Free flows: New Jersey turns to AI to safeguard water quality

In a guest post, Tiffany Stewart, Assistant Director Newark, N.J. Water & Sewer Department discusses how artificial intelligence and sensors are helping the state maintain the health of its water supply.

In the satellite map of the New Jersey Highlands there is a swath of green shades darker than most of the rugged, tree-covered regions of northern third of the state. This area of undeveloped and uninterrupted nature is the Newark Watershed, which at nearly 37,000 acres is larger than any of the 11 state forests or 21 parks, except for the massive Wharton State Forest in the Pine Barrens. This pristine source of five mountain reservoirs holding billions of gallons is the lifeblood of the City’s water source, which has always been a matter of civic pride.

“A History of the City of Newark” published in 1913, describes it this way: “Since 1892 the city of Newark has been blessed with water supply of rare purity, giving this city...as good water, if not better, than any other city of its size in the world can boast.” The article goes on to present Newark’s “very low” typhoid rates as evidence. The secondary piece is the inordinate amount of breweries that flourished in Newark in the Victorian age.

Because City leaders back then had the foresight to develop a virgin-forest watershed, rather than continuing to draw from increasingly contaminated Passaic River, the cause of several typhoid outbreaks, Newark water became the acknowledged “best in class” which remains the goal today.

Just as those leaders pioneered “pristine” water sources and “state of the art” infrastructure, Mayor Ras J. Baraka’s administration is on the leading edge of technology in water purity with artificial intelligence that allows chemists and engineers to adjust the complex chemical make-up of safe drinking water in real time.

Under the leadership of Newark Water and Sewer Director Kareem Adeem, the City has replaced nearly 16,500 of an estimated 18,000+ lead service lines, and has tamped down the lead levels to federal and state compliance through the introduction of an orthophosphate anti-corrosion program. But while those are the more public achievements, Director Adeem has led a quiet, high-tech revolution to assure “best in class” for the City’s water product.

AI allows chemists and engineers to adjust the complex chemical make-up of safe drinking water in real time

Two of the artificial intelligence systems Director Adeem has brought in are unique and proprietary to the Newark Water and Sewer Department. The first, developed by FontusBlue of Akron, Ohio, is a predictor of the necessary water quality adjustments before they happen. The artificial intelligence gathers all data from the City’s wealth of current and historic monitoring data, then factors in environmental elements such as time of year, temperatures and precipitation to predict if adjustments are needed, and if so, pinpoints what they should be.

This technology allows the City to both preemptively detect problems as well as employ a state of the art database of information to make the most informed decision regarding remedial measures to undertake should an issue occur.

The second is a regulatory compliance program that ensures all federal and state standards regulatory requirements are met in a timely manner by keeping track of government required reports and analyses and the water department workers who are responsible for those submissions.

The system sends email reminders then alerts to supervisors if reports aren’t filed before they are due so as to avoid fines and notices of violations. It is invaluable in making sure the City is up to date with all the reporting requirements. The system also keeps historic records of those reports.