Village of Wilmot, OH

The Village of Wilmot is located in Stark County, Ohio and is a small town in the northeast pocket of Ohio. The village itself lies a little west between the larger cities of New Philadelphia and Canton, Ohio. The village has a population of 282 as of 2022. The village has a total land area of 0.16 square miles. Wilmot was originally called Milton, and under the latter name was laid out in 1836. A post office called Wilmot has been in operation since 1866. A nearby town named Beach City operates the collection system in Wilmot.

A resident in Wilmot had reoccurring events of her basement becoming backed up with raw sewage whenever a rain event occurred in the town. After a few of these events transpired, the county health department and the Ohio EPA became involved in the situation. On September of 2021 the village administrator had contacted an ORWA wastewater tech to start an investigation this issue.

ORWA had conducted camera work which consisted of a sewer rover camera crawler sent up a main line in hopes to find the leak. An illegal tap was found but did not resolve the entire issue at hand.

In June of 2022, the town had contacted the wastewater tech again to conduct a smoke test in a corner of town in hopes to isolate and later resolve this I&I (Inflow & Infiltration) issue. The smoke test conducted on the town did not produce significant results and no major deficiencies in the system were located with the smoke.

The town was advised to do a flow study using iTracker flow monitoring equipment to better isolate this I&I issue. In December of 2022, the iTrackers were first introduced to this system. This consisted of three iTracker probes being hung right below the manhole lid in a suspended state. The probes were initially deployed near the residence who originally had issues with their basement flooding during wet weather events.

The iTracker probes are equipped with an ultrasonic sensor that reads off the top of the flow going through the sewer line. This data collection method will give out live results via Bluetooth capabilities during events of abnormal flow.

During the first stage of the I&I study from December 2022 - January 2023, the probes were hung in specific manholes around town for an entire month. In that month, they will collect rain events and detect any abnormalities of flow coming through the line regarding I&I. This is either during dry or wet weather instances. In January of 2023, the probes were pulled from the manholes and the flow data was downloaded off of them. Below is a series of screen shots taken that shows mild to severe events of I&I, an AutoAnalysis, and an overall result breakdown of individual flow.

When the first stage of probes was pulled and downloaded, they were reset and re-located elsewhere throughout the town to collect data off other streams in town. This began the second stage of the I&I study. This consisted of ORWA’S Wastewater Tech and I, along with the village administrator, performing the work. The probes were hung in various manholes across town for another month to collect data before being pulled and downloaded again in February of 2023. Below are a few images from the second stage showing the chart of the collected data from each probe and the location of where the probes were deployed in town.

Lastly, in this story, a third stage of the study was to be conducted. The probes were pulled, downloaded, and reset. These probes were hung in various manholes that were all tied into the same line to better isolate and research the I&I issue from previous data. This study is still ongoing as of February 2023 and the probes will be pulled and downloaded again in March of 2023.

In conclusion, the iTracker probes are a great tool and resource to use in instances of Inflow & Infiltration issues. With the help of Ohio Rural Water and the collaborating villages, progressive and rewarding work is being accomplished in this field. This multi month long study has saved the village thousands of dollars with just research and data acquisition alone. Below is an overall flow chart of the data spikes recorded over the last few months.