¦ VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

DRINKING
WATER
ACADEMY

ELECTRONIC SANITARY
SURVEY PROJECT BULLETIN




JULY 1 , 2004 ¦
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE;
LESSONS LEARNED
IMPLEMENTING FIELD
TECHNOLOGY
STATUS OF ENHANCED
SANITARY SURVEY
SOFTWARE
ESS SOFTWARE IS
NOW AVAILABLE
NATIONALLY
A LOOK AT FUTURE
TECHNOLOGY
MASSACHUSETTS
PDA SOFTWARE
CUSTOMIZATION
SDWIS/STATE AND
THE ESS
ABOUT THE
DRINKING WATER
ACADEMY
The Drinking Water Academy
is a long-term training initiative
whose primary goal is to
expand EPA, State, and Tribal
capabilities to implement the
1996 Amendments to the Safe
Drinking Water Act.
For more information on the
DWA or on the electronic
sanitary survey project, visit
the Web site at www.epa.gov/
safewater/dwa.html orcontact
Jamie Bourne at
Boume.James@epa.gov orat
(202) 564-4095.
Approximately 75 drinking water professionals from around the country attended the DWA -
ASDWA conference on using PDAs and Tablet PCs, which was held in May.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE: USING PDAS AND TABLET
PCS TO ENHANCE WATER SECURITY AND SAFE
DRINKING WATER ACT IMPLEMENTATION
On May 26 and 27, 2004, the
Association of State Drinking
Water Administrators (ASDWA)
and EPA's Drinking Water
Academy (DWA) sponsored a
national conference in Austin,
Texas, on using PDAs and
Tablet PCs to enhance water
security and Safe Drinking
Water Act (SDWA) implementa-
tion. The conference was
attended by approximately 75
state staff, federal agency staff,
and contractors. Attendees
represented three areas of
interest: the public water system
supervision and underground
injection control (UIC) programs
under SDWA, and water
security.
Over the 2 days, speakers
provided insights on the
development and implementa-
tion of software programs to
enhance SDWA implementa-
tion. The Electronic Sanitary
Survey (ESS) provides field
inspectors with a PDA- or Tablet
PC-based tool to record their
findings in the field, upload the
data to a desk-top database,
generate inspection reports, and
provide analytical data. The UIC
program has developed two
different tools for primacy and
direct implementation states to
conduct Class V inventory and
other inspections. These tools
increase consistency and
efficiency in conducting
inspections, reduce the
likelihood of errors, and provide
flexibility to the users. Speakers
also raised the audience's
awareness of how these tools
can be used to support water
security activities, as well as
issues regarding the security of
the hardware and data collected
by the users.
Speakers representing the
U.S. Forest Service and
Florida's Volusia County gave
presentations that expanded
the horizons of technology use
to support water programs.
Participants were also given an
opportunity to brainstorm about
how technology could be used to
support their programs,
network during an evening
reception and during breaks,
and participate in working
sessions on the ESS and UIC
software. Door prizes-PDAs-
were awarded to two lucky
attendees.
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El J ULY 1 , 2004
ELECTRONIC SANITARY SURVEY PROJECT BULLETIN
J PAGE 2
SPEAKERS AT ASDWA - DWA CONFERENCE PRESENT LESSONS LEARNED
IN IMPLEMENTING TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIELD
Speakers presented a variety
of points of view in describing
their experiences implementing
technology-driven solutions to
support SDWA implementation.
Some of the conclusions they
reached included the following
advice for managers:
(~ Get staff buy-in to ensure
cooperation and participa-
tion, particularly in the
early stages of learning to
use the tool in the field.
(~ Make the technology fit
your goals, not vice versa.
(~ Physical possession of the
appliance increases
familiarity; where resources
allow, each user should
have one.
(~ Provide adequate training
so that users are comfort-
able with the technology.
The enhanced sanitary survey
(ESS) software is available
nationally through an FTP (File
Transfer Protocol) site
maintained by the DWA's
contractor, Northbridge
Environmental. To access the
Northbridge FTP site, type
ftp://12.170.50.10 in your Web
browser. Log in with the
following identification
information:
(~ Username: Client
(~ Password: nbftp
For the desktop sanitary
survey software, open the
(~ Continue emphasizing the
value of personal interac-
tions with operators.
Speakers also addressed
security issues, both the
physical security of the
hardware and the security of the
data that reside in it.
(~ Managers need to take
precautions similar to
those taken for personal
computers: passwords,
protection against viruses
and corrupted data, and
encryption.
(~ Managers must consider
non-technological access
to data (e.g., freedom of
information requests).
(~ Managers need to provide
backups that do not rely on
electronics and are
"Sanitary Survey Files" folder
and copy the file "ESS
Setup.exe" to your computer,
then double-click it to start the
setup program that will install
the application.
For the Tablet PC sanitary
survey software (which is still
in draft), open the "Sanitary
Survey Files" folder and copy
the file "Tablet ESS Setup.exe"
to your computer, then
double-click it to start the
setup program that will install
the application.
accessible during emer-
gencies.
Several speakers talked about
ways they have used the
electronic sanitary survey or
other environmental field data
collection software to enhance
their programs:
(~ Iowa uses electronic
sanitary survey data to
support its capacity
development program.
(~ Volusia County, Florida,
uses data from PDAs in a
variety of field applications
TABLET PC VERSION
After completing the PDA-
based Enhanced Sanitary
Survey (ESS) software, EPA
began to adapt it for use on
Tablet PCs. Some states
prefer to use the larger Tablet
PCs, and EPA wanted to
ensure that states had this
option.
The software, which is almost
complete, is similar to the
desktop ESS software, without
the PDA references or the
ability to create a new survey.
Another feature the Tablet PC
ESS software has over the
PDA software is the ability to
add a survey component (e.g.,
source, treatment) while in the
field.
Survey navigation on the
Tablet is a little different from
the desktop version. On the
Tablet, the survey outline is
displayed along with a
to support its public health
program by mapping
disease incidents to see if
there are any relationships
to exposure sources.
(~ The U.S. Forest Service
compiles sanitary survey
data to support its capital
improvement and budget
planning activities.
The use of computer technol-
ogy for field applications is in
its infancy. The speakers and
audience were very excited
about the tools and technolo-
gies discussed and shown.
scrollable list of questions,
displayed 10 at a time, and a
process indicator, all on a
single screen. An on-screen
keyboard will display when a
question requiring a text
answer is selected. The on-
screen keyboard can be
minimized.
Once a survey is completed, it
is uploaded to the desktop
application using the "Retrieve/
Review a Survey" button and
clicking "Retrieve Survey from
Tablet." The user picks the
survey to retrieve and the data
is uploaded to the desktop
application.
SMALL SYSTEM VERSION
In response to feedback about
the size of the ESS question
set, the DWA has developed a
small system version of the
ESS. This version contains 175
questions that are applicable to
a typical small water system.
ENHANCED SANITARY SURVEY
SOFTWARE AVAILABLE NATIONALLY
STATUS OF ESS SOFTWARE

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ELECTRONIC SANITARY SURVEY PROJECT BULLET!
INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE
TALKS ABOUT THE FUTURE
-]
JULY 1 , 2004
PAG E 3
Jerry Hamrock, a sales
manager from Dell Inc.,
discussed improvements in
hand-held computer technol-
ogy that will make it even more
powerful and versatile.
The first improvement he
spoke about is in LCD (liquid
crystal display) technology,
which will enable more detail in
a smaller space. Thus, users
will be able to see more detail
on the screen.
The other improvements are in
wireless technology. These
improvements will give hand-
held computers more mobility
and range. Examples of this
include WiFi (wireless local
area networks) and wireless
person area networks (PAN),
such as Bluetooth. These
technologies allow wireless
connection of electronic
devices including mobile
phones, PCs, hand-held
devices, and printers.
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MASSACHUSETTS PDA
SOFTWARE CUSTOMIZATION
Massachusetts sanitary survey staff tested the Enhanced
Sanitary Survey (ESS) software in the field and identified a
number of changes to tailor the software to their needs.
The state formed a workgroup to review the sanitary survey
questions and develop a revised, and reduced, sanitary
survey question set for use on the PDA. In mid-May the
workgroup produced a first draft of changes, which have
been incorporated into the ESS desktop and successfully
loaded to the PDA.
The Massachusetts ESS takes more of an "outline" or
"checklist" approach, which requires a slight modification of
the PDA software. That software change is being analyzed
and should be implemented by early July to allow for full
testing of the changes in the field.
The final step in the Massachusetts effort is to map the
state's database (WQTS) to the new question set. That effort
is under way by state staff.
SDWIS/STATE AND THE ELECTRONIC SANITARY SURVEY
SDWIS/STATE was developed
to work easily with other
drinking water data systems
and data sets. The main
SDWIS/STATE tool for
interacting with other sources
information is the Migration-to-
SDWIS/STATE module (MTS).
MTS enables a SDWIS/STATE
user to electronically migrate
data into the main SDWIS/
STATE data tables.
The DWA began working with
the SDWIS/STATE team to build
a working bridge from the PDA
to SDWIS/STATE in the fall of
2003. This bridge will allow data
to be transferred to and from the
PDA and SDWIS/STATE
databases. The first step in the
process was to expand the
MTS protocol to allow greater
flexibility in moving data to and
from SDWIS/STATE.
In 2004, EPA expanded the
capabilities of MTS (MTS 8.1) to
allow the modification of existing
records and the appending of
new records. Previously, MTS
would allow only new records
to be added.
Data Flow Between SDWIS/STATE and the ESS
M
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Stincture Sets
^ MS Access DB
The SDWIS team is now
working with the Drinking
Water Academy to further
facilitate information-sharing
between SDWIS/STATE and
the Electronic Sanitary Survey
software by writing the queries
needed to extract data out of
SDWIS/STATE.
It is the goal of the DWA and
SDWIS/STATE teams to
develop a seamless flow of data
from the field to the state
database and back to the PDA.
The enhanced data flow will
better assist states as they
implement their drinking water
programs and will promote
better health protection.

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