Proactive odour management for multiple sites at UK water utility Southern Water.

Southern Water is a UK water utility responsible for public wastewater collection and treatment in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. Several of their sites have experienced ongoing complaints related to odour management from both local residents and businesses.

While operational staff are diligently following up on these complaints, there often does not seem to be a clear correlation with operational activities. Operations and management staff are spending significant time and money attempting to validate whether complaints are legitimate or not.

Envirosuite software implemented as a decision-support tool at several Southern Water sites. It will improve operational management and enable more efficient workflow management by providing an hour-by-hour forecast of risk levels for odour impact up to 72 hours ahead.

The software has also been implemented to provide instant diagnoses about the likely sources of community complaints. This allows for faster management and resolution of odour complaints from the community.

Southern Water personnel across multiple sites are now using Envirosuite to see the connection between facility status and odorous emissions more effectively. The status can be determined for real time via monitoring, as well as retrospectively using stored data, and ahead of time via risk forecasting. Accordingly, operational efficiency is enhanced and odour incidents can be mitigated or avoided more effectively.