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Sensors Help Arizona Utility Locate Inflow and Infiltration

RH Borden technician is inspecting a sewer manhole for Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) locating services.

RH Borden’s iTracker sensors helped Green Valley Water, AZ pinpoint the top 2 basins and 5 manholes causing monsoon I&I after just 2–3 rain events.

Problem: Each year, monsoons hit Payson, Arizona, and within 24 hours, Green Valley Water dealt with water entering the collections system and pouring into the treatment facility at a rate nearly double the normal daily inflow. Smoke testing, CCTV, flowmeters and other isolation techniques had proven ineffective.

Solution: In 2023, Green Valley Water incorporated a service from RH Borden called iTrackers. They are sensors that can be deployed in a network and monitor water levels at all times. When rain comes, these sensors work together and can pinpoint exactly where the I&I is coming from. RH Borden deploys iTracking either across full collections systems to assess all major basins or in a targeted way on a single basin.

Result: After only two to three rain events, RH Borden identified the top two basins in the system contributing to I&I and also the top five manholes in those basins where the I&I was entering. With this pinpoint accuracy, Green Valley now knows where to make the necessary repairs to stop the I&I from entering.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Why didn’t smoke testing, CCTV, or flowmeters work for Green Valley Water before switching to iTrackers?

Those methods are each built for a specific kind of problem, but monsoon-driven I&I is fast and widespread, showing up across an entire system within 24 hours of a storm. Smoke testing needs dry weather to work at all, and CCTV and flowmeters typically check a handful of points rather than continuously monitoring how an entire system responds in real time. That combination made it difficult for those methods to catch a problem this fast-moving and this spread out.

How many rain events does it actually take before I get useful results?

In Green Valley Water’s case, RH Borden identified the top two contributing basins and the five specific manholes responsible after just two to three rain events. That’s a realistic timeline for most systems facing a similar seasonal I&I pattern, real results within a single wet-weather season rather than a multi-year study.
 

Do I need to deploy sensors across my entire collection system, or can I start smaller?

Either approach works, depending on what you already know about your system. RH Borden deploys iTrackers both ways: across an entire collection system to assess all major basins at once, or in a more targeted way focused on a single basin you already suspect is a problem area.
 

What actually happens once the top basins and manholes are identified?

You get a specific, prioritized list rather than a citywide guess. In Green Valley Water’s case, narrowing the problem down to two basins and five manholes meant they knew exactly where to focus repair efforts to stop the I&I at its actual source, instead of spreading limited repair budget across the whole system.
 

Is this approach specific to monsoon regions like Arizona, or does it work for other kinds of storms too?

The case study focuses on monsoon-driven I&I because that’s what Green Valley Water was dealing with, but the underlying approach, continuous sensor monitoring that activates during rain events, isn’t limited to any one storm pattern. Any system dealing with sudden, weather-driven I&I spikes faces a similar detection challenge.