As Trine University in Angola, Indiana, begins its first PERL project, it’s fortunate to have an enthusiastic and committed ambassador from Citizens in Tracey Black.
Black, an Engineer II, joined Citizens in 2013 as part of the Special Projects Group in Capital Programs and Engineering. When Citizens and Trine entered into a PERL partnership in 2016, she was eager to get involved.
“I signed on as the PERL ambassador to Trine so I could reach out to students and help open doors to future job opportunities,” Black said. “Working directly with the professors to share job openings and with the students on senior design projects is a great way to accomplish that.”
The current group of Trine PERL students is working on a pumping design project to convey water between Geist Reservoir and Citizens Reservoir, a structure designed to hold raw water that is now in detailed design phase (see page 6 of the July 2018 Engauge for more information).
Geist was created to ensure there is adequate flow in Fall Creek at the Fall Creek Water Treatment Plant. As water demand increases and rainfall decreases during dry summer months, Citizens releases water from Geist through the spillway as needed to maintain a flow of 45-65 million gallons per day over/through the Geist Reservoir Dam.
Upon its completion, Citizens Reservoir should be able to be filled from Geist in less than 30 days without negatively impacting the downstream releases from Geist necessary for the water treatment plant.
Citizens Reservoir will increase Geist’s capacity from 6.7 billion gallons to 9.7 billion gallons. However, since it is significantly deeper than Geist, a means of moving water between the two reservoirs is needed. Enter the Trine PERL students.
Black said, “The project’s final design will include a conceptual design for the intake of Geist to Citizens Reservoir and a method to convey raw water from Citizens Reservoir to Geist. The final design will also include a technical report addressing the design considerations provided by the project manager, as well as the estimated cost for the construction of the required infrastructure.”
By May, the students will produce a set of drawings and a report and will also give a presentation.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing the outcome of this project, especially since it’s Trine’s first as a PERL partner. The students are engaged and applying their school-acquired knowledge to find a real-world solution, which, to me, is the PERL program’s most valuable opportunity,” Black concluded.