Startup Azonde Corp. offers low-cost monitor for smaller waterways

<p>ROHNERT PARK – Water issues are flooding the state: how can we conserve it, where do we allot it, how do we manage scant rainfall in times of drought and control toxic runoff when the rainstorms finally hit?</p><p>Azonde Corp. doesn’t have answers to the big questions, but the Rohnert Park startup does have a tool to help build the kind of data bank necessary for smart decision making. Its low-cost stage gauge monitors are designed for the smaller waterways, tributary streams and urban storm water channels that feed rivers, lakes and estuaries, often with a toxic dose.</p><p>The Azonde instrumentation measures water height, temperature and air temperature, collecting data on a cross section of a waterway that can indicate a coming flood surge, an illegal pumping operation, the likelihood of silt content and pollutants, among other signs.</p><p>“The small channels are just as important as the large ones in determining the health of a watershed, but most monitoring systems – complex and expensive – are designed for deep water,” said Azonde co-founder and partner Neil Hancock.</p><p>He and a handful of former telecom engineers identified a largely unmet need and designed an easy-to-install-and-manage sensor system that communicates data to the Web via radio frequency. The low-powered instruments draw their energy from consumer batteries or small solar systems.</p><p>Azonde’s aim is to help combat storm run-off pollution, and the company expects storm water will come under increasing scrutiny from regulating agencies. </p><p>According to California’s Little Hoover Commission, “Storm water pollution, caused when rains pummel the impervious surfaces that dominate cities and suburbs and sweep debris and contaminants into the state’s waters, is one of the biggest water quality problems facing the state and country.” </p><p>Concern over polluted estuaries and oceans caused by runoff from the human-altered environment is bringing about a higher level of enforcement and sizable fines, said Mr. Hancock.</p><p>“Water quality science is very complex, but scientists are in agreement that more attention be paid to water flow and watershed management. Our instruments can help facilities managers to understand and control their runoff,” he said.</p><p>Azonde already has customers and sensors in the field. Environmental advocacy groups like the Center for Ecological Management and Restoration, Trout Unlimited and the Laguna Foundation are using the technology.</p><p>“The Santa Rosa Laguna is badly impaired,” said Mark Green, associate executive director of the Laguna Foundation. “Five cities in the watershed are flushing six listed pollutants into it. We want to find out where they’re coming from and how to prevent it.”</p><p>According to Mr. Hancock, many pollutants are naturally occurring, but nature’s method of mitigating them has been thwarted by asphalt surfaces and storm channels that carry runoff out of the area.</p><p>“The entry points to the aquifer are becoming fewer as land is paved, preventing the filtering action of water slowly seeping into it. Also, as storm runoff is hurried into channels, it builds speed and energy, causing erosive activity which adds to pollutants,” he said.</p><p>Water quality research indicates that slowing down and managing runoff in the area where it’s generated can be beneficial. To do that, height and flow data is needed from every source of water.</p><p>“We’d like to have the Azonde sensors on all the Laguna’s tributary streams,” said Mr. Green. “They’re affordable, effortless to use and they can be put anywhere. Also, they’re unobtrusive and less vulnerable to theft than the traditional instruments.”</p><p>Azonde is self-funded, and its partners are currently concentrating on strengthening the technology and getting it out into the waterways rather than growth.</p><p>The company has located at the Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster to conserve cash and gain business savvy from the cluster’s panel of mentors. “As former telecom engineers, we’ve learned a few lessons on how to be lean, and we’re wary of equity investment,” said Mr. Hancock.</p>