During Hurricane Harvey’s rains in August, engineer Drew Molly and his colleagues at the Northeast Water Purification Plant in Houston waded through hip-deep water, did some quick calculations and with the help of a contractor — and at the behest of the city’s mayor – kept the plant operating and the city’s water system safe with just hours to spare.
这是莫莉和休斯顿其他人希望避免重复的英勇行为。他们希望引入新的解决方案，以帮助推进新的水思想，并全面展示尖端技术。水创新枢纽是该市与一个名为Accelerate H20的非营利组织之间的合作，在Harvey击中之前创建了，他于12月初被正式启动，重点是弹性。枢纽人员已经发布了呼吁打滑，独立的水处理单元，整个明年将寻求和评估新的水技术，这些水技术可以在洪水或其他灾难后立即治疗和生产水。
尽管水电站经常测试或展示新技术，但休斯顿水创新枢纽背后的人认为这是一个美国城市第一次成为多种想法的枢纽。
“Through the innovation hub, new or improved tech might make us less susceptible to a storm,” says Carol Haddock, Houston’s acting public works director. “How do we have infrastructure that is less susceptible to failure?”
Maybe, Haddock says, the hub will help bring to market backwash filters that would require cleaning less often, thereby avoiding the near-disaster that occurred at the Northeast plant. The backwash pond at the plant flooded during Harvey, making it impossible to clean the drinking water filters. While the city’s other drinking water plants also experienced flooding, the Northeast plant was the only site critically inundated.
莫莉（Molly）计算了他可以通过将植物的产量降低到25％来延长过滤器的寿命。那是保持系统中水压足以防止水通知所需的最低量。正好及时，Brh-Garver Construction的首席执行官Peck Boswell于8月29日通过高水进入该地点，并在反冲洗池塘周围安装了一个临时的Aqua大坝。机组人员部署了泵来排出洪水，使能够进入池塘以清洁过滤器。
Haddock credits Molly’s clear head during the emergency to help keep the drinking water system operational. “Drew has the skills and leadership, as well as the critical thinking of an engineer,” Haddock says. But next time, Molly, who was promoted to oversee the city’s drinking water operations after Harvey, might not be on site, she says.
A New Approach
Houston’s Water Innovation Hub was already in the works before Harvey, says Richard Seline, director of the Houston-based non-profit Accelerate H20, which had already been helping to identify new technologies, products, services and solutions for water and wastewater in Texas and throughout the world.
当休斯顿市去年年初考虑其水和废水系统的设计和管理重大变化时，它与Seline的组织联系起来，以帮助确保休斯顿考虑所有选择。加速H20和该市同意创建一个枢纽，以将学者，水工业公司和公用事业公司汇集在一起，以证明和证明新的和新兴的技术。塞琳说，他的组织将充当中立的第三方，以引入来自世界各地的良好技术，但在美国尚未允许。尚未全面证明的增长技术；以及有希望将成本，化学物质，能源或其他差异降低20％或更多的突破性技术。新利18备用官网登录
塞琳说：“我们没有规定。”“我们说这些是我们的问题，带给我们一切和一切。”HADDOCK希望在休斯顿的现实环境中测试新技术和想法（全美第四大城市）将刮胡子几年，甚至几十年来将新概念和产品带入市场所需的时间。
Seli新利18备用网址ne说，这些项目将通过税收抵免，赞助，赠款以及希望在全面尝试业务开发的技术的公司组合来资助。
As Hurricane Harvey approached, the hub put out a call for skid-mounted, portable and energy independent wastewater treatment units to use if Houston’s facilities flooded. Seline said they secured some of the units, but the response was “underwhelming” and the units ultimately weren’t used.
The experience taught the hub there isn’t a readily available storehouse of water and wastewater equipment that can be sent to areas of need after a storm. Consequently the innovation hub is now looking to stockpile some equipment, including those skid-mounted units, for future storms. The next task is to evaluate other equipment that can be operational within 12-24 hours of a storm or other disaster. The hub is also looking for innovations that will help reduce system failures, and address “resilience strategies for 21st Century communities and industries.”
莫莉（Molly）预计，枢纽还将能够帮助休斯顿最好地使用新技术，例如智能传感器和仪表，以帮助制作动态预测模型，以更好地预测洪水和降雨。
“This is not the last time that it is going to rain in Houston,” Haddock says. “It’s not the last time it is going to rain a lot in Houston.”
