{"id":7096,"date":"2017-06-02T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/statescoop.scpnewsgrp.com\/dc-waters-new-open-data-portal-shows-why-your-toilet-is-flooding\/"},"modified":"2021-09-03T14:12:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T18:12:06","slug":"dc-waters-new-open-data-portal-shows-why-your-toilet-is-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/dc-waters-new-open-data-portal-shows-why-your-toilet-is-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Water’s new open data portal shows why your toilet is flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

When raw sewage is spewing from a manhole, open data is probably the last thing people might be thinking about. Yet, it is now the key communication tool for DC Water, Washington D.C.\u2019s utility service, which\u00a0has launched an open data portal<\/a> for better communication with residents.<\/p>\n

After a\u00a0soft launch in early\u00a0May, DC\u00a0Water announced the portal’s official launch on Thursday. It debuted with five data sets that map sewage overflows, water main breaks, automated meter replacements, active fire hydrants and capital improvement projects \u2014 like the constructions of water mains and storm water pumping stations.<\/p>\n

DC Water CIO Thomas Kuczynski said the intent of the portal is not only\u00a0to increase transparency with customers, but also to create a data hub that residents could visit for information on emergency incidents like flooding when a main breaks, or during sewage spills.<\/p>\n

The portal\u00a0also acts as a kind of automated research tool for the community, the utility’s\u00a0outside regulators\u00a0and companies assessing the city\u2019s water grid. In the long term, this is expected to produce a sizable decline in phone calls for staff delivering updates and information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking to solve a strategic problem of sharing data, but we were also looking to have a flexible and robust piece of IT infrastructure that was easy for the public to use,\u201d Kuczynski said.<\/p>\n

Whenever community debates arise around water rate\u00a0hikes, the common question residents ask is what they\u2019re receiving in return for their money. If new infrastructure is raising water prices, Kuczynski said, people can see information about\u00a0every project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The utility service came under fire after aging meters started producing inflated water bills, according<\/a> to WRC-TV, the local\u00a0NBC affiliate, and this set in motion a massive effort to replace meters with modern technology. To ease anxieties, the data portal pinpoints when each neighborhood is scheduled for replacements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose particular [meter replacements and capital improvement] projects are the ones that generate a lot of interest from the public, and a lot questions from the District in terms of what\u2019s going on in the neighborhood, when do certain things occur, or what happened in the past and the likelihood of it happening again,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cNow there is no need for a customer to call us when we are going to do their meter change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data for the fire hydrants is updated daily. Updates for capital improvement projects happen monthly, while the rest of the data sets receive weekly updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s closer to real time than we\u2019ve ever been able to produce for this data, and downloadable, so if you want to analyze is offline you can do that,\u201d Kuczynski\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

In the future Kuczynski said DC Water intends refresh the portal with new data sets. There is a plan to include the utility\u2019s lead service line map, a tool that displays which customer water pipes were made out of lead. When such pipes corrode the lead can enter the drinking water and have harmful health effects. Other additions might include\u00a0budget data, water quality complaints and details about service calls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington utility launches a new portal to automate customer requests for information about about sewage overflows, water main breaks and other issues affecting service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":39356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20647,4676,20648,20650],"tags":[175,13703,1432,1431,1430,927,300,190,4,174,173,66,62,29,25,23,13,12,6],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-7096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernization","category-city","category-digital-services","category-data-analytics","tag-open-data","tag-digital-services","tag-water-data","tag-fire-hydrants","tag-dc-water","tag-open-data-portal","tag-d-c","tag-transparency","tag-tech-news","tag-open-government","tag-washington","tag-chief-information-officer-cio","tag-websites","tag-states","tag-smart-cities","tag-innovation","tag-public-safety","tag-state-local-news","tag-software"],"yoast_head":"\nDC 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