A. Sewer Services
Local sewer services are handled by the City of Huntsville's Water Pollution Control Department in the City of Huntsville.
City of Huntsville Water Pollution Control Director: Thomas Lovelady
1800 Vermont Road Huntsville, Alabama 35802 Phone: (256) 883-3719
Web Site: www.hsvcity.com/wpc/index.php
The Huntsville Water Pollution Control Department serves approximately 61,000 customers in the city limits of Huntsville and in the Town of Triana. The Huntsville department serves Redstone Arsenal by accepting "food grade" grease from its facilities located on post. The average monthly collection from Redstone Arsenal is approximately 18,000 gallons per month.
Expansion of Service
The City's sewer system has recently expanded to support new and anticipated growth.
The City of Huntsville has made investments totaling over $88.6 million in sewer and drainage improvements from 2002 through 2005. Major sewer and drainage improvements are shown on Map 3.3.
The department has existing sewer service around all boundaries of Redstone Arsenal.
Should sewer service be requested by Redstone Arsenal in the future, the City of Huntsville should be able to accommodate such request with their current treatment facilities and collection systems.
B. Utilities
Public utility service in the City of Huntsville is provided by Huntsville Utilities. An overview of utility resources is provided.
Huntsville Utilities Director: Bill Pippin
P.O. Box 2048
Huntsville, Alabama 35804
(256) 535-1200
Web Site: www.hsvutil.org
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Huntsville Utilities is the local distributor of most utility services county-wide. It sells electrical, gas, and water services to area residents.
1. Electrical
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (www.tva.com/) is the supplier of electrical power to the Tennessee Valley Region. It sells power to Huntsville Utilities, who in turn provides the service directly to its customers. TVA serves the region with a diverse mix of power generation resources. As such, rates are low, and service is highly dependable. At the end of October 2002, TVA officials reported that customers had received a disruption in TVA service for a total of 4.8 minutes. According to TVA officials, the current reliability rate of the TVA power supply is 99.999%.
Huntsville Utilities has 87 electrical substations throughout Madison County – 18 of which can be expanded if necessary. Additionally, Huntsville Utilities has 8 substation land sites for future stations.
2. Gas
Huntsville Utilities purchases natural gas from suppliers along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The utility company receives gas pipeline services from Enbridge, Southern Natural Gas, and Tennessee Gas Pipeline. Huntsville Utilities provides natural gas services to customers in the City of Huntsville and portions of Madison County. Redstone Arsenal is also a natural gas customer.
3. Water
Water services are provided to the residents of the City of Huntsville by Huntsville Utilities. The utility company also wholesales water to several other water systems in Madison County. While Huntsville Utilities provides water to Redstone Arsenal on an as needed basis, they do have the ability to serve the installation.
Huntsville Utilities has a mixed source water supply, from the Tennessee River and from a series of wells located in the city. All water treatment plants have a total daily pumpage capacity of 78 million gallons of water, and another 48.6 million gallons of water is in storage in 30 reservoirs located throughout the system. An additional 12 million gallons of capacity is scheduled to be added this year.
C. Wireless Networks
The Huntsville area is on the cutting edge of technology, and has a phenomenal wireless network infrastructure in place to support a high-tech work environment, technology resources throughout the state, and an emergency communications system.
3-18 1. Digital Networks
Huntsville’s Tier1 network solution providers include AT&T, Sprint, Level(3) and UUNET. In addition to those Tier1 providers, extensive fiber optic networks have been developed throughout the Huntsville area by ICI/WorldCom, KMC, Knology, Comcast, BellSouth, HiWAAY, and API Digital in order to meet the demand of Huntsville’s high-tech clientele.
As a viable alternative to traditional wide area networking (WAN) solutions some local companies opt for state of the art wireless networking solutions. Up to 20MBs of wireless, broadband, network connectivity is available from Traveler Information Services. Traveler’s wireless WAN is facilitated via Western Digital’s Tsunami equipment. When this technology is coupled with Canopy type wireless technology at the customer site, advanced wireless networking solutions in Huntsville are a reality.
2. Statewide Technological Support
The Alabama Supercomputer Center (www.asc.edu/index.shtml) is located in the Alabama Supercomputer Authority's 24,000 square foot building in Huntsville’s Cummings Research Park. The Center houses the SCI Altix 350 and the Cray XD1 supercomputer with access to over 5.3 terabytes of long term data storage.
This tremendous computing power is connected via the Alabama Research and Education Network (AREN) which provides Internet access for Alabama state government, four-year universities, two-year colleges, K-12 schools, and libraries. The Authority has become an Affiliate Member of Internet 2, a cooperative effort of 202 member universities working together with private member companies and non-profit organizations to provide the tools for scientific research and higher education in the 21st century. As a shared resource for academic research, AREN successfully provides cutting-edge computational science tools and technology for all Alabama public education institutions.
3. Emergency Communications System
Huntsville is a regional leader in Emergency Response and Management (http://www.madisoncountyema.com). The basis for timely and accurate response to emergencies is the communications systems. In 1996 Huntsville had the foresight to implement a multi-site 800MHz simulcast APCO 16 trunking system to handle emergency responder voice and data communications.
This trunked system utilizes the signaling channel protocol concept. All units turned on, within the RF coverage area, and unassigned will monitor the signaling channel. It supports talk group assignments, emergency assignments, individual signaling calls, and special signal calls.
The system has twenty-four separate channels. It is broadcast from the main tower (400ft. free standing) on Monte Sano Mountain with a backup/repeater tower located at Madkin Mountain. This system is integrated with the Huntsville-Madison County E-911 Center and via the E-911 Center’s console is used for location, analysis, and dispatch of all City Fire, Police, and EMA personnel.
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Additionally, the City’s 800MHz system supports the following subsystems:
• Paging
• Digital Voice Encryption
• Alarm and Control
• Automated Vehicle Location
• Mobile Data Terminals
These subsystems support, among other things, emergency vehicle location services and mobile data terminal communications for emergency responders.
The City’s 800MHz system is also provides communication services for the following agencies:
• City of Madison Fire and Police
• Huntsville Hospital
• Alabama A&M University
• The University of Alabama-Huntsville
• Huntsville Utilities
• The Huntsville/Madison County Metro Jail