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Water utility SCADA alarm texts for the operator on call

Your standby operator should hear about a rising wet well before it overflows, not at the 7 AM walk-through. Welco texts the station, the alarm and the reading from the alarm email your SCADA already sends. You add one address, and nothing connects to the plant network.

Text me my SCADA alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

  • Works from your SCADA alarm email
  • Nothing on the control network
  • No per-operator fees

Works by email with

  • GE iFIX
  • Ignition
  • WIN-911

Setup guide for

  • VTScada

A pump station schematic: Wet well 6 level rises above its 8 ft high alarm setpoint to 8.6 ft and the alarm turns on. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Lift Station 6] Wet well HIGH LEVEL alarm at 11:48 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: alerts arrive through the night and each goes to the right person. 11:48 PM, to On-call operator: "Welco: [Lift Station 6] Wet well HIGH LEVEL alarm at 11:48 PM. Reply STOP to opt out." 2:16 AM, to Night plant operator: "Welco: [WTP] Clearwell chlorine residual LOW, 0.3 mg/L at 2:16 AM. Reply STOP to opt out." 4:41 AM, to On-call maintenance tech: "Welco: [Well 4] Generator RUNNING, utility power lost at 4:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What a small water system gets from Welco

The standby operator gets the right alarm on their own phone, from the SCADA you run now. There is no dialer, phone line or SIM to keep alive.

  • Standby knows which station

    The text names the lift station, the alarm and the level, so the operator can decide from the kitchen table.

  • The chief hears about the big ones

    A chlorine or treatment alarm can reach the night operator and the chief operator together, through several phones per alert.

  • Storm nights stay readable

    When a power dip trips every station, flood control sends a handful of texts, not a wall of them.

  • The dialer can finally retire

    No phone line, modem or SIM to test each month. The alarm email your HMI already writes does the job.

A chlorine feed fault on a Saturday night

One operator is on standby for the plant and nine lift stations. Here is how one weekend alarm plays out.

  1. The weekend rule takes over

    Weekday alarms text the whole crew. From Friday afternoon, on-call routing sends them to the standby phone only.

  2. iFIX emails a feed pump alarm

    ALARM WTP CL2_FP1_FLT CHLORINE FEED PUMP 1 FAULT >> ALM

  3. Standby and the chief both get it

    Welco: [WTP] Chlorine feed pump 1 FAULT, residual 0.4 mg/L at 1:52 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. The operator answers from the truck

    Going in, will start feed pump 2

  5. The reply reaches the plant alarm mailbox

    Replies go back by email to the alarm's sender, so the chief sees who went in without calling anyone.

    Reply from the standby phone: Going in, will start feed pump 2

  6. Monday's crew reads the night

    The delivery report shows each text reached each phone, and the reply thread shows what was done.

Times are an example. Text delivery depends on mobile networks. The reply leaves the alarm unacknowledged at the HMI.

How to set up SCADA alarm texts for a water system

Whoever looks after your SCADA or alarm notifier can do this. The SCADA change is one email address.

  1. Sign up and verify your utility

    Tell us who you are and what you'll send. We check every business first, so your number only ever carries alarms.

  2. Invite your operators

    Each operator opens the invite, enters their own mobile and replies YES to one text. Nobody gets alarms they didn't confirm.

  3. Add Welco to the alarm email

    Add your Welco address next to today's recipients, approve the sender, then trip a test point. Test mode shows each text before it goes out.

Put your next lift station alarm on a phone

Sign up, verify your utility and point one SCADA email at Welco.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my SCADA alarmsBook a demo

Which SCADA systems can text water and sewer alarms?

If your HMI or alarm software can send an email, Welco can text it. That covers Ignition without its notification modules and a VTScada alarm roster contact. Each SCADA alarm text guide shows the menus for that system.

Alarms water and wastewater crews act on

These are masked examples. Irrigation districts and electric and public utilities watch many of the same pumps, as the alert texting by industry pages show.

  • Lift station: Welco: [LS 3] Both pumps running 45 min, wet well 6.9 ft at 10:12 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Treatment: Welco: [WTP] Filter 2 effluent turbidity HIGH, 0.8 NTU at 3:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Remote site: Welco: [Booster 5] RTU comm fail, no poll for 15 min at 12:20 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Lift station, "Welco: [LS 3] Both pumps running 45 min, wet well 6.9 ft at 10:12 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Treatment, "Welco: [WTP] Filter 2 effluent turbidity HIGH, 0.8 NTU at 3:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Remote site, "Welco: [Booster 5] RTU comm fail, no poll for 15 min at 12:20 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Which water and wastewater alarms should text the operator?

Text the alarms that end in an overflow, a dry tank or a treatment violation if nobody acts tonight. Everything else can wait in email for the morning round.

Alarms worth a 3 AM text

  • Wet well HIGH or HIGH HIGH, and a pump that fails to start at a lift station.
  • Chlorine residual LOW, or a chemical feed pump fault at the plant.
  • Tank or clearwell LOW LOW, which can mean a main break or a stuck valve.
  • Utility power lost, or the generator running at a well or station.
  • An RTU that stops answering polls, since that station is now blind.

Alarms that can wait for the day crew

Pump run-hour reminders, filter run times and analyzer drift warnings rarely need a drive at night. Leave them in email, or text them on weekdays only.

Word the alarm so the operator can decide fast

The station name, the alarm and the reading are enough. Tag IDs and node names mean little on a lock screen. Our alarm text best practices show what to keep and what to cut.

A boost pump alarm, from SCADA email to text

Tag alarms from GE iFIX and similar systems list the group, tag, description and value. Welco keeps the part an operator needs at 3 AM.

Alert email from ifix@wtp.example.org, subject “ALARM WTP BPS2_P2_FTS”. Welco trims it to one text of 80 characters: “Welco: [WTP] Boost Pump 2 fail to start ALM at 3:27 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [WTP] Boost Pump 2 fail to start ALM at 3:27 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

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Animation: the alert email "ALARM WTP BPS2_P2_FTS" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [WTP] Boost Pump 2 fail to start ALM at 3:27 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

You choose what stays in the text with an alert rule. The full email still lands wherever it went before.

Autodialer or alarm texts for standby callouts

The old callout

  • An autodialer reads tag numbers down a phone line nobody has tested since spring.
  • Alarm texts sent to number@vtext.com, a gateway Verizon is shutting down.
  • The operator calls the plant to ask which station it was.
  • Every return to normal rings the phone again.

With Welco

  • The station, the alarm and the level on the lock screen.
  • One verified number that carries only your alarms.
  • Night rules for the standby phone, day rules for the crew.
  • Return to normal stays in email, so sleep isn't broken for good news.

Frequently asked questions

Can Welco take over from the old alarm dialer at our lift stations?

It can if the alarm reaches an email somewhere, and most station alarms reach SCADA over radio or cell. A standalone dialer wired only to a float switch has no email, so Welco can't see it. Those sites need a small change first. If WIN-911 already emails, you can keep it and add texts.

Our SCADA used to text through vtext.com. What do we change?

Verizon says its email-to-text gateway will be fully shut down by March 31, 2027, and some senders lose it sooner (Verizon support). Replace each number@vtext.com address with your Welco address, then invite each operator to join with their own phone. The migration checklist walks through it. Read how one water district left carrier texts.

Will our cyber review see Welco as a way into the plant?

Welco has no path into the plant. It only receives the alarm email your SCADA or mail relay sends out, so there is no remote access, agent or open port. Only senders you approve can trigger a text. The security page covers how alarm data is handled.

Do operators need an app or a smartphone?

No app. The alarm arrives as a normal text, so any mobile phone that gets texts will work. Each operator replies YES to a confirmation text once, and after that the alarms come through. They can reply STOP at any time to stop them.

Will a storm that trips every station flood our operator's phone?

It doesn't have to. Flood control caps how many alarm texts go out in a burst, and a rule can skip messages like return to normal. Set the limit with care, because alarms past it are not texted. Check SCADA after the storm passes.

What does Welco cost for a small water district?

There are no per-user fees, no hardware and no setup fee, so adding a relief operator costs nothing extra by itself. Your plan covers the message credits your alarms use, and a short alarm uses one credit. A 7-day trial with 15 credits comes first, and the card that verifies your utility isn't charged until you approve a plan. See plans and pricing for the numbers.

Get tonight's lift station alarm on the on-call phone

Point one SCADA email at Welco and invite your operators to join.

Text me my SCADA alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing