InfoWater Product Suite to Drive Research on State-of-the-Art Distribution System Water Quality at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal

Broomfield, Colorado USA, October 25, 2006 - MWH Soft, a leading global provider of environmental and water resources applications software, today announced that the top-ranked Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, one of Canada's three leading engineering universities, has selected InfoWater Suite, InfoSurge and InfoWater SLM software, to conduct an extensive study of the risks of contaminant intrusion in drinking water distribution systems due to pressure transients and various operational and routine maintenance activities. This major research, critical to protecting public health, is sponsored by the Canadian Water Network, one of the four Networks established in 2001 through the Government of Canada's Networks of Centers of Excellence (NCE) Program.

A leader in science and technology for over 125 years, the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal is one of the most significant teaching and research establishments in Canada ranked first in Quebec for number of students and quality of research activities. With 220 professors and nearly 6,000 students, the University provides teaching in eleven engineering specialties and is responsible for about one quarter of all university engineering research in Quebec.

"The powerful combination of InfoWater and InfoSurge models will help us accurately evaluate the most critical locations and conditions for pressure transients to take place in the distribution system," said Dr. Michele Prevost, holder of a senior NSERC Industrial Chair in Drinking Water and a world-renowned water quality expert. "Over the last three years, our research group has conducted numerous field investigations of these operations including actual measurements of pressure and water quality at key locations, providing large data sets to support the model results. InfoWater and InfoSurge will give us an unprecedented degree of flexibility in assessing the effects of various operations, such as valve closing and hydrant operation, associated with pipe repairs or flushing conducted by water utilities. Using the advanced InfoWater SLM software, results from these models will be used to optimize pressure sensor location in the field, and other types of sensors as well. Together, these tools will greatly facilitate our analysis of the risks of contamination associated with operational and maintenance activities in drinking water distribution systems. This work will be key to the quantification of the impact of intrusion on water quality and its significance in terms of public health."

Unlike competing products, the innovative network modeling technology of the MWH Soft geospatial software suite addresses every facet of utility infrastructure management, optimization and protection - delivering the highest rate of return in the industry. Built atop ArcGIS (ESRI, Redlands, CA) and drawing on the most advanced numerical computation and object-component geospatial technologies, it effortlessly reads GIS datasets; corrects network topology problems and data flaws; extracts pertinent modeling information; and automatically constructs, skeletonizes, loads, calibrates and generates optimized solutions with astounding speed. The result is performance modeling that sets new levels of scalability, reliability, functionality and flexibility within the powerful ArcGIS environment. With these advanced tools, users can easily simulate and evaluate various hydraulic, water quality and transient conditions, pinpoint system deficiencies, and determine the most reliable, cost-effective improvements to achieve optimum performance and regulatory compliance, protect public health, and meet new security challenges.

"We chose the MWH Soft InfoWater product family because it met our highly advanced research needs more completely than any other geocentric modeling and optimization software we've seen," said Marie-Claude Besner, research associate at Ecole Polytechnique and award-winning water quality researcher. "The software's proven capabilities in terms of reliability, productivity, and ease of use, coupled with its astounding computational speed and incredible breadth of functionality, will help us reduce our analysis time and dramatically improve our overall project quality - both very important considerations for a world-leading research organization."

"The Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal demonstrates every day why it is an unconditional leader in distribution system water quality research," said Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D, President and COO of MWH Soft. "This distinguished institution closely monitors the needs of the waterworks industry and positions its world-class research to satisfy those needs and advance the current state of knowledge. The benefits of their work are immense and far-reaching. We applaud their unshakable commitment to excellence in water quality research and their exemplary dedication to the water engineering community. MWH Soft shares these goals, always endeavoring to give customers more, easier-to-use capabilities than they expect, and equip them with the tools for any challenge. We are thrilled to be working with such a leading research institution, and look forward to a dynamic and rewarding partnership."


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