Conway liked the idea of being able to perform data analysis and research presentations that will improve the environment. And the commuting distance meant that the standout collegiate swimmer could still train at the Aquatic and Fitness Center.
He signed on. In doing so, the clean-water swimmer became part of the ongoing solution to Richmond’s dirty-water dilemma.
Overflow, Backups and Bottlenecks
Richmond’s sewers are like ones you see in the movies. Twenty-three “combined sewer overflow” sites – the biggest pipes, with catwalks, spanning a distance so far you can’t see end to end – manage the deluge. They each can process hundreds of millions of gallons of discharge at a time.
“The scale of these things is absolutely insane,” Conway said.
The 150-year-old combined sewer system works well when the weather is dry. The wastewater travels without incident to the treatment plant, where the water is cleaned and returned to the James. But during high rainfall, stormwater enters the combined system and that can lead to raw sewage flowing into the James. Overflow sites are intentionally designed to spill over when they reach capacity. The goal for planners is to get them to the right size for modern conditions, so that overflow is a rare occurrence.
Adding to the challenge, overall growth combined with redevelopment in areas not originally meant for high-density living – for example, converting old warehouse districts to apartments for young professionals – has resulted in increasing problems, including backups and bottlenecks.
The city last performed overall upgrades to its system in the 1970s. Since then, the city has invested in more individualized work, improving the combined sewer system by focusing on sewer separation projects, conveyance pipelines, tunnels, large storage facilities and the wastewater treatment plant.
The firm helps Richmond’s planners design selective improvements, because wholesale replacement of such a vast system wouldn’t feasible.
“The time frame it would take to rip the whole thing out and replace it would be impossible to keep up with,” Conway said.
Conway helps the team crunch water data. On his third day as an intern, in fact, he was asked to take a look at a complex set of rainfall statistics and make preliminary recommendations for a project. It was a sort of “litmus test,” he said.
Fortunately for the budding systems engineer, data analytics is kind of his thing.
“My project manager, Matt Pugh, sent the files over to me and said, ‘Go crazy.’ I’m very much someone who enjoys finding fun relationships and patterns in numbers.”
Interpreting a Steady Stream of Data
Like the waters being monitored, data is constantly streaming into Conway’s computer. The information comes from several hundred sensors placed under manhole covers around the city. The devices gauge the depths and how quickly the waters are rising or falling.
Conway inputs the data into the office’s primary information-sharing tool, a computer visualization dashboard. But he also produces alternate means to convey the information to clients, for whom the information needs to be more accessible. He even taught himself 3-D modeling.
He got a head start on how to prepare data for executives through a spring course, Systems Evaluation, taught by Reid Bailey.
