New spatial data analysis tools added to Locus EIM software

The new graduated symbol and graduated color legend tools allow for creation of sophisticated maps showing environmental data

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 11 May 2015 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, has announced the addition of powerful new data analysis tools to the eGIS portion of its Environmental Information Management (EIM) software. The new tools support creation of graduated color and graduated symbol legends when posting analytical results, groundwater levels, and field measurements to the map.

With the graduated color tool, when users post data to the map, they have the option to color code the map symbols by having each result placed into one color ‘bin’ based on the result value. Users can classify the results using one of four different methods: equal interval (each bin has same numerical interval with user specified number of bins); defined interval (each bin has same numerical interval with user specified interval); percent (each bin represents the Nth% of the total result range, for example quantiles or quintiles or deciles); or standard deviation (each bin represents the # of standard deviations from the mean for the result value). There are further options for specifying min and max values for the bins and for picking linear or log scales. If users are comparing results to an action limit, they can also classify results based not on the result but on the exceedance factor (result/action limit).

The graduated symbol tool works the same as the graduated color tool, except instead of color coding results, users can have the symbols change sizes based on the result. By using these new legend tools, users can create sophisticated maps that help visualize their environmental compliance data and quickly see data hotspots or outliers.

 

ABOUT LOCUS EIM
The Locus EIM SaaS offers enterprise environmental information management for analytical data for water quality, chemicals, radionuclides, geology and hydrogeology. EIM provides the whole solution and supports workflow from sample planning, collection, analysis, data validation, visualization and reporting. Locus Mobile is fully integrated with EIM and provides for real time field data collection and synchronization with EIM.

California Governor Orders New Target for Emissions Cuts

California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Wednesday, April 29, 2015 sharply speeding up California’s already ambitious program aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, saying it was critical to address “an ever-growing threat” posed by global warming to the state’s economy and well-being. In an executive order, Brown said the state must cut the pollutants to 40% below 1990 levels by the year 2030.
Brown’s order aligns the California’s goals with standards set by the European Union.

Mr. Brown said this tough new interim target was essential to prod the energy industry to act and to help the state make investment and regulatory decisions that would assure that goal was not missed.

Environmental and Sustainability Software: How one company’s cloud environmental and sustainability software is changing how firms and government manage environmental information.

How one company’s cloud environmental and sustainability software is changing how firms and government manage environmental information.

Environmental and Sustainability Software

We believe that every company that wants to be credible with their environmental reporting must own their data and organize it in centralized database on the web.

Our market category is not shaped by explosive growth of software companies like ones associated with social media or search engines. Our software manages and organizes a type of information on which the future of humankind depends. We organize it in a serious and very scalable way.

To read the full story and interview please click here.

 

Water Wars

California. California is now heading into its fourth year of record-breaking drought, with no water relief in sight. High temperatures, little precipitation, and historically low snowpack have left the state with dwindling water reserves. The situation is so bad, as NASA scientist Jay Famiglietti wrote in an LA Times op-ed last week, that California has only a year of water left in its reservoirs. Household water rationing is already planned.

Las Vegas. An ongoing drought and the Colorado River’s reduced flow have shrunk Lake Mead to its lowest level in generations. The reservoir, which supplies 90% of Las Vegas’ water, is ebbing as though a plug had been pulled from a bathtub drain. For six years, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has been building an intake pipe below the reservoir’s two existing pipes. Due for completion in fall 2015, critics say it may not provide a long-term solution.

Ireland. Tens of thousands of people marched in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday, 21 March 2015, in the latest protest against the government’s new water charges. The government has begun directly charging households for water use.

Detroit: In bankrupt Detroit back in June the city authorities decided to cut off supply to 200,000 homes who had not or could not afford to pay water bills. Since water charges were introduced a decade ago bills have soared by 120%. The UN condemned the cutting off of the water supply to these people as a “violation of the human right to water and other international human rights”.

Bolivia. The average price of water quadrupled after it was privatized, leading to civil unrest and the eruption of “water wars” in the city of Cochabamba.

Uruguay. The sell-off of water and subsequent rising prices led in 2004 to the government outlawing the privatization of this public utility.

France. The citizens of Paris voted to reject plans to privatize water and took the utility back into public ownership.

Locus Technologies receives EBJ Business Achievement award for Information Technology

Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognizes firms for growth and innovation in 2014

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 10 March 2015 — Locus Technologies announced today that Environmental Business Journal (EBJ), a business research publication which provides high value strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry, granted the company the 2014 award for Information Technology in the environmental and sustainability industry for the ninth time.

Locus was recognized for significant strategic strides in 2014 including entering the water quality management (drinking water supplies and waste water) market; introducing its new Locus Platform (a highly configurable, user-friendly interface to fully meet individual organizations’ environmental management needs); and launching Locus Mobile (a field data collection solution that is fully integrated with Locus’s flagship Environmental Information Management [EIM] platform). In addition, Locus continues to maintain its leadership position in the commercial nuclear industry by solidifying business with more than 50 percent of all U.S. commercial reactor facilities that use Locus EIM for radionuclides monitoring management.

“Locus continues to influence the industry with its forward-thinking product set and eye for customer needs,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI), publisher of Environmental Business Journal.

“We are very proud to receive the prestigious EBJ Information Technology award in environmental business for the ninth time. It is a statement of our vision and perseverance to accomplish this level of recognition, especially now as we lead the market by providing robust solutions for the emerging space of cloud and mobile-based environmental information management,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.

The 2014 EBJ awards, hosted by EBI Inc., will be presented at the annual executive retreat called the Environmental Industry Summit XIII in San Diego, Calif. on March 11-13, 2015.

Could the Influence of “Under the Dome” — a Chinese Documentary about Smog Pollution — Equal the American Book the “Silent Spring”?

In just three days, Chinese documentary film “Under the Dome” generated 136 million views on the Chinese government Tencent video portal and sparked vibrant discussions of the country’s dense and devastating pollution problems, specifically health issues relating to smog. The huge online response illustrates perhaps indicates greater official tolerance for public discussion of the country’s environmental challenges.

Produced by Chai Jing, a former anchor at state broadcaster China Central Television, and presented in TED Talk style, the film released at 12 noon Saturday, 28 February 2015 taps researchers from around the world discussing the health effects of smog.

The enthusiastic response to the 104-minute film — and the fact government censors have permitted it to stream on major internet portals — suggest officials want to harness public pressure to build political support for tougher measures to combat the problem.

Chen Jining, environmental protection minister, said on Sunday he had texted Ms. Chai to thank her for a film “worthy of admiration”. Mr. Chen compared the film to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, which is credited with galvanizing the modern environmental movement in the US, official media reported.

European Study on Chemical Composition of Fracking Wastewater: Can it be drinkable?

Have you heard of “halogenated hydrocarbons”? It is a group of chemicals containing elements that when consumed by humans, it can damage the nervous system and your liver. Normally, these compounds are not on your daily menu.  But studies suggest these elements are appearing in water as by the reuse of fracking wastewater which ironically has been treated with chlorine-containing antibacterial chemicals.  The process of cleaning the water is a common practice. More studies of treated wastewater are being conducted to more clearly determined if the creation of halogenated hydrocarbons from antibacterial chemicals occurs during treatment of wastewater or during reuse.

Produced water, water that is chemically cleaned, can contain a complex mixture of metals — salts and other chemicals, partly composed of the original fracturing fluid components — plus chemicals released by the rocks in the area. Large volumes of water used for fracking poses some level of side effects of the wastewater on human and environmental health. To investigate further, researchers in Europe, in one of the most comprehensive studies of chemical composition of its kind to date, took samples of produced water from three fracking sites in the US.  A number of different analysis techniques were used to determine the chemical composition of the samples, although not the concentrations of the different organic (carbon-based) constituents.

The researchers found that produced water contained a diverse array of chemicals including toxic metals such as mercury and the carcinogens toluene and ethylbenzene. However, a group of harmful chemicals, ‘polyaromatic hydrocarbons’ commonly found in mining and coal extraction wastewater, were absent.

A wide range of metals were found in all samples, but varied depending on the geology of the area. Among these were chromium, mercury and arsenic, all of which were found at levels exceeding US maximum contamination levels (MCL) for drinking water in at least one well. Over 50 different organic chemicals were identified, the majority of which were part of a group of chemicals called ‘saturated hydrocarbons’. Many of these were common to more than one well. They included carcinogens toluene and ethylbenzene. However, the researchers did not find polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are usually found in mining and coal extraction wastewater.

The authors believe that detailed chemical analyses of produced waters, such as theirs, highlight problems in wastewater treatment protocols,  In particular, the problem of developing a process that removes a wide range of organic compounds. While the findings of this research are based on fracking sites in the US, they may also be useful for other regions where fracking is being actively pursued, such as the UK, and could help to develop policies and techniques to reduce the risk of environmental contamination.

Fresh water continues to be challenged, not from just drought or salt contamination, but from the process of re-creating quality drinking water.

San Jose Water Company: Water quality and environmental compliance are critical business functions

Our new customer, San Jose Water Company, is deploying our Locus EIM and Locus Mobile solutions to consolidate and manage its water sampling and environmental compliance data. The keyword  for SJWC is “consolidate”. San Jose Water’s challenge was to consolidate its 12+ data silos into one comprehensive solution with the capabilities to provide a tighter, more integrated system.

SJWC determined that Locus EIM and Locus Mobile provided the right solution. Francois Rodigari, the director of Water Quality and Environmental Services at San Jose Water said it best: “Water quality and environmental compliance are critical business functions at San Jose Water Company.  …for the first time, the ability to consolidate and access critical information on data related to water quality and environmental compliance in a single repository based on a cloud platform. This comprehensive view of our water system will help us to comprehensively manage all data related to drinking water and environmental compliance, and as a result, bring higher efficiency to our organization.”

Thank you SJWC!

San Jose Water Company selects Locus Technologies for its water quality and environmental management system software

The Locus EIM SaaS will streamline SJWC’s entire water compliance continuum from watershed to water treatment to water quality at its consumer’s tap

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 24 February 2015 — Locus Technologies, a leader in environmental and compliance enterprise management software, today announced that San Jose Water Company (SJWC), an investor-owned utility providing water service to a population of approximately one million people in the Santa Clara Valley, has selected Locus as its environmental information management system. SJWC is deploying the Locus EIM SaaS-based software to consolidate and manage its field data collection; water compliance and water quality data; and all its environmental compliance and environmental data. SJWC will also use the Locus EIM to manage its environmental permits for all its sites and facilities.

“Water quality and environmental compliance are critical business functions at San Jose Water Company,” said Francois Rodigari, Director of Water Quality and Environmental Services. “Locus and its EIM software are giving us, for the first time, the ability to consolidate and access critical information on data related to water quality and environmental compliance in a single repository based on a cloud platform. This comprehensive view of our water system will help us to comprehensively manage all data related to drinking water and environmental compliance, and as a result, bring higher efficiency to our organization.”

Locus EIM is a comprehensive and configurable software designed to manage mission-critical environmental and sustainability data to help organization organize, manage, report, and visualize sampling, analytical, and subsurface data for compliance and assurance reporting for a variety of vertical markets including water, gas and oil, power generating utilities, and food and beverage.

“Our mission is to help organization, such as San Jose Water Company, to achieve their environmental stewardship goals by providing them the software tools to control the management of all data points of their water quality and compliance management,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “Our EIM water quality management cloud-based software for surface water, drinking water, groundwater, and wastewater provides our customers with a highly scalable and a feature rich application that gives water utilities strong analytical power, streamlined field sampling capabilities, mobile collection, and analysis as well as compliance management. We are pleased San Jose Water Company will be utilizing EIM to ensure that their customers are provided with the highest water quality possible.”

 

ABOUT SAN JOSE WATER
San Jose Water Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of SJW Corp. and founded in 1866, is an investor-owned water company headquartered in Silicon Valley and is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated urban water system in the United States. SJWC serves over 1 million people in the San Jose metropolitan area comprising about 138 square miles. The utility ensures its buyers with high quality, life sustaining water, with an emphasis on exceptional customer service.