Freedom Automation Featured in AWWA Journal

SUMMARY & CHALLENGE

Maintaining a precise 5.0:1.0 ratio of chlorine to ammonia is critical in chloramination, as it helps prevent nitrification, taste and odor issues, and the formation of disinfection by-products. Many utilities struggle with fluctuating feed rates that undermine consistent water quality. In his Journal AWWA article, author Danny Hutcherson highlights how the City of Newport Beach (Calif.) addressed this common challenge.

SOLUTION

Freedom Automation Inc. worked alongside the city to develop and program a sophisticated PLC and human–machine interface (HMI) system that integrates continuous analyzer data from Hach’s CL17® and APA 6000® instruments. This enabled real-time chemical pacing and automatic feed rate adjustments—achieving a consistently precise 5.0:1.0 ratio, even during major fluctuations in flow.

“Murdoch and Freedom Automation Inc. … have developed a system that incorporates on-line chlorine residual and ammonia analysis with sophisticated programmable logic control (PLC) and human-to-machine interface (HMI). The result is an intuitive control system for maintaining a precise 5.0:1.0 ratio at all times.”
—Hutcherson (2007), Journal AWWA

RESULTS

Newport Beach’s water treatment operations ran nearly two years under this adaptive control strategy without significant issues, demonstrating stable chloramination and minimized by-product formation. This success highlights the power of real-time monitoring and integrated PLC control in overcoming the inherent variability of chemical feed systems—ensuring water quality is consistently protected.

NEXT STEPS / LEARN MORE

For further details or to read the full Journal AWWA article, please visit https://awwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1551-8833.2007.tb07858.x