System-Wide SCADA Documentation to Prepare for Disaster Recovery

The SCADA system is the brain of a water and wastewater operation, and loss of this system, or critical components of it, could create a disaster. Catastrophic risks due to system failures include extended downtime, environmental spills, contaminated water distribution and financial penalties. The costs to repair or replace the failures, along with the financial penalties, could be immense, depending on where the failures occurred and how large they were.

In this prize-winning white paper, Mike Stoup, PE, McKim & Creed’s instrumentation & controls group manager, and Pinellas County’s SCADA and security systems manager for the Water & Sewer Division, describe how the county completed and implemented an effective disaster recovery plan in record time. The plan features a customized backup and restore procedure that prepares the county to return to operations should a condition render inoperable part of, or all of, the SCADA system that controls water and wastewater functions.