by James Coulter
The City of Lake Wales will continue to efficiently monitor its various water plants now that it has approved the buyout of monitoring equipment for them.
At their meeting on Tues. Feb. 18, 2025, Lake Wales city commissioners voted unanimously to approve its consent agenda. One item pertained to the buyout of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), which helps monitor the City’s water plants.
SCADA, according to the city agenda memo equipment, allows for the “interconnecting of all the City’s water plants” and the “enabling [of] off-site monitoring.”
“[The] equipment is one way water utility operators can effectively monitor network efficiency and performance,” the memo states. “When issues are detected, operators can quickly take action to prevent adverse public health and economic issues.”
Five years ago, the City entered into a lease agreement with Data Flow Systems to have the SCADA system installed. The purpose of this system, according to the memo, was to allow, “the operators to be able to focus more on what they do best and less on tasks that can take them away from more important work.”
SCADA includes alarms that can sound to signal changes in high and low water pressure, pump failure, or malfunctioning valves. It also includes Programmable Logic Controller (PLCs), which, according to the memo, “serve as an early warning system so that issues can be resolved before they become disasters.”
City staff had recommended that the city accept the 60-month lease buyout of SCADA from the Data Flow System. The purchase will be for $53,319. Of which, $5,000 has been placed in the city’s Operating Supply budget “with the intent to purchase the equipment out right.”
