The Trinity River Authority (TRA) was formed in 1955 by the Texas legislature. Its main concerns are water supply and water conservation in the Trinity River Basin. The authority extends over 17,965 square miles (46,529 km2), including all or part of 17 counties. The general offices of the authority are located in Arlington, Texas..
Maintaining an adequate water supply is one of the key challenges faced by the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, where increasing population and rising water demand have elevated the vulnerability of the communities to water shortages. In this paper, we conducted a preliminary study exploring the possibility of converting flood storage in the Joe Pool Lake (JPL) as a means to improve water supply reliability and achieve better cost efficiency. This study employs a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach that considers the costs of meeting conversion demand and supply requirements over the northern portion of the Trinity River Basin. It includes trade-offs between capturing and storing natural flow versus return flow from the treatment facilities of the Trinity River Authority (TRA). A set of hypothetical prices and demand figures with the record drought of 1940-1996 considered to test the LP model. The optimal strategy yields expansion of JPL and associated storage-diversion on an annual basis. Also, the outcomes of the analyses suggest that, while the conversion would have a positive impact on water availability, storing the return flow might not produce sufficient cost savings; unless higher prices were imposed on the stored-return flow.
The Trinity River Authority Central Regional Wastewater System (CRWS) retained Perkins Engineering Consultants, Inc. to research, specify and assist with procurement of a real-time odor plume prediction system. The real-time model is used to monitor the CRWS odor production and as a tool for assessing strategies for reducing the CRWS odor footprint. The real-time odor plume prediction system was designed to achieve the following objectives: Use field-measured odor and atmospheric values, along with programmed fixed emission values for selected processes, to project, on a real-time basis, and to continuously record, in a graphic format, the projected intensity and locations of impact of odors from the CRWS facility. Notify staff when odors approach or exceed predetermined levels at selected locations on or off the plant site. Provide information to be used in evaluating the potential effectiveness of alternative strategies for preventing or reducing odors perceived offsite. Provide information to project the estimated intensity and frequency of odors experienced by the traveling public on Interstate 30 south of and other selected receptor locations. Provide a model to help with optimization of odor control chemical feed in reducing the probable off-site odor impact. An odor dispersion model predicts the intensity, frequency, and spatial extent of nuisance odors generated by the treatment facilities. Continuous monitoring and modeling systems display odor isopleths in real-time based on live atmospheric data. Real-time odor plume prediction systems can use onsite continuous measurement sensors correlated to odor units (OU) and an onsite weather station as input to calculate the resulting odor plume. The number of onsite sensors depends on the size of the facility and available budget. The features, capabilities, and limitations of real-time odor plume prediction systems as well as lessons learned through the procurement of a real-time model for the CRWS facility are discussed later in this paper.
