San Jose Water Case Study

San Jose Water Company Meets and Surpasses its 100% Commitment to Public Health

“With WaterTrax we have an improved data management system with shared responsibility and accountability, enhanced water quality education, and improved decision-making”
- Andy Gere, Manager of Water Quality and Operations, San Jose Water Company

Founded in 1866, San Jose Water Company is an investor-owned public utility, and is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated urban water systems in the United States. They serve over 1 million people in the greater San Jose metropolitan area with high quality water. SJWC also provides services to other utilities including operations and maintenance, billing, and backflow testing.

The Challenge:  When it comes to public health, valuable water data must be taken seriously. The consequences of it going missing or unnoticed are severe. This is the data management challenge that the San Jose Water Company sought to address.

“In the past we had multiple spreadsheet formats, paper laboratory reports, MS Access databases, and binders full of printed reports,” said Andy Gere, Manager of Water Quality and Operations at SJWC. “Managing data was extremely time consuming. Countless hours were spent compiling, trending, and sorting through data in order to develop compliance reports. The worst problem occurred when it was necessary to investigate historical data on a well. With over 100 wells in our system, the time it took to respond to any problems was concerning.”

The Solution:  Shortly after learning about WaterTrax, San Jose Water Company implementedthe web-based information management solution. “With WaterTrax, we now have real-time data with email notification on the data. We have eliminated the lag-time for receiving lab results and now take immediate action on any notifications received. This was an important feature that attracted me to the WaterTrax product,” said Andy Gere, Manager of Water Quality and Operations at SJWC. He set up the WaterTrax alerting function to notify multiple parties within his department when there was an abnormal test result.

“I have also written a set of instructions with the appropriate course of action that is sent out with each notification,” he adds. “This way the accountability is shared and no test goes unnoticed. We have eliminated the occurrence of missed phone calls from laboratories or unread email messages.”

For Mr. Gere and his staff real-time data, email notifications, and historical data trending are all of great importance. But they have also discovered the usefulness of the WaterTrax Parameter Pages as an educational tool. Upon receipt of a notification, the operations supervisors at the San Jose Water Company look up the analyte in the WaterTrax Parameter Pages, which provides an extensive database of scientific information that includes a description and health implications for all the parameters in the Safe Drinking Water Act and more. “I didn’t expect this outcome, but our operations supervisors now have a much broader perspective on water quality and a better understanding of safe drinking water regulations,” says Mr. Gere. “They are more actively involved in making decisions when it comes to the quality of water.”

The Benefits:  San Jose Water Company has found that with the WaterTrax system, they can remain involved in daily operations without having to spend extensive time on the data management activities. “I have a more complete picture of our entire system. It has given me time to take on new responsibilities without losing sight of daily operations.” He adds: “Our commitment to the public is 100% compliance of the Safe Drinking Water Act. With WaterTrax we have an improved data management system with shared responsibility and accountability, enhanced water quality education for our employees, and improved decision-making. By using this service, we continue to meet and surpass our commitment to the public.”

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