By using sensors to collect real-time data about the performance of sanitary sewers and a specialized software program to analyze the intel, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, avoided an estimated $1 billion worth of system upgrades that reports indicated would be needed to ensure compliance with state mandates.
The data was collected by a network of 90 flowmeters and 10 rain gauges deployed around the city in 2013 and analyzed by a BLU-X Intelligent Urban Watershed platform from Xylem Digital Solutions. The upshot? The infiltration and inflow problems could instead be solved for between $30 million to $50 million, says
