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The City of Pinole, California is a picturesque community

This particular sanitary sewer was a 30" circular sanitary sewer at the first upstream manhole from their treatment plant. A great deal of importance was placed on this monitoring site as it was utilized for billing. Due to the build-up of sediment at this site and in an effort to remove the debris, they found it necessary to utilize high pressure water cleaning on a regular basis. The effects of the high pressure wash would often damage the submerged flow sensor making it necessary to replace the sensor annually. Approximately $1,000 a year was being spent on sensor replacement in addition to the loss of flow measurement data for this revenue generating metering site.

Marsh-McBirney had recently introduced the Flo-Dar Flowmeter and the City Superintendent invited Marsh-McBirney to visit and present the new technology. The Flo-Dar flowmeter measures flow from "above the flow" utilizing Digital Doppler radar technology. Since the sensor is installed above the flow there would be no concerns about future submerged sensor replacement costs that were being caused by high pressure washing of the line. The Flo-Dar flowmeter transmits a radar beam that interacts with the fluid and reflects back signals at a different frequency than that which was transmitted. These reflected signals are compared with the transmitted frequency and the resulting shift provides an accurate measure of the velocity and the direction of the flow.

After a thorough review of the site specifics by the Marsh-McBirney and its local representative the Flo-Dar Model 450 was recommended to the city. The Model 450 is an AC powered flowmeter designed for permanent or long-term flow monitoring applications. The Model 450 includes two standard 4-20 mA outputs and the electronics display selections include flow rate, level, velocity and total flow which were required by the city. The superintendent immediately recognized Flo-Dar's benefits for his monitoring application and immediately ordered one. As luck would have it, a brand-new Flo-Dar Model 450 was in the local Marsh-McBirney representative's vehicle and an "instant" delivery was made.

The City installed the Flo-Dar flowmeter the following week and claims that it is one of the best flowmeters that they have owned. Not only did Flo-Dar save the city money by eliminating the need to replace sensors on a regular basis, it also allowed them to consistently meter flow for billing revenue.

located in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the shores of San Pablo Bay in West Contra Costa County, California. For over five years, the City had utilized a "submerged sensor" type flowmeter in one of their sanitary sewers.