Gimmicks and Gadgets winner: The Sensor Float

Chris Warren and Nick Lujan wanted a better way to monitor water quality without needing to drain a reservoir or attach mechanical equipment.

Working at the City of Lake Oswego-Tigard water treatment plant in Oregon, the duo decided to build a homemade float using inexpensive polyvinyl chloride (PVC) parts. They used the float to hold a water analytic sensor that measures chlorine and pH, and the Sensor Float was born.

“Nick did the mechanical design and mounting the water analytic sensors on the float; I did the instrumentation wiring and PLC programming,” said Warren, assistant water treatment plant manager. “We were both involved with deploying and installing the sensor at every site and could not have done it without each other.”

 

Warren and Lujan now have nine Sensor Floats in different reservoirs, and they tied for first place in the 2025 Opflow Gimmicks and Gadgets competition. (See the most recent issue of Opflow — subscription required — for a detailed description of how to create the Sensor Float.)

“We can monitor the health of our water 24/7 because these online sensors are always bringing data back to us,” Warren said. “We also created alarms in SCADA [supervisory control and data acquisition] for operations to act upon a water quality problem, like low chlorine or high pH.”

The float works no matter the water level in the reservoir, and sensors sit in a cage that protects them in the event of collision or if the reservoir is drained.

“It’s tethered to the hatch opening, so we can retrieve it quickly and safely,” said Lujan, who has since taken a new job with the nearby city of Hillsboro, working on the new Willamette Water Supply System. “It has whatever length of cord we need for that reservoir to roam around without getting caught on ladders or pillars.”

Warren and Lujan received recognition from their manager at Lake Oswego when he submitted them for the Gimmicks and Gadgets award, which recognizes a novel and relatively simple mechanical device or procedure designed to provide a more efficient, safer, and/or simplified way to perform routine tasks or functions in the maintenance, operation, or construction of a water utility system.

“It’s nice to get recognition from AWWA for creating something useful for our facility,” Warren said. “I also think it’s valuable to the larger water community in general, because it could be used in other applications.”

The other first-place winner was The ReCircuClean Bucket, invented by Joshua Gregor at the Chester Water Authority in Pennsylvania. Read more about all of the Gimmicks and Gadgets winners here.