Cincinnati, Dayton,
northern Kentucky, and southeast Indiana
region by communicating water challenges,
Agency priorities, and technology needs.
• To foster and generate water technology
RD&D collaborations among internal and
external partners within the region by
facilitating access to EPA research facilities
and equipment.
• To help identify, protect, and transfer EPA
intellectual property to the marketplace.
These objectives allow the cluster team to
promote regional water technology RD&D
while maintaining EPA's overall mission of
protecting human health and the environment.
For more information, please visit
www.epa.gov/nrmrl/watercluster.
EPA/600/S-12/721
December 2012
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Noisy Output of Water Quality Data from a Sensor
Project Objectives & Outcomes
A CANARY Output of the Same Sensor Data
A market study will be conducted by a competitively-selected entity on CANARY'S potential impact to the
current and future water market. Results of the study will be used to modify and enhance CANARY, and to
develop packaging of the software that can be distributed through a number of mechanisms to streamline the
deployment process. CANARY could be offered as a standalone product, or modified and added to existing
software platforms. EPA is considering entering multiple agreements with development and deployment partners
that will expedite the use of EPA technology in the marketplace.
Status
Timeline
Market Study Partner
Identification
Market Study Completion
Commercialization
Partner(s) Selection
Product Enhancements &
Modification
CANARY Regional
Installation
Final Software Package(s)
for Commercialization
Case study Reports
2012
July-
Sept.
Oct-
Dec.
2013
Jan.-
Mar.
Apr.-
June
July-
Sept.
Oct-
Dec.
2014
Jan.-
Mar.
Apr.-
June
July-
Sept.
Contact
John Hall
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
National Homeland Security Research Center
Phone: 513-487-2814
E-mail: hall.john@epa.gov
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
EPA/600/S-12/721
December 2012
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