The City of Decatur, Illinois, has solved a persistent challenge facing water utilities: efficiently collecting representative samples from distribution systems while maintaining rigorous water quality standards.
Serving approximately 70,500 residents, the utility draws water from Lake Decatur and delivers an average of 19 million gallons per day through 536 miles of water main.
Strategic Solution: Hydro-Guard Sampling Stations
The City installed 19 Hydro-Guard® Blow-Off Sampling Stations at key nodes in the distribution network, positioned based on an Illinois EPA approved sampling plan. The permanent sampling points eliminated building access coordination, allowing Davis to collect samples at optimal times. Direct connection to watermains requires only brief flushing, saving around five minutes per location.
Maximizing Infrastructure Investment
During installation, the city added 13 i2O® pressure loggers at strategic locations to detect leaks and monitor pressure for large industrial customers. These loggers transmit real-time pressure and temperature data to the Sentryx™ Water Intelligence platform, enabling operators to troubleshoot issues and receive early warning of freeze conditions.
Water Production Manager Robert Weil sees additional opportunities: “I’d like to have early warning on pressure losses on critical lines to prevent a costly, disruptive failure.”
Results and Future Plans
Based on positive results, the City plans to install an additional 60 sampling stations over the next several years and integrate the data into their SCADA system for faster leak detection.
Decatur’s experience demonstrates how strategic infrastructure investment can simultaneously address multiple operational challenges, delivering immediate benefits in efficiency, sample quality, and operational flexibility.
