SOUTH TARANAKI DISTRICT COUNCIL
of its water treatment plants .
“ With the exception of Kapuni , which is our operational base , all of our other plants are unmanned ,” says Manning . Staff members visit these plants on a regular — if not daily — basis , but essentially the plants are set up to run effectively unmanned 24 hours and for up to 4 days , monitored and controlled for the most part through supervisory control and data acquisition ( SCADA ) systems that allow staff to monitor multiple plants and respond quickly to problems that may arise .
“ Our staff can respond after hours on-line from home even in the middle of the night . If there ’ s a shut down or a loss of power or an exceeding of normal flow rate , and particularly in an event where we might breach the drinking water standards , we can go into automatic shutdown mode or an operator can intervene so that we maintain compliance with the drinking water standards ,” says Manning .
South Taranaki District Council is also focusing on other technological innovations including a plan to install electronic loggers with a propriety program to dispatch automatic SMS texts if farm water use exceeds a preset point — a sign that there could be a leak that must be addressed as soon as possible . This could be assessed by the users through an open source see application for mobile phones .
There is also a shared service arrangement with South Taranaki ’ s neighbouring council New Plymouth District Council for electrical and instrument design and tech support .
Enhancing technology with training Infrastructure improvements and new technology lead to a demand for operators and staff members who are considerably more techsavvy than the job called for in the past . South Taranaki District Council understands this , and places a heavy emphasis on training to ensure that its employees are prepared for any situation .
“ We ’ ve got a great staff here , all in various stages of training toward either a National Certificate or a National Diploma in water treatment ,” says Manning , noting
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