Patent Publication Number: US-2007106525-A1

Title: Sparse data environmental equipment threshold alarm system and method

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
      This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/003,633 filed on Nov. 2, 2001, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates generally to wastewater treatment systems and, more particularly to a very low cost permit threshold detection system method that may be utilized for monitoring a large number of typically wide spread environmental equipment systems to verify environmental permit compliance on a near real time basis.  
      2. Description of the Prior Art  
      Many low volume wastewater treatment plants are owned by individual homeowners or small entities who cannot realistically afford to employ personnel on a daily basis to maintain and repair their wastewater treatment facility.  
      Due to the high costs of daily service personnel for small systems, environmental regulations may require that manufacturers of small wastewater treatment systems be certified to make, sell, and service suitable systems and then permit the smaller certified systems to be inspected and tested on a less frequent, but periodic, basis, such as quarterly, biannually, and the like. A system may be certified after extensive testing of the system design by a suitable certification entity. Environmental regulations/certifications may also require automatic detection of system problems, e.g., a pump failure or other types of failures. If a problem is detected, regulations/certifications may also require that service personnel arrive within a relatively short time, e.g., within forty-eight hours, to promptly correct the problem. If the systems do not operate properly, then untreated wastewater from the system may eventually reach local streams. If such problems occur frequently with thousands of small systems, then environmental problems could result.  
      Wastewater treatment systems may often be issued permits by regulatory agencies based on the capacity of the system which is often expressed in terms of a daily amount of wastewater that is treated. In the past, average daily volumes have been reported on a monthly or quarterly basis which provides an indication of whether the system use is in accord with the daily permit values. However, in some cases, wastewater input to the system on a short term basis may far exceed the daily permit allowance. For instance, a system rated for treating 500 gallons per day may be abused on a short term basis, e.g., local gatherings and the like, and may have, for example only, 2000 gallons run through the system for one or more days. This may have negative environmental and/or economic impact such as untreated wastewater passing through the system, drainage back-ups, overflows, damage to buildings, and the like.  
      Due to the significant problem of damage to the environment and local structures and/or other problems caused by short term wastewater system overloading, some prior wastewater treatment systems utilize two-way communication lines whereby each wastewater treatment system may be queried on a daily basis to verify compliance with the daily threshold permit values. However, the communication systems have the effect of significantly increasing operating costs due to the requirement for a dedicated communication line.  
      The alarm circuit for the systems, like any other component, may also malfunction or lose power. If the alarm circuit is not operational, then problems may remain undetected. Some states require that the alarm circuit be powered from a different breaker than the environmental equipment so that if the breaker trips due to system malfunction, that the alarm will still operate for providing a warning. In at least one state, regulators additionally want the power for the alarm circuit to be tied to a light or other power circuit used by the homeowner, so that the homeowner will be aware of a power failure on the alarm circuit. Otherwise, the power to the alarm circuit may fail without observation by the homeowner.  
      Wastewater systems for home owners are generally positioned away from the house. Installation may require running cables and wires such as telephone lines, power lines, and the like. Additional telephone lines may incur additional costs if necessary for sending/receiving data.  
      Environmental regulations/certifications relating to regular maintenance and inspection, as well as prompt repairs of wastewater treatment systems, are necessary and desirable to protect the environment. In some cases, non-governmental companies, such as NSF®, have been created to provide certification of equipment for compliance with NSF® requirements that relate to regulations, rules, and/or standards for such systems. Certification requirements may relate to maintenance, inspection, and repairs, as well as technical requirements for system outputs/operation such as suspended solids, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, color, oily film, foam, noise, BOD, odor, reliability, and the like. Thus, as used herein, environmental regulatory bodies may include governmental agencies, municipal governments, other governmental organizations, and private companies that effectively provide rules, standards, regulations, certifications, and the like for wastewater systems.  
      Due to such regulations, rules, and standards, which may vary from state to state, monitoring systems are presently available for wastewater treatment systems. Upon sensing a problem in the wastewater system, the monitoring systems may be required to produce a visual and auditory warning that will normally be readily detected by the homeowner. In this way, ideally, the homeowner would promptly contact his service company for repairs, and ideally, the service company would promptly repair the problem within the time limit required by regulation/certification. Some regulations require that the service company name be displayed on the system to permit easier contacting of the service company by the homeowner. Some systems provide a telephone dialer to directly contact the service company in case the homeowner does not recognize the problem immediately or see/hear the monitor warning signals. In some cases, the telephone dialer provides two-way communication to provide the ability for additional testing and remote servicing to thereby save service costs. In some cases, regulations may also require stickers and punch-out cards with the maintenance schedule mounted to the systems to verify that scheduled maintenance and/or testing has been timely performed. Not for profit organizations, such as NSF®, may be used and/or required to certify the type of equipment for suitable operation and certify that the manufacturer provides suitable maintenance plans for the equipment owner and personnel qualified to maintain the equipment. Homeowners often are required to purchase a maintenance plan for a service time, such as two years, with the manufacturers or other service providers who are certified to install and maintain such plans. Homeowners are often required by regulations to renew their initial service contract, which may be for two years, for as long as the equipment is utilized; however, after extensive review and research in this industry, the inventor has identified significant problems that still exist with such systems and that are discussed hereinafter in some detail. For instance, when homeowners obtain a service contract, it is often difficult for homeowners to verify that the required maintenance has actually been performed and that repairs have been made by the service companies in a timely manner.  
      Consequently, there remains a need to provide an improved monitoring system to protect the environment. Those of skill in the art will appreciate the present invention, which addresses the above problems and other significant problems uncovered by the inventor that are discussed hereinafter.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an improved service personnel detection system and method capable of inexpensively monitoring large numbers, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands, of remotely located and/or widespread environmental equipment systems to determine operational compliance.  
      An objective of one preferred embodiment of the present invention is to provide an improved system and method that permits responsible parties and/or government agencies to automatically monitor compliance by service providers in providing maintenance and repairs to their environmental equipment systems.  
      These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the drawings, the descriptions given herein, and the appended claims. However, it will be understood that above-listed objectives and/or advantages of the invention are intended only as an aid in understanding aspects of the invention, are not intended to limit the invention in any way, and therefore do not form a comprehensive or restrictive list of objectives, and/or features, and/or advantages.  
      Accordingly, in one embodiment, the present sparse data method provides for determining regulatory compliance of a plurality of wastewater treatment systems. The wastewater treatment systems may be serviced by service personnel. There may be a regulatory body for monitoring the plurality of wastewater treatment systems. A plurality of responsible parties may be responsible for one or more payments related to respective ones of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems. The regulatory body may specify a threshold for an amount of wastewater to be treated within a period of time for each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems. The method may comprise one or more steps, such as for instance, providing at least one wastewater flow sensor at each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems and programming at least one processor for each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems for receiving data from the at least one wastewater flow sensor and for determining when the threshold is exceeded. Other steps might comprise providing an electronic connection from each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems to at least one server computer and programming at least one processor for reporting over the electronic connection to the server computer only after the step of determining that the threshold has been exceeded.  
      The method may further comprise programming at least one processor such that after the step of reporting, then not reporting again until a particular period of time during which the threshold is exceeded has ended. The permitted threshold might be described as a specified number of gallons of wastewater to be treated during any one day.  
      The method may further comprise programming at least one processor such that after the step of reporting then not reporting again during a particular period of time in which the threshold is exceeded unless at least one additional threshold for an additional amount of wastewater is reached during the particular period of time.  
      The method may further comprise programming at least one processor to accumulate the data received from the wastewater flow sensor to provide an accumulated count of the amount of wastewater to be treated within a particular period of time, and to subsequently delete the data from the accumulated count after the particular period of time.  
      In one embodiment, the processor may not be programmed for receiving incoming electronic queries on the electronic connection that query such factors as the amount of wastewater that has been processed during any particular one of the specified period of time.  
      The wastewater flow sensor may be of the type that detects pump operation. The method may further comprise programming at least one processor to accumulate the data received from the wastewater flow sensor to provide an accumulated count of the amount of wastewater to be treated within a particular period of time, and/or to reset the accumulated count to zero when the particular period of time has ended such that the accumulated count for any particular period of time begins at zero. The method may further comprise electronically notifying at least one of the service personnel, the regulatory body, or the plurality of responsible parties when the permitted threshold has been exceeded. In one embodiment, the method may comprise programming at least one server computer to electronically contact a respective receiving device of at least one of the service personnel, the regulatory body, or the plurality of responsible parties when the permitted threshold has been exceeded.  
      The present invention may comprise a sparse data system with elements such as an electronic connection from each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems to at least one server computer accessible by at least one of the regulatory body, the service personnel, and the plurality of responsible parties, at least one wastewater flow sensor at each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems, and/or at least one processor for each of the plurality of wastewater treatment systems.  
      The processor may be programmed for receiving data from the wastewater flow sensor for determining whether the threshold is exceeded and/or for initiating electronic communication to report over the electronic connection to the at least one server computer only after detection of the threshold may be reached. The processor may be programmed for initiating communication after the report to subsequently report at least once more over the electronic connection to the at least one server computer, but only after the at least one processor determines that an additional specified amount of wastewater is received during a particular period of time in which the threshold was initially reached. The processor may be programmed to create an accumulated count of the wastewater to be treated based on the data received from the wastewater flow sensor and to remove data from the accumulated count when the data from the wastewater flow sensor is older than a specified period of time. The specified period of time might be a one day period of time. The processor might be programmed to reset the accumulated count of amount of wastewater to be treated at a beginning of each respective one day period of time.  
      The processor may not receive incoming electronic queries on the electronic connection that query whether the threshold has been exceeded.  
      Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for verifying operation of a plurality of alarm systems in a plurality of environmental equipment systems. Each of the plurality of alarm systems may comprise one or more sensors for detecting a malfunction. The method may comprise steps such as mounting a plurality of first communication nodes physically proximate the plurality of alarm systems for the plurality of environmental equipment system. The plurality of first communication nodes are in electronic communication with respective of the plurality of alarm systems. Other steps may or may not comprise mounting a plurality of second communication nodes within 600 yards of respective of the plurality of first communication nodes and/or providing that the plurality of second communication nodes may electronically communicate with the plurality of first communication nodes and with at least one remotely located server. The method may further comprise programming the plurality of first communication nodes to send a first verification signal to verify operation of respective of the plurality of alarm systems to respective of the plurality of second communication nodes at first predetermined intervals, and programming the plurality of second communication nodes to detect when the first verification signal is not received at the first predetermined intervals.  
      In one embodiment, the method may further comprise providing programming so that the plurality of second communication nodes send a second verification signal to verify operation of the plurality of alarms to the at least one remotely located server at second predetermined intervals, and programming the at least one server to detect when the second verification signal is not received at the second predetermined intervals.  
      The method may further comprise providing programming such that when the second communication node detects that the first verification signal is not received at the first predetermined intervals, then one or more predetermined criteria are checked to determine whether or not the second communication node sends a notification signal to the at least one server that a respective of the alarm systems is not operational. The one or more predetermined criteria may comprise determining whether the first verification signal is not received for a preselected number of the first predetermined intervals and/or determining whether the notification signal has already been sent to the at least one server.  
      In one possible embodiment, the method may further comprise providing a cordless telephone connection for the electronic communication between the plurality of first communication nodes and the plurality of second communication nodes. The method may or may not further comprise connecting the plurality of environmental equipment systems to a power line through respective first breakers, connecting the plurality of alarm systems to the power line through respective second breakers, and connecting the plurality of second nodes through respective third breakers.  
      The present invention may also comprise a system for verifying operation of a plurality of alarm systems in a plurality of environmental equipment systems. The plurality of environmental equipment systems may be serviced by one or more service personnel from one or more service entities. A plurality of responsible parties may be responsible for one or more payments related to respective ones of the plurality of environmental equipment systems. Each of the plurality of alarm systems may comprise one or more sensors for detecting a malfunction. A plurality of first communication nodes may be utilized by the plurality of alarm systems wherein each first communication node is mounted physically proximate to the respective ones of the plurality of environmental equipment systems. The system may further comprise a plurality of second communication nodes wherein each second communication node is mounted within less than six hundred yards from respective ones of the first communication nodes. The plurality of second communication nodes are operable for electronically communicating with the plurality of first communication nodes and with at least one remotely located server. The system may further comprise programming to provide that the plurality of first communication nodes send a first verification signal to verify operation of respective of the plurality of alarm systems to respective of the plurality of second communication nodes at first predetermined intervals and programming to provide that the plurality of second communication nodes detect when the first verification signal is not received at the first predetermined intervals.  
      The present invention may comprise a method for detecting a physical presence of a plurality of service personnel at a plurality of environmental equipment systems positioned at a plurality of different physical locations. The method may comprise one or more steps such as, for instance, positioning a plurality of environmental equipment systems at a plurality of physical locations and/or providing a service personnel detection zone in substantially close proximity to the plurality of physical locations. For instance, this may comprise a detection zone around the environmental equipment systems which could be, in one possible embodiment, from 25 to 500 yards in diameter. If the service personnel enter this zone, they are detected.  
      Other possible steps might comprise providing one or more data storage units in communication with a plurality of environmental equipment communication systems, such as dialers or the like, and/or utilizing the plurality of environmental equipment communication systems for sending the sensor data for the plurality of environmental equipment systems to the one or more data storage units.  
      Other steps may comprise providing a service personnel locating system for creating service personnel detection information when the service personnel enter the service personnel detection zones and/or sending the service personnel detection information to one or more data storage units and/or storing the sensor data and service personnel presence detection information in the one or more data storage units.  
      The service personnel locating system might comprise a plurality of GPS locators, cordless telephone transmitter/receivers or other radio wave detectors, or other types of electromagnetic detectors or the like for the plurality of service personnel, and/or may further comprise designating a geophysical region in a service personnel detection zone such as with a computer or by means of processor programming.  
      The method may further comprise providing a plurality of GPS location communication systems which may utilize a communication signal path for sending the service personnel detection information that is different from the communication signal path used by the environmental equipment communication system. In one possible embodiment, the environmental equipment communication system comprises a dialer for dialing a telephone number. The plurality of GPS location communication systems may or may not comprise a wireless transmitter such as, for example only, a cellular telephone, or a walkie-talkie, or some other type of radio communication, which may connect by some means to the dialer mechanism, if used. In one possible embodiment, the plurality of GPS locators may be operable for communicating with the plurality of environmental equipment communication systems for transmitting the service personnel detection information through the plurality of environmental equipment communication systems to the one or more data storage units.  
      In one possible embodiment, the plurality of GPS locators are operable for storing service personnel geophysical location information for a selected time period to create an accumulation of service personnel geophysical location information and for communicating the accumulation of the personnel geophysical location information. For instance, a unit may record the travel path of the service personnel and then download this information along with other servicing information at a later time.  
      The present invention also comprises a detection system for detecting a physical presence of a plurality of service personnel at a plurality of environmental equipment systems positioned at a plurality of physical locations. Such systems may comprise individual wastewater systems or other types of environmental equipment systems.  
      The detection system may comprise, for instance, one or more sensors for producing sensor data for each of the plurality of environmental equipment systems and/or one or more data storage units which may be remotely located. A plurality of communication systems for the plurality of environmental equipment systems, such as dialers or other means for communicating, may be used for sending the sensor data to the one or more storage units. A plurality of service personnel detection zones may be designated in close proximity with each of the plurality of environmental equipment systems.  
      A plurality of service personnel locators may comprise hand-held, or truck mountable or chargeable, or other devices with an electromagnetic wave antenna. The electromagnetic wave antenna may be operable for wireless communication of data related to an electronic determination of entry of the plurality of service personnel into respective of the plurality of service personnel detection zones. For instance, the personnel locator may be a proximity detector of some type, e.g., an RFID, a transponder, a homing signal generator, or the like.  
      In one possible embodiment, the plurality of service personnel locators may further comprise a plurality of GPS locators. In this case, each of the plurality of service personnel detection zones may be a selectable geophysical area which may be designated with a computer program. For instance, zones of 25 feet to 500 feet around each environmental equipment system may be designated. Any selected geophysical area could be used. A processor or computer program may be used to determine when, and what time, and for how long, the service personnel enters the service personnel detection zone.  
      In one possible embodiment, the detection system might further comprise a cellular communication system for the plurality of GPS locators. The cellular communication system may be operable for communicating with the storage units such that service personnel&#39;s physical presence information is stored within the one or more storage units.  
      The detection system may further comprise a website for making available the sensor data from each of the plurality of environmental equipment systems for use by at least one of a regulatory body, the plurality of service entities, and the plurality of responsible parties.  
      The system may utilize cordless telephone electronics and/or electronic cameras.  
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
      For a further understanding of the nature and objects of the present invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like elements may be given the same or analogous reference numbers and wherein:  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram of an environmental compliance system in accord with the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram of one possible preferred embodiment showing a configuration of interconnections for an environmental compliance system in accord with the present invention;  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic flow diagram relating to operation of an event data transmitter that may be utilized by each of a plurality of environmental equipment systems in accord with one possible preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 4  is a schematic flow diagram relating to operation of an event data receiver that may be utilized to receive data from a plurality of event data transmitters such as those described by  FIG. 4  in accord with one possible preferred embodiment;  
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram for a website that may be accessed by a regulatory agent to obtain data related to compliance with regulatory requirements, such as scheduled maintenance, timely repairs, maintenance contracts, and responsible parties, for a plurality of environmental equipment systems located in different locations in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 6  is a schematic showing a process of computerized scheduling of service personnel in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 7  is a schematic installation diagram for a two-way wastewater system master transceiver data link to slave telephone data modem, which may preferably utilize a previously existing phone subscription for connection to the data modem, and which preferably utilizes an electric motor power wiring data link to the environmental system in accord with one possible embodiment of the invention;  
       FIG. 8  is a schematic installation diagram for a two-way wastewater system master transceiver data link to slave telephone data modem, which may preferably utilize a previously existing phone subscription for connection to the data modem, and which preferably utilizes a cordless telephone transmitter/receiver link to the environmental system in accord with one possible embodiment of the invention;  
       FIG. 9  is a schematic installation diagram for a two-way wastewater system with multiple wireless transceivers whereby a communication path to the Internet through a repeater pathway which comprises the multiple wireless transceivers in accord with one possible embodiment of the invention;  
       FIG. 10  is a schematic showing a plurality of environmental equipment installations with at least one service personnel detection zone encircling each one in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 11  is a block diagram showing one possible embodiment of a portable GPS device which may be utilized to produce data related to entry of service personnel into the service personnel detection zones of  FIG. 10  in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 12  is a schematic diagram showing one possible embodiment of a portable wireless device for use with cordless telephone circuitry which may be utilized to produce data related to entry of service personnel into the service personnel detection zones of  FIG. 10  in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 13  is a schematic diagram showing one possible embodiment of a personnel detection sensor in the form of a CCD which may also be utilized for remote diagnosis of operation of an environmental equipment system in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 14  is a schematic diagram showing an alarm verification system for an alarm circuit in an environmental equipment system in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 15  is a flow diagram which describes operation of an alarm verification system in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 16  is a flow diagram that describes operation of a sparse data permit threshold verification system and/or method in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
      While the present invention will be described in connection with presently preferred embodiments, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to those embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents included within the spirit of the invention.  
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      With small wastewater treatment systems, the systems may be serviced by different service companies, owned by different owners, and located at different locations. Generally, as used herein, different locations will also refer to different portions of land typically owned by different owners. The locations may be adjacent each other or separated by thousands of miles; however, the invention could also be utilized to monitor multiple environmental equipment systems on premises owned by a single owner such as a large plant, refinery, or the like with many different systems spread out over a wide area. The invention could also be utilized by a plurality of such plants or refineries located in different geographical areas of a country or in different countries to thereby permit improved compliance control by appropriate regulatory bodies.  
      Monitoring systems for environmental equipment such as wastewater treatment systems are known, as discussed hereinbefore; however, the inventor has determined that the following problems still exist that prevent or frustrate reliable environmental regulation oversight by the appropriate environmental regulatory body(s). The regulatory body typically has a limited number of employees and limited funds, and therefore has limited ability to conduct investigations of thousands (or tens or hundreds of thousands) of separately owned home wastewater treatment facilities to verify compliance with regulations. For instance, it is presently impractical for a regulatory body to reliably verify occurrence of equipment failures at each of thousands of homeowner wastewater treatment facilities and whether the equipment failures are timely reported or reported at all. Even for those systems that automatically report failures to the service company, the regulatory body has no practical way of determining if and when repairs have been made. Moreover, if the homeowner decides not to renew a maintenance contract with a certified service company, the regulatory body has little or no practical way of determining the renewal status of the maintenance contract without use of extensive personnel time. If repairs are made, there is also no practical way for the regulatory body to determine whether repairs have been made within the time period, e.g., forty-eight hours, that is required by the regulations. As well, there is no practical way for the regulatory body to determine, without extensive investigative time and money, whether routine inspections are consistently made according to the inspection schedules required by regulations and/or certification rules. For that matter, even the installation owner who may be ultimately responsible for compliance with regulations, such as a homeowner, may not know whether routine inspections in accordance with the terms of the service contract for which the installation owner pays are made as per regulations and/or whether repairs were made in a timely manner.  
      With reference now to the drawings, and more particularly to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a presently preferred regulatory compliance system  10  in accord with the present invention. Compliance system  10  provides for remote monitoring and notification for use with a plurality of environmental equipment systems with different service companies and different owners. In the presently preferred embodiment, controller  12  may be mounted with each of a plurality of different environmental equipment systems, e.g., wastewater treatment systems, to collect data from each system and communicate the data from the plurality of systems to receiver  14 , where the data is collected and stored. In  FIG. 1 , controller  12  is illustrated for use with a single system  1 , but as shown in  FIG. 2 , a plurality of controllers  12  may preferably be utilized with any number N of wastewater systems as designated by numerals  20 ,  22 , and  24 . Thus,  FIG. 1  discloses the basic operation of the invention with one environmental equipment system, but the present invention is most highly useful for efficiencies achieved when monitoring large numbers of units in the range of thousands and ten thousands of units or more.  
      The alarm events detected by controller  12  may be for a wide variety of events that use different sensors for producing an alarm signal. For instance, pump pressures, motor currents/voltages, fluid levels, component temperatures, effluent properties, and the like may be used to indicate normal operation, operation failure, impending failure, need for servicing, and the like. The information for each event may be stored and/or transmitted in any desired manner and may be controlled by suitable programming and/or circuitry.  
      In a presently preferred embodiment, service personnel detector  16  is provided to detect the physical presence of service personnel who are generally required by regulations to inspect the environmental equipment in accord with an inspection schedule and to timely repair the environmental equipment whenever repair is required according to the different sensors discussed above. Service personnel detector  16  may be used to determine when service starts and/or when the environmental equipment unit is turned on again after being shut down. Such information may be implied the facts detected by programming, such as no previous equipment operation, and/or may require additional input. In this manner, the manufacturer will know for warranty purposes when service began and be able to determine whether the environmental equipment system is still under warranty. Service personnel detector  16  may be provided in numerous different constructions that vary in cost, complexity, amount of data supplied, and so forth. In a presently preferred embodiment, service personnel detector  16  may comprise a single mechanical switch or button. When the service personnel inspects/repairs the environmental equipment system, the service personnel simply pushes the button. Controller  12  and/or receiver/processor  14  may utilize a clock to determine the time/date of the moment the button is pushed by the service personnel, thereby verifying physical presence of the service provider at the environmental equipment installation. Thus, the clock is utilized to produce a time stamp related to the service, whether the service is an inspection, a repair, or both. To prevent or limit unauthorized use, the button may have a lockout such that it can only be activated once every twenty-four hours. Alternatively, the button may operate with a program defining a time period in which a particular number of button pushes must be made within a specified time period and are used to verify physical presence of an authorized service technician, e.g., twelve button pushes within a one-minute time period. In another embodiment, the button may be covered with a lock to prevent unauthorized use. In another embodiment, the button should be pressed when the service personnel arrives and when the service personnel leaves to provide the length of time of service on location, which may be used for verification purposes. If identity information is also provided as discussed below, then a record of how the service personnel spent his time can be generated such as how much time was spent on each location, the travel time between locations, the sequence in which the service personnel worked on the environmental equipment systems, and so forth.  
      For instance, a keypad may be provided with a code known by each service personnel whereby the data comprises not only the time/date of service but also may provide the identity of the certified service personnel. Other information may also be provided by input through a keypad such as the type of service or repair, time on location, items repaired, and the like, as desired. Alternatively, authorization cards with magnetic strip readers, bar code readers, tag readers, and the like may be utilized to quickly provide time/date/identity information without the need for any keypad input. In another embodiment, the service personnel detector may be carried by the service personnel. For instance, handheld computers that may contain the service personnel&#39;s schedule for the day, equipment needed for repairs, directions to the locations, and the like may be utilized by the service personnel and may have a bar code scanner or other means to verify physical presence and identity of the service personnel. It will be understood that those skilled in the art could design other electronic means for performing the above-described functions. For instance, other means could include GPS or the like mounted to the service truck to perform as service personnel detector  16 , which verifies physical presence, time/date, amount of time at the location, and/or other information that may be required by regulations to verify that the equipment has been timely inspected/repaired. Thus, many possible electronic configurations may be utilized to provide the function of service personnel detector  16 . A single button with a programmed lockout or time period for a specific number of button presses is a presently preferred embodiment due to the low cost.  
      Preferably, controller  12  provides a visual or auditory indication to the service personnel, such as an L.E.D. indicator, to verify that his/her presence has been detected and thus ensure that the correct data will be transmitted, as discussed hereinafter.  
      Central receiver  14  and/or website servers  18  may be utilized in accord with one preferred embodiment of the invention to accumulate data from a plurality of wastewater installations and/or other data producers for distribution and utilization of the data to verify regulatory compliance.  FIG. 2  shows one possible basic configuration of such a system whereby a plurality of any number N of wastewater installations as indicated at  20 ,  22 , and  24  communicate with web server  26 . Web server  26  may distribute information by an efficient low-cost means to any number N of regulatory bodies as indicated at  28  and  30  and as discussed hereinafter. Web server  26  may also collect data from other sources, such as subscriber contract active/cancelled status, along with other service contract information or other data, from any number N of service companies as indicated at  32 ,  34 , and  36  for each of the plurality of wastewater installations  20 ,  22 , and  24 . In one embodiment, service from installation  10  does not start until paid for by the service company who is required to service the wastewater installation of concern. Therefore, it may be assumed that the service company has already been paid by the owner for the service contract. Thus, reports related to service contracts to be forwarded to the regulatory body may be generated automatically based on whether monitoring services utilizing unit  10  has been paid for by the service company. In one embodiment, an independent third party may operate central receiver  14  and notify the environmental body if contracts for monitoring using central receiver  14  and unit  12  are not renewed as discussed in more detail subsequently.  
      With reference again to  FIG. 1 , receiver/processor  14  may be utilized to receive data from any number N of environmental equipment installations, such as thousands of wastewater treatment systems as indicated by  20 ,  22 , and  24 . In a preferred embodiment, receiver/processor  14  may also be utilized to contact any number N of service companies to notify the respective service company of an alarm from any particular environmental equipment installation that requires servicing and/or any other responsible or interested party such as homeowners. Alternatively, website  18  may be utilized to provide alarm notifications to interested parties such as the appropriate service company  38 .  
      Receiver/processor  14  and website  18  may be combined and effectively operate utilizing common electronic equipment or may be located at different locations. Website  18  may be a website on the Internet, a network, or a bulletin board accessible through a modem, an ISP, or any other suitable means for communicating from computer to computer. Alternatively, and/or simultaneously with receiver/processor  14 , website  18  may receive information directly from controller  12  as indicated by communication line  17  which may be a telephone computer link up or any other data communication channel.  
      In response to an alarm notification, receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  may provide a central monitoring station that identifies the location, type of alarm event and, if required, immediate notification to any interested party such as a designated service company either from receiver/processor  14 , from website  18 , or by other suitable means, as discussed in more detail subsequently. Service calls detected by service personnel detector  16  that are designated as routine inspections are preferably time-stamped and logged without the need to provide immediate notification to the service company, unless otherwise requested by the service company or other interested parties, whereby such an option may be provided on website  18 . Notification warnings may be sent from receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  by e-mail/fax/pager/program to the appropriate service company and/or to other interested parties by other suitable means, if desired.  
      Although not the preferred embodiment, other communication interconnections may be utilized. For instance, transmitter  12  might also connect directly to service company  38  to provide a warning or notice of event as indicated by dotted communication line  39 ; however, in this case appropriate communications should be provided to update the records kept by receiver/processor  14 . As one example for this configuration, transmitter  12  may also transmit event data to receiver/processor  14  and/or service company  38  may transmit data to receiver/processor  14  through solid communication line  41 . Two-way communication may also be effected from maintenance entity  38  to controller  12  either by communication line  39  or communication line  41  to allow for testing, measurements, and controlling of the particular type of environmental installation involved. Other communication networks may be utilized for processing, forwarding, and storing data in accord with the methods of the invention as discussed herein.  
      Along with event data related to warnings, repairs, and inspections, receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  may also receive and store data related to service contracts for each environmental installation and thereby automatically route the alarm to the correct environmental equipment installation. Receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  stores the service contract data including renewal status and can send out renewal notices either directly to the homeowner or simply notify the appropriate service company. If the service contract is not renewed, as will normally be required by regulations, then receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  stores this contract status information and preferably forwards or makes available the contract status information to regulatory agency  40 . Responsible parties may also be notified. Regulatory agency  40  preferably may utilize software or systems in accord with the present invention that permit notification to the responsible parties, such as the homeowner and/or service company whose address and/or other contact information is stored by receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18 , of noncompliance with regulations that require the homeowner to renew the service contract. For example, in a preferred embodiment regulatory agency  40  may download form letters filled in and ready to mail. If desired, receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  could also be utilized to automatically forward the form letter to the homeowner or responsible party on behalf of the regulatory agency and/or notify the agency by e-mail or other means that the noncompliance letter/e-mail/fax or the like has been sent and the date of mailing. Other types of communication besides form letters are also possible. When service contracts are renewed, the respective service company  38  notifies receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  of the status, time period, particular installation, ownership and responsibility data, addresses, names, and so forth for the new contract. If monitoring utilizing unit  10  is not renewed, or if it is renewed, then such information may be implied while providing options to note changes. As discussed hereinafter, the respective service company and/or responsible party may simply fill out a suitable on-line form in a website to effect this action. If desired, verification of contract renewal and terms thereof can be sent by receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  to the service company and homeowner or other responsible party by any messaging means such as fax, e-mail, or the like.  
      Regulatory agency  40  can also obtain status reports regarding timely repairs, e.g., the exact time when the sensor originally signaled that repair was necessary and the exact time when the service personnel actually arrived at the environmental equipment system location. Thus, in one embodiment of the invention a status report can be printed by regulatory agency  40  that includes all repairs that were not made within the required time or that may not have been made at all. If desired, different levels of urgency can be assigned to the situations based on the length of time the repairs are overdue, whether repairs have been made at all, and/or repair history for a particular installation, a particular service provider, or a particular service personnel. Thus, form letters covering the different status types can be sent out automatically from regulatory agency  40  to the responsible parties.  
      In a similar manner, regulatory agency  40  can conveniently monitor whether the inspections for the environmental equipment systems have been timely performed. Receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  maintains the schedule required by regulations for inspection for each of the plurality of environmental systems and also records when service personnel has arrived at the location. Suitable means may be provided to determine whether a service call is for repair, for inspection, or for both in conjunction with service personnel detector  16 . For instance, if no repair warning has been sent, the service call may be presumed by programming of receiver/processor  14  and/or website  18  to be a routine inspection. Thus, because data is available regarding when inspections are required, as well as when inspections have been made, regulatory agency  40  can determine, by automatic control, exactly what level of compliance with the regulations has been achieved. Again, automatic notifications to responsible parties can be sent out from the regulatory agency to the appropriate responsible entity for nonconformance. Such notices may go to the service company if it appears the service company did not perform as per the service contract requirements. If desired, conformance letters could also be sent out to those homeowners and service companies providing conforming service as proof of a history of past conformance to regulations and/or history of repairs, inspections, and services as may be desired by other parties such as purchasers of the houses, real estate agencies, and the like.  
      System  10  may be utilized to signal when a wastewater system has been taken out of service or when service is initiated for the first time after manufacture or after the system has been out of service for repairs.  
      To significantly aid service companies  38 , website  18  may also be utilized by service companies  38  to provide a record and an easily accessible schedule for each environmental equipment system for which the service company provides service. This schedule can be utilized in setting up work schedules for service personnel and so forth and provides a significant bookkeeping/logistics convenience for service companies  38 . Additional records for each equipment system, including past history, anticipated types of repairs, maps, and the like, might be accessible by the appropriate service company and/or its service personnel. The service company may also be able to track personnel, determine efficiencies, determine time on locations, and so forth as may be useful for improved management.  
      Responsible parties  37  (See  FIG. 1 ) for the environmental systems, such as wastewater systems, or any number of homeowners  29  and  31  or any other responsible parties (See  FIG. 2 ), will also appreciate the present invention which permits the homeowner or responsible party to view details such as past history, alarms, times of response, time on location, scheduled maintenance, and the like, for their own wastewater system through website  18  and/or web server  26  and/or any other suitable communication means available now or available in the future. For security reasons, access to website  18  is preferably limited for responsible parties to information about their own wastewater systems. Responsible party  37 , such as a the homeowner, normally makes a service contract with and pays a service company to provide regular maintenance as well as make repairs within the required response time. It is normally difficult for the homeowner or responsible party to verify what has actually been done in return for the service contract payments. Without use of the present invention, service personnel often come and go without their presence being known by the homeowner. However, as discussed hereinbefore, system  10  automatically accumulates and records this information and may, if desired, provide this information to the homeowner or other responsible person. For instance, responsible parties or homeowners might log into website  18  such as through server  26  or otherwise communicate to obtain such information. In this way, for instance, the homeowner can determine when maintenance was required and when or whether the service company actually performed these services. As well, if an alarm occurs, then the homeowner can determine when or whether repairs were made. If available, more detailed information such as details about repairs, the name and number of the service person or persons assigned to do work, and the like can be provided online for the homeowners. If desired, system  14  may be utilized to send notifications/alerts to the homeowners or responsible parties of any type, e.g., notification that an alarm went off, notification that repairs were or were not made within the required time period, notification that scheduled maintenance was performed within the required time period or not, and so forth.  
      If desired, system  14  may also provide for online contracts or sales with service providers of choice whereby the homeowner or other responsible party can contract with, change contracts, or the like, with a desired service company online through website  18 . Moreover system  14  may permit communications between the service companies and responsible parties concerning matters such as maintenance, contract information, repairs, complaints, commendations, and the like. If desired, service companies may place their own link on website  18  for advertising and the like. Thus, the present invention provides the capability for much greater oversight and control over the environmental systems, such as a wastewater system, by the responsible party.  
      Environmental equipment systems, such as wastewater systems,  20 ,  22 , and  24 , may be any environmental equipment system for which environmental related regulatory oversight is required. For instance, according to ANSI/NSF International Standard 40 definitions, a residential wastewater treatment system is considered to be an organized and coordinated system of components that functions to treat wastewater generated by individual residences. A subdivision may have a plurality of residential wastewater treatment systems, each of which has to be in compliance with environmental regulatory requirements. Each wastewater treatment system is then considered an environmental equipment system for purposes of the present specification. As used herein, servicing includes maintenance, inspection, repairs, or others type of labor-related services when environmental equipment systems are involved whether or not repairs are actually made, initiated, delayed, or completed, and even if no action is taken. Servicing may also include remote repairs and monitoring. Service personnel provide the labor of servicing that should be made in a timely manner. Depending on regulatory requirements, service personnel may be required to be authorized representatives. Service personnel may be comprised of organizations, groups, individuals, or other entities that may be required to be authorized to distribute sell, install, and/or service environmental equipment systems such as wastewater treatment systems. Service companies may typically provide such service personnel. Service companies may include organizations, groups, individuals, or other entities. Generally, an owner for each environmental equipment system may be an individual, municipality, government, corporate, or other type of entity. The owner may typically be responsible for servicing such as the labor of maintenance/repairs/inspections and so forth of the environmental equipment system and may have contracted to have certified servicing performed by a service company utilizing certified personnel. The service company, which may be the owner&#39;s agent who has contracted to provide the service, may then also be a responsible party.  
      According to ISO Guide 2, which sets the internationally accepted definitions for product testing and certification, among many other things, the definition of a third-party is as follows: Person or body that is recognized as being independent of the parties involved, as concerns the issue in question. For instance NSF® is a third party that provides certification services but not does not sell the units or service the units in question. In one embodiment of the invention, receiver  14  and/or website  18  is operated by a third-party that reports to regulatory agency  40  regarding compliance or noncompliance with regulations. Preferably communications are automatic, but the third party may use any communication means including written reports and the like as may be utilized by the third-party to the regulatory body. The third-party is recognized as independent because the third party has no clear benefit if the duty to provide the labor of services such as repairs and inspections in accordance with regulations is not met. Preferably, the third-party receives payment for reliable reporting to thereby provide motivation to reliably and consistently report noncompliance. Thus, a third party should be sufficiently independent of any motivation to avoid reporting noncompliance that a government body or certification body might reasonably recognize the third party as being independent. On the other hand, a service provider or environmental equipment system owner would not be independent because such parties could significantly benefit from cost savings if repairs or inspections are not made, or if the repairs/inspections are not made in a timely manner, or if the noncompliance with regulations was simply not reported. Thus, a third party would have no motivation to avoid reporting noncompliance with regulations and would not benefit by saving costs such as a service provider or system owner might. The main motivation for the third-party is to accurately track the actual status of compliance with regulations and the third-party may be paid for that service, just as other independent bodies such as companies such as NSF® are paid to provide independent certification. Thus, if desired, a third party entity, government body, or other independent company could be utilized to operate system  10  as a third party. For that matter, a purely automatic system may comply with the definition of a third-party because a machine has no motivation except to do that for which it is programmed. In this case, an independent third party might be required verify and certify operation of the machine to verify that the machine, such as system  10 , is operating correctly to make accurate reports. Therefore, for purposes of the present specification a third-party may be an independent person, entity, or body, or may be a certified system such as system  10 . A third party should be sufficiently independent that the third party does not benefit from noncompliance and should have a motivation to accurately report noncompliance with regulations. Such motivation might include as payment for accurate and reliable reporting. A third-party for this specification might therefore also comprise a system, such as system  10 , or components thereof, owned and/or operated by an interested party if system  10  is certified or checked by an independent third-party and verified to act accurately and independently to determine whether or not the environmental regulations related to environmental equipment systems are being complied with.  FIG. 3 , FIG.  4 , and  FIG. 5  provide additional details for a presently preferred regulatory compliance system  10  as discussed in general terms hereinbefore in relation to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 .  
       FIG. 3  provides a schematical breakdown of certain features/functions of controller  12 , such as the transmitter and/or dialer  12  functions. As indicated and discussed above, various types of inputs may be provided from sensors, such as equipment failure alarms  42  and  44 . As discussed above, many different types of service personnel detectors  16  can be utilized to provide routine inspection/repair service call input  46 . For example, alarms  42  may include two amperage sensors that sense over currents in pumps in wastewater systems whereby less expensive service is needed before the pumps break down and require major repairs. If a wastewater system has two pumps that may be used alternatively, then the spare engine could be used while one pump is being repaired. Utilizing two over current sensors with one sensor one each pump would allow continued operation of the facility, while shutting down either pump that is drawing too much current. Dialer/processor  48  then sends a message to report the over current condition so that repairs can be made. Other controls shift the work load to the other pumps.  
      For initial processing of event data, dialer/processor  48  may be programmed to sense short-term false alarms. For instance, with certain sensors a signal may occur that if monitored for a longer period, perhaps two minutes, will then go back to a normal range. For instance, a fluid level may rise momentarily above the trigger level but then soon drop back into the normal range whereby service is not indicated. Thus, false alarms can be reduced in some cases by programming delays and signal averaging into the design of dialer/processor  48 . Thus, dialer/processor  48  may be utilized to interpret the alarm input and be programmed to respond accordingly. As another example, dialer/processor  48  may be utilized to provide bounce delays for a mechanical button or switch such as a programmed lockout time period or other means after an initial contact to verify that the service personnel actually activated the signal. Therefore, input  46 , which may, for instance, be provided by personnel detector  16  (See also  FIG. 1 ) may therefore be from a single switch or button, multiple switches such as a key pad, an electronic reader of some type, or any other means to indicate the actual physical presence of a service provider. Input  46  may also include data that identifies the particular service personnel such as a tag, magnetic strip, bar code, or the like.  
      Processor/dialer  48  or other components in receiver  14  of  FIG. 1  may be utilized to determine the type of service provided by the service personnel, e.g., repair or routine inspection or both. Thus, processor  48  may refer to whether an alarm is active or not to interpret the meaning of the call. If a keypad is utilized, the service personnel could also indicate this information by inputting the appropriate code for either a repair service call, routine inspection, or both.  
      Dialer  50  may be used to send data to receiver  14  of  FIG. 1  either by a standard telephone line or by cellular telephone where a standard telephone line is not available or by any suitable communication means. While a dialer is a low-cost embodiment in accord with a presently preferred embodiment, any other type of data communication line could be utilized. If desired, dialer  50  may utilize the telephone communications industry standard 4+2 format. Dialer  50  may in one embodiment utilize a code, such as a hexadecimal code or other type of code, that identifies a unique account number associated with the particular environmental equipment system, the alarm event, and/or the onsite report recognition of the physical presence of a service personnel. Dialer  50  may contain the phone number to be dialed in memory. The phone number may be changed by two-way communication from receiver  14 , as desired. Account information will be transmitted that permits receiver  14  and/or website  18  to identify the particular environmental equipment system, type thereof, manufacturer, owner, installer, service contract status, service company, and so forth.  
      Programming of dialer  50  is indicated at blocks  52 ,  54 ,  56 ,  58 , and  60  to thereby control the operation of dialer  50  in a presently preferred manner. For instance, the type of phone line connection may be programmed therein for receiver  14 , handshake connections, protocol for data, decision-making as to resetting of alarms, and so forth. If a successful call is completed as indicated at  54 , no further calls are needed, and depending on whether the code is for an alarm or for an inspection, a reset may or may not be made. If the call is not successful, as indicated at  56 , then retry routine  58  may be activated whereby the time between the next retry is determined along with the number of retries attempted. For instance, phone lines may be down, and therefore routine  58  may delay further attempts until the next day after a certain number of attempts have been made. Busy signals may produce a different response. If receiver  14  accepts the call as indicated at  60 , then the appropriate resets are made. While this program of operation is presently desired, other possible dialer operation formats may also be used.  
       FIG. 4  provides an overview of a presently preferred embodiment of receiver/processor  14 . As discussed earlier, dialer  12 , or another type of transmitter, sends data to receiver  62  by telephone lines, cellular transmission, or any other type of data link. Various communication checks such as parity checks, acknowledgments, and the like can be used to eliminate transmission of incorrect data.  
      While receiver  62  is preferably a single receiver, receiver  62  might also comprise multiple receivers that act together. For instance, there could be a separate receiver  62  for different geographical areas or countries, which then transmit the data to another receiver or group of receivers; however, in one presently preferred embodiment, all data is preferably stored in a manner to be accessible in real time by the regulatory body without the need to search multiple locations and/or repeatedly update a plurality of remote data collecting systems  62  to a central station or website  18 . The collected data, as discussed hereinbefore, relates to events that occur at each of a plurality of environmental equipment installations. Upon receipt, the data is translated by receiver  62  and the raw data is preferably stored in a data storage medium  64 . Receiver  62  may also comprise a clock to time and date the receipt of each event. If desired, a time stamp may already have been attached to the event data from dialer  12 , as discussed above. If no previous time stamp was produced, or even if one was produced, the time stamp of receiver  62  indicates when the data was received by receiver  62 . The time-stamp information is utilized to determine timely compliance with inspection requirements and repairs. If desired, a hard copy of all events for any desired period or for each event logged may be printed at  66 . Main processor  68  is programmed to make decisions upon receipt of the data. For instance, if a warning event occurs such that repairs are necessary, then notification is made at  70 . Processor  68  stores information that permits contacting the particular service company  72  that has an existing contract for servicing the particular environmental equipment system for which a repair warning event has been received.  
      Notification module  70  may comprise programmed equipment and/or may comprise a programming module operable to contact service company  72  by virtually any desired communication format such as, for instance, e-mail  74 , pager  76 , and/or fax  78 . By communications with the website  18 , the service company may have an option to select a desired communication means. In one embodiment, if desired, a selected service personnel could be directly paged by notification module for a particular group of environmental equipment, although service company  72  may typically prefer to have all communications go therethrough to continually update event logging records.  
      Main processor  68  may be programmed by system administrator  80 , who may contact main processor  68  through website  18 , by an Internet network connection, LAN, or another type of network connection. Alternately, system administrator  80  may contact or operate the website through main processor  68 . Backup maintenance  82  for the system may be supplied depending on the particular configuration utilized and may comprise backup programs, data, and the like to restore the system in case of errors, power failures, and the like. Administrator  80  also preferably sets up accounting/billing module  84 . Accounting/billing module  84  monitors the number of events from history module  86  and may determine pricing based on the number of data events that occur for each environmental equipment system in conjunction with other monthly fees and services provided.  
      Activity monitor  88  may be used to classify the events and store a log of events. For instance, the events received by receiver  62  might be classified as to whether they are alarm events, routine inspections, system start-up, system shut-down, contract renewal, and so forth. The cataloged data may be supplied to history module  86  where it may be utilized for accounting/billing purposes. Data may also be posted to website  18  as indicated at  90 . In a preferred embodiment, from website  18  the regulatory agency can receive notifications, make inquiries, print forms, obtain status reports, and so forth as desired. The regulatory agency could also send messages to the respective homeowners, responsible parties, or service company through the website, as desired. Subscribers  94 , such as service companies who subscribe to features such as schedulers that keep track of all inspection requirements for each unit, may also contact the website.  
       FIG. 5  provides an overview of various preferred functions of website  18  that may be produced by one or more servers and with data storage at one or more locations. Thus, interactive website/database  96  may comprise electronic equipment located at the same general location as receiver/processor  16  and/or be located at different locations. Thus, website  18  servers and receiver/processor  16  may or may not utilize common equipment, as desired, and may or may not be located at the same physical location.  
      An administrator may remotely operate interactive website  96  as indicated at  98 . Website  18  may utilize central station database  100  for data storage and data backup storage, as desired. Preferably, access to website  98  is by unique password security as indicated at  102 . Thus, each maintenance entity  104  and each regulatory agency  106  and if desired, each responsible party such as the homeowner has their own password. The passwords may preferably provide, or be associated with, different levels of access and/or services.  
      Items  108 ,  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116 , and  118  give examples of some presently preferred services available to the regulatory agency in accord with the present invention. For instance, the regulatory agency may obtain service company information  108 , such as listings of environmental units under contract, the make of the units, the dealer/installer, the address or physical location of the units, the history of service for the service company in percentages, noncompliance past history, and so forth. Likewise, owner information  110  is available, such as addresses and names or, if the owner is not responsible, other parties, such as operators, companies, or local governments. Likewise, a history of past events, responses, and so forth as well as a history of equipment failures may be obtained. This information may also be used as one factor in extended time verification of operation or for granting certification for certain types of units. Scheduled maintenance/inspection information  112  is readily available, and histories for each type of equipment can be obtained. From this and event information such as the physical presence data and/or data regarding classification as to inspection/repair visits, the regulatory agency can also determine whether inspections have been timely performed in compliance with the regulations. The regulatory agency can also obtain listings of all alarm events as indicated at  114 , the times of the related responses, or whether any response has been made. Histories with respect to particular service companies, regulators, manufacturers, and/or owners can also be obtained. Event histories may also be retrieved for particular time periods as indicated at  116 . To reduce the time required for the regulatory agency, preprinted noncompliance forms can be produced at  118  that are addressed to the responsible parties. It will be understood that the data can be organized and retrieved in many different ways and formats and that many options may be provided for convenience and speed of operation by the regulatory agency. An oversight agency, through password supervision, may access accounts of a local agency and review their status. Searching may be made in many different ways such as by specific time period, name, equipment type, subscriber listings, service company, and so forth. Thus, the present invention also allows an oversight agency to review local agency compliance.  
      Likewise, service companies  104  can obtain many helpful and valuable services through interactive website  96  as indicated at  120 ,  122 ,  124 ,  126 ,  128 , and  130 . Moreover, service companies can enter a significant amount of data into website  96  for use by the service companies in the future for scheduling such as future inspections, future contract renewal requests for homeowners, and the like. Thus, at subscriber information  120 , information about the service company is input including contact information, location, and so forth. Scheduled maintenance/inspection schedules are available at  122  and may be provided as a convenience for companies that might otherwise pay significant sums to develop or purchase software for scheduling purposes. The website may be used by companies to generate bills, renewal notices, service notices, and other comments or advisories to customers or other interested parties. In one embodiment, service personnel that are in a particular area for other reasons such as repairs may be able to log into or have the service company log into the scheduler to determine if efficiencies can be achieved by performing inspections while the service personnel is already in that area. Thus, scheduler function  122  is likely to reduce operating costs for the service company. Service companies may also be able to obtain event histories  124  relating to histories of operation, timely response, timely repair, records of repair for each service personnel and for each environmental equipment installation, types of installations, and so forth. If desired, the data may be limited to data related to those service companies&#39; operations. The type of equipment installed on each site may be available at  126  along with repair/maintenance history and so forth. At  128 , the service company inputs information about the subscriber contract status and may have preprinted forms mailed to the subscriber before the contract expires, with perhaps standardized warning letters to advise about regulations requiring renewal of the service contract. The users may print or save the above and other information to e-mail as desired as indicated at  130 .  
      Another benefit to maintenance entities, if desired, is an online maintenance and repair scheduler and/or router  132 . With this, the maintenance company and/or the serviceman directly can receive a daily (two days, weekly) schedule for each serviceman which includes the locations for the day and, if desired, one or more maps of any desired detail which shows driving directions to each location. The cost savings to the maintenance entity are significant.  
      Many options are available for customizing the work schedules to the needs of the maintenance company needs. For instance, driving times, anticipated on-site maintenance times, anticipated on-site repair times, and/or other factors, can automatically be considered when automatically generating the work schedule for each service person. Scheduler  132  may provide a route that preferably limits driving time, which information is available in many map programs, and maximizes on-site time, e.g., provides a route where adjacent locations are given priority. Scheduler  132  may also provide exceptions, e.g., repairs due to alarms that must be made within a short time period thereby necessitating a longer drive to make the repair within the desired time period. As well, if particular service personnel are in particular areas, then the program may use those personnel because those service personnel may more efficient than others. Scheduler  132  may operate to prepare a schedule based around the work schedule of each serviceperson. For instance, if a serviceperson works only a few hours one day, then scheduler  132  would provide a limited schedule to that service person that day. If a serviceperson is on vacation, then scheduler  132  may be programmed to automatically alter the schedules of other service personnel.  
      Scheduler  132  may also be interactively utilized. For instance, as one possible example only,  FIG. 6  shows interactive daily schedule screen  138  of sites for which work is due. Sites where maintenance is due are marked with an “M,” a few of which are indicated by numeral  134 . Sites where repairs are required are marked by “R” a few of which are indicated by numeral  136 . Sites with repairs required are also shown with the remaining number of hours from the initial alarm in which the repairs are required to be made. If information is available, the anticipated time required on location for the repair is provided on the screen. Scheduler  132  may automatically draw route  1 , route  2 , route  3 , and so forth, as indicated by the dotted lines. Alternatively, a supervisor may verify these routes or change them as desired or completely rework them. For instance, a supervisor may simply click on each site in a desired sequence to set up a route. Any site could be removed from that route by double clicking on the site.  
      Once the routes for the day are set up, then detailed maps can be automatically generated which give driving instructions, detailed maps for each site, and so forth, as indicated at  140 . If the company utilizes GPS units for driving directions, then the locations of each site may be automatically or manually input into the associated GPS unit to provide driving instructions. As well, the required services, needs for special parts, and the like for each site may be provided as indicated at  142  and is given to the service personnel. Thus, the present invention provides a very convenient means for coordinating what needs to be done where, setting up a schedule for each service person, providing detailed driving instructions, and providing instructions as to what service is required for each site. The time and cost to service companies to do route scheduling without the present invention can be high. For this reason, the present invention is highly beneficial to the service companies.  
      Thus, in accord with the operation of the present invention, as discussed herein, a regulatory agency may set up an account having a password  102  to website  96  that enables the agency to view all accounts. If desired, only those accounts in noncompliance can be viewed and may be cataloged in various ways such as, for instance: alarm with no response, inspection not reported in a designated time period, or an account not actively in monitoring status. The present invention may verify compliance with standards such as the NSF International specification for third-party certification that requires that a wastewater treatment facility be repaired within 48 hours after an alarm. The present invention may also verify compliance with NSF International specifications that requires that a unit be inspected on a minimum semiannual basis. The present invention may also verify NSF International specifications requiring a service agreement to be renewed at least on an annual or biannual basis. Additionally, the regulatory agency is able to view the entity responsible for maintaining the equipment, the contact person, the telephone number, the equipment installed on location, and the history of all monitoring events. Should notification be necessary for noncompliance, a preprinted form may be downloaded from the website with the subscriber&#39;s information automatically inserted into the form for mail-out. The service company also benefits by the present invention in that a password-protected account is available showing all subscriber accounts due for maintenance, contract renewal, service personnel records for those embodiments where the particular service person is identified, and an all-events history for the equipment.  
       FIG. 7  shows one embodiment of a preferred two-way telephone/power line data transmission installation  150  which will typically require no additional telephone charges to the homeowner or other owner/operator of an environmental system, such as a wastewater treatment system. As well, two-way telephone/power line data transmission installation  150  may be built into a system within minutes by the system installer without the need for additional telephone wiring, thereby significantly reducing the time and cost of installing an environmental equipment system such as a wastewater treatment system, lift station, or water well. While a preferred embodiment of two-way telephone/power line data transmission installation  150  provides for two-way telephone data transmission as discussed below, one-way telephone data transmission as well as other or supplemental data transmission means may also be utilized.  
      In the embodiment of preferred two-way telephone data transmission installation  150  shown in  FIG. 7 , power line  152  has already been connected between building  154 , such as, for example only, a homeowner&#39;s house and control panel  156  of a wastewater system. In certain systems, a power line is necessary for purposes of running a motor or other equipment at the installation. Power line  152  may be referred to, where appropriate, as a local short distance transmission link, because in at least one preferred embodiment power line  152  establishes a communication link that is generally less than one mile and typically much shorter such as less than one or two hundred yards and perhaps within a few yards of the homeowner&#39;s house. Power line  152  may also be referred to as a dedicated transmission link whereby the dedicated transmission link is only utilized for communication between master transmitter/receiver  162  and slave transmitter/receiver  164 , which may hereinafter also be referred to as nodes. Control panel  156  may typically be positioned at or near the environmental system. Control panel  156  includes power line inductive loop data interface connection  160  which may act inductively to apply/receive data pulses to power line  152  from master transmitter/receiver  162  via master data connection line  158 . As noted above, master transmitter/receiver  162  may be referred to as a node or as a communication node and/or a first communication node and/or master communication node, depending on the configuration, which is capable of sending digital data over a communication link to another communication node capable of forwarding the digital data to another location. In the configuration of  FIG. 7 , master transmitter/receiver  162  is not necessarily capable of receiving data from one or more other communication nodes and transmitting the data to one or more subsequent communication nodes, although in other embodiments of the present invention as discussed hereinafter master transmitter/receiver  162  may be operable for this function.  
      An inductive type of connection inherently provides a certain level of electrical isolation with respect to the master/slave transmitter due to the decreased inductive pick up at 60 Hz as compared to higher transmission signal rates and the ease of providing a notch 60 Hz filter. Other various filters or other means, e.g. optical coupling, may also be utilized, either in the alternative or in addition with inductive coupling, to supply/receive data to power line  152  in a manner whereby power line frequency is blocked from master transmitter receiver/transmitter. While the present system preferably utilizes two-way data transmission, for advantages such as polling to do diagnostics, queries, or checks on the environmental system from a remote user through a server or the like, the present invention could operate in a one-way data transmission mode.  
      In one possible embodiment of the invention using one-way data transmission, the operation of each (or selected of) master transmitters  162  of the system of  FIG. 7  or each of master transmitters  194  of the system of  FIG. 8  may be checked at desired intervals. For instance, if it is desired to verify or check that each or selected of a plurality of master transmitters  194  is operating properly on a monthly basis, then each (or selected) of the plurality of master transmitters  194  may be programmed to dial in monthly to verify operation of the communication system (and possibly also to provide a sensor status report because the call is being made anyway). The location to which calls are made, such as a central location, web site, or any suitable location, may be programmed to expect and to verify calls received and to classify any systems that do not call in as being out of service or temporarily out of service. This check, which might be called a heartbeat signal, may be performed at any desired interval such as daily, weekly, monthly, or the like. The heartbeat signal verifies that each communication system at each environmental equipment system is functioning properly or if not, then records this information for future action.  
      To reduce costs by eliminating unnecessary heartbeat signals, if a location is serviced, such as with a regular maintenance service, then that system may be programmed to wait for the full desired interval before sending a heartbeat signal to avoid unnecessarily checking in.  
      When the service personnel are at the location, and are detected by the personnel detector as being at the location, then the system may, if desired, be programmed to automatically send data to thereby indicate service personnel are present, and also to provide a confirmation signal, light, sound, or the like for the service person so that the service person knows the communication system is working, and also knows that his presence was detected and communicated. In this way, service personnel cannot later say they were at the location but the communication system, personnel detector, or the like failed to note their presence and they were not aware of any communication system problems. A response or response(s) to the confirmation signal by the service personnel may also be required to verify the service personnel properly heard, saw, or otherwise was made aware of the confirmation signal.  
      If desired, automatic two-way operation from a programmed dialer at the central location, website, or the like may be utilized for troubleshooting purposes. For instance, each system not calling in could be called to check that at least the phone line is operating. In case a human answers the phone, an automatic message could be programmed to say that a problem may exist with the system communication system, to please hang up and not answer if another automatic call is made within the next minute to try to communicate with the system. At this point, the system would at least know the phone connection is operating, and perhaps might be able to reestablish communication with the system. Automatic troubleshooting could thereby eliminate some of the problems. Thus, the present invention provides the ability to verify the communication system is operating utilizing either one-way operation, two-way operation, or both. If no communication can be established within a selected time period, then the service company, customer, regulatory agency, or the like, can be automatically notified of the problem by any or several selected preferably automated means including post, email, automatic phone messaging, and the like. Progress to resolve the problem can be monitored and recorded by the system until the problem is resolved.  
      In the embodiment of  FIG. 7 , slave transmitter/receiver  164  connects via slave data connect line  166  and inductive loop  168  to power line  152 . Slave transmitter/receiver  164  is preferably mounted in conveniently mountable building package  170  along with code processor/modem  173 . As discussed hereinafter, conveniently mountable building package  170  may simply be inserted in a power socket in a customer&#39;s house to provide a quick, low-cost installation. For convenience of terminology, slave transmitter/receiver  164  may be referred to as a node or as a communication node and/or a standard communication node and/or a second communication node and/or as a slave or master communication node depending on the configuration, which is capable of receiving digital data and then forwarding the digital information to a different location, such as a remote location, over a different communication link such as a telephone network which may connect to a wide area network such as the Internet. Building package  170  may be mounted by connecting to any power socket and to any telephone jack of a house to establish a communication link between power line  152  and user telephone  174 . Thus, the set up of a data communication link between the environmental system, e.g., a home wastewater system, and the Internet may be set up in minutes. By using existing phone service  174 , extra phone service subscriptions are not required thereby reducing operation costs.  
      Master transmitter/receiver  162  may be under control of CPU  180  and programmed to generally initiate communication with slave transmitter/receiver for connection with the Internet or other desired data path to a desired location, e.g., website  18  discussed hereinbefore. Thus, after acquiring data to be transmitted, or perhaps at predetermined times so as to verify the existence of a working communications link, master transmitter/receiver  162  may be programmed to send a data package to slave transmitter/receiver  164 . Slave transmitter/receiver  164  then activates modem  172  which connects to user telephone line  174  for communication with a wide area network such as the Internet or the like. The data communications link between slave transmitter/receiver  164  and servers or the like at website  18  or other locations may be referred to herein, where appropriate, as a long distance communication link which may be easily capable of sending data hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles from slave transmitter/receiver  164  and may be located virtually anywhere worldwide with a connection to the Internet perhaps through the telephone network.  
      If desired, processor code/modem  172  may be programmed to receive service calls but not regular customer calls using, for instance, instance, distinctive ring services which are often available as a standard feature of telephone subscription packages. In this way, master transmitter/receiver  162  may be contacted remotely, such as by service personnel or a service diagnostic computer (not shown), located a long distance from installation  150  to thereby save service transportation costs where remote servicing is possible. Any other suitable means such as a customer switch, or other signal detection means, may also be utilized to permit diagnostics and/or sensor checking from remotely based service personnel. Once the modem is activated such as by receiving a telephone call, then slave transmitter/receiver  172  receives the signal and notifies master transmitter/receiver  162  and/or transmits data thereto, whereupon control panel  156  then operates in accord with programming of master CPU  180 . Thus, master CPU  180 , and slave processor/mode, and possibly master/slave transmitter  162 , may each be separately programmed to coordinate operations thereof.  
      In some locations, such as remote locations or locations without telephone service, or if otherwise desired, other types of data links may be established. For instance, package  170  may provide a computer port connection to an installation customer&#39;s or user&#39;s computer to thereby be operable to connect to the Internet through a cable or satellite link to the Internet. If desired, software may be included that provides messages and so forth to the user related to operation/status of communications by package  170 . As another possible alternative, antennas, dishes, and the like may be mounted to panel  156  to connect via any signal paths, some possible examples of which are discussed hereinafter.  
      To the extent the power utility company provides Internet access over the power line, the link to building  154  may be eliminated, if desired, to provide a direct link to the Internet. However, where necessary to reduce costs to a minimum, it may be desirable to provide a master/slave link even in this scenario to avoid any additional Internet subscription costs.  
      In another embodiment, the present invention contemplates cellular telephone connections and the possibility of programming the cellular telephone to use an existing cellular account where possible to save costs. It is a general purpose of the invention to provide low cost, quick and convenient installation as well as long term low cost operating service for the communications link. The embodiments described herein provide that result in a manner that as of this day are less expensive than cellular telephone although the present invention does not rule out the possible use of a cellular and/or pager connection especially if the costs are kept low. For instance, due to the large number of systems, and the typically very low data transmission usage, specialized cellular telephone contracts might be obtained which result in lower costs. To keep costs low, a typical system may only communicate at service calls and/or maintenance request calls and/or system checks as may take typically require less than one minute.  
      Other features of control panel  156  may include various options such as ID reader  176  whereby a serviceman may have a magnetic strip card or bar code as discussed hereinbefore which is read by the ID reader  176  to provide additional information as to the identity of the serviceman, time of service, duration of service, as discussed hereinbefore. If desired, a manual reporting means, such as a button or keypad as discussed hereinbefore, may also be utilized so that a report may be sent from control panel  156  to the Internet or other desired data link as desired. CPU/Command input portion  180  may comprise a programmed computer with various interface inputs as desired for various sensors, testing, initiating data communication, and so forth. Sensor inputs may include operational data such as motor currents, speed, temperature, pH, chemical properties, service personnel detectors, and/or any other type of electronically detectable signals some of which may also be discussed hereinbefore or after.  
      While a power line communication link is shown in  FIG. 7 , any type of suitable conductor of communication signals might be utilized to provide a suitable communication link preferably without the need to additional wiring that is not also required for other operational purposes, e.g., metallic pipes, conduits, and so forth.  
       FIG. 8  provides another possible embodiment of the present invention whereby two-way short distance radio wave link data transmission installation  190  is utilized but which is otherwise similar to system. In one preferred embodiment, a cordless type telephone link may be provided, e.g., a standard 900 MHZ, or 2.5 GHz, or spread spectrum, or other types of cordless telephone communication links may be utilized to establish a cordless data communication link  192  between master cordless transceiver  194  and slave cordless transceiver  196 . Generally, the FCC or other regulatory agency designates particular frequency bandwidths for use as cordless phone, Wi-fi, other short distance communication links. Thus, a cordless phone for purposes of the present invention may preferably utilize frequencies designated by governmental agencies for short distance transmission and may generally comprise non-broadcast type radio wave equipment, e.g., relatively low power equipment. CB transmissions or walkie talkie transmission permit communications at distances from zero to hundred miles but are generally not regulated as broadcast radio in the sense that a license must be obtained, are readily commercially available, and typically provide for less than about 5 watts of broadcast power. Generally, preferred wireless systems in accord with the present invention would not produce undesirable emf interference. Existing cordless phone circuitry is preferred due to the low cost, easy availability, and compatibility with phone systems.  
      In this embodiment, module  198  is simply connected to a phone line plug which in many houses is often already provided for extension phones, thereby greatly simplifying installation. Module  198  may receive power from the phone line and charge a battery for operation of slave transmitter/receiver  196  or may also include a power cord for connection to a power line. For convenience of terminology, slave transmitter/receiver  196  may be referred to as a node or as a communication node and/or a first communication node and/or as a master communication node, depending on the configuration, which is capable of sending digital data over a communication link to another communication node capable of forwarding the digital data to another location. It will be understood that module  198  may be provided in separate modules such as a base unit and signal amplifier transponder unit (not shown) to improve signal transmission over data link  192 . Power for master transmitter/receiver is generally available either by a power line for a motor, by solar power and battery, and/or other suitable means. As discussed hereinbefore with respect to system  150 , slave processor/modem  198  may connect to the Internet or to any data link using the telephone network as desired.  
      In the configuration of  FIG. 8 , master transmitter/receiver  194  is not necessarily capable of receiving data from another communication node and transmitting the data to one or more subsequent communication nodes, although in other embodiments master transmitter/receiver  194  may be operable for this function as discussed hereinafter.  
      In another embodiment of system  190  shown in  FIG. 8 , or as discussed below in conjunction with  FIG. 9 , walkie-talkie communication links may be utilized with commercially available transceivers, e.g., 130-138 Mhz, 225-238 Mhz, 113-117 Mhz, 144-149 Mhz, and/or others, which may typically provide a range of 1 to 50 miles between a slave transmitter/receiver and one or more environmental systems. Generally, the FCC or other regulatory agency assigns bandwidths for these types of communication devices although any suitable and permitted frequencies may be utilized in accord with the present invention. While one possible presently preferred embodiment provides a single data link between a single environmental system to a single local building, it will be understood that the present invention is not limited to this particular communication system architecture and that one or more walkie-talkie communication nodes, or other wireless communication nodes, may be established that operate in a wide range of possible communication topographies some of which are discussed herein.  
      While a preferred inexpensive and easily mountable relatively short distance master/slave data link between the environmental system and a local building has been described, other wireless data links from an environmental system to a proximate building may also comprise ultrasonic links, LED links, optical links, spread spectrum audio links, vibration transmitters, electromagnetic waves, and many other suitable data transmission links. If desired, combinations of different types of data transmission links may be utilized to provide additional reliability based on cost/benefit for these links as desired.  
      In another embodiment, data links such as two-way pager data-only transmission links may be utilized which may provide less expensive communication links than cellular telephones. In a preferred embodiment communication costs are kept very low although other types of data links may be utilized as developed or known or based on reduced prices which may occur for those services in the future. Thus, wireless data communication links to the Internet or to other data links may comprise satellite, blimp mounted transmitter/receivers, radio wave transmitters and/or receivers, cellular towers, and the like. These devices may utilize any convenient modulation, e.g. spread spectrum. In many cases, it may be possible to utilize rather slow data transmission rates to save costs because communication from any particular environmental location may require infrequent communications of small amounts of information.  
      The systems of  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8  operate to provide a quick and inexpensive means for providing communications to an environmental equipment system. The system of  FIG. 8  may be especially suitable for environmental systems that do not require motors or the like that would require power lines. In this case, master transmitter/receiver  194  and the related sensors and CPU may utilize solar power/batteries, and low power drain circuitry.  
       FIG. 9  provides yet another possible embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG. 9 , an example of a node-based communication system  300  in a 100 square mile area is shown wherein each node, which may be associated with an environmental equipments system such as a wastewater processing system, is within one to ten miles of each other to thereby permit the use of low-cost wireless communications such as, for example only, inexpensive readily available walkie-talkie type transceivers at each node. Each node, such as nodes  302 ,  304 ,  306 ,  308 , and the like, has an identical transceiver, e.g. a walkie-talkie, and may also utilize identical programming to thereby reduce costs. Each node will preferably store information specific to that node such as location, data history, alarms, schedules, installation dated, serial numbers, modifications, repairs, and the like as desired. Each node may be programmed for either automatically transferring information from other nodes or for storing information to be transmitted until a desired time. A node communication architecture as shown in  FIG. 9  may be cost effective due to elimination of the separate modules required in each house such as module  170 , and by eliminating even the few minutes required to install module  170 . System  300  does not require that the homeowner be at home and/or that access to a local building be provided, to initially set up the short distance communication link. This architecture may also eliminate or substantially reduce the need for phone dialers, modems, and the like.  
      In this example of a node-based communication system  300 , which might be used for a plurality of wastewater systems for example, a walkie-talkie type transceiver node  302  may be utilized at each wastewater station. To communicate from node  302  to the Internet, a node-to-node communication link is formed that sends a signal to an Internet access point. For instance, service shop  310  or a master nodes  314  or  315 , may be have access to the Internet. Accordingly, node  302  may communicate with nodes along a somewhat arbitrary strongest signal and/or automatically predetermined node path  303 . Node path  303  might include, for instance, nodes such as  304 , to  306 , to  308 , and so forth, such that in the node-to-node communication link each node acts as a signal repeater to transmit the signal from a previous node in the path to the next node until the signal reaches to service shop  310 , master node  314 , or other Internet access point. As indicated above, node-to-node route  303  may be predetermined and stored in the memory of each node for each node. As an example, after receipt of a signal or perhaps as a once a day update, service shop  310  then connects to Internet  312  to send in the data received that day. If a rush signal were obtained, then the connection might be made immediately.  
      In a preferred embodiment, each node may be programmed to communicate with other nodes, and may be programmed automatically set up a communication node-to-node link for each node based on the strongest signal channel available at the particular moment so that arbitrary node path  303  would automatically adjust to and provide the strongest signal path data link to service shop  310 . If a node was in the group of nodes and communication was lost, e.g., due to a storm, then the other nodes would detect the absence of a scheduled ping or acknowledgment signal whereby service shop  310  would be notified of a communication breakdown at the particular node or nodes of concern. The same type of occasional ping or acknowledgment signal may be used in the systems of  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8  to provide information of a communication breakdown. The node-to-node communication scheme provides two-way communication that does not require a user with a telephone connection, or that a telephone ring in order to receive communications, to the extent that might be of benefit.  
      Each node may or may not be identically programmed and/or may be operable in different programming modes which may be selected as desired. For instance, the nodes may be collectively programmed to detect the strongest overall signal path for each node and to store that signal path. Alternatively, each node may accept a predetermined manually selected signal path as determined by an operator or a computer such as at wastewater installation service shop  310 . Alternatively, the nodes may be programmed to select a new path at selected intervals for each node and store the same in memory for use as needed, e.g., every two-day interval the best signal path is determined and reported to service shop  310 , if desired.  
      As an example, by starting with the closest installation to the service shop or other master node, e.g., node  315 , then the adjacent nodes in communication are determined and their signal strength is determined. Then those nodes check for the adjacent nodes and signal strength. This process goes back through the entire node network system  300 . If a previous system is already in memory, then a check is made that all nodes are present and if not, attempts are made to contact any missing node utilizing the nodes adjacent thereto. With all nodes accounted for, a best signal path is developed whereby each node preferably utilizes a maximum signal strength node-to-node connection as the primary send/receive node for normal transmission of signals. Communication from any node then normally proceeds utilizing the primary node path whereby a system of signal paths is established back to one or more master nodes, e.g. shop  310  or nodes  314  or  315  which have Internet access or other communication access. If communication is disrupted so that the primary send/receive node does not respond, then a node may communicate with any node and request a check of the listed primary send/receive node. The optimal signal path may be stored in a computer memory at each node, such as within control panel  156  of  FIG. 7 .  
      As well, each node may be provided with identical transmitter/receiver with approximately the same transmission range whereby the mass production permits a relatively long distance e.g. 10-15 mile range between nodes at a relatively low cost. Each node-to-node link may be referred to where appropriate as a medium distance link which is typically in the range of several hundred to several miles but could be up to one hundred miles or so. Note that range of sight transmissions may not be possible directly between some nodes due to hills and the like but that a connection may be possible through other nodes. For maximum data transmission rates, preferably each node will be able to send and receive simultaneously. However, by providing send/receive signals at irregular intervals for each node, or by synchronization signals, then one-way signal transmission techniques may be utilized to provide reliable communication at a lower cost because in a typical system the data flow rate is relatively low.  
      If desired, some nodes may utilize less expensive walkie-talkie type transceivers for the distance involved, e.g., a two-mile range walkie-talkie for closely spaced together wastewater installations. However, the current price of a ten-mile walkie-talkie is relatively low, especially in large orders, and may cost a few dollars each. In a node-to-node communications scheme, the cost of the telephone/cable modem may be substantially eliminated. It will be noted that although fifty-mile range walkie-talkies are available, these tend to be more expensive but may be greatly reduced in price by use of mass production for a single project that require only data transmission and no voice transmission.  
      If desired, a combination of the systems of  FIG. 7 ,  FIG. 8 , and  FIG. 9  may be utilized based upon cost and/or remoteness from another node. For instance, consider node cluster  311 , whereby a group of nodes are relatively isolated from the majority of nodes. In this case, one or more of the relatively local walkie talkie nodes may be established as a connection link, utilizing the system of  FIG. 7  or  FIG. 8 , to connect to the Internet. In this example, master nodes  314  and  315  each have an Internet link  319 . The remainder of the nodes can communicate with each other and to master nodes  314  and  315 , e.g.,  315 ,  316 ,  318 ,  320 ,  322 , may be set up within, for instance, a 10 mile area, to communicate with a plurality of environmental systems. For this example, the node cluster  311  would provide a relatively short distance communication link (up to approximately 5-10 miles or so utilizing inexpensive transmitters) with a plurality of environmental systems, and interconnect the plurality of environmental system to website  18  discussed hereinbefore or to any desired server or the like. Master nodes, such as nodes  314  and  315 , may also be utilized to provide redundant communication paths to Internet  312  in case Internet communications or other communications are lost at any particular Internet access point.  
      As another example, cluster  311  may link to node-to-node system  310  through alternate route  305 . As another example, clusters of nodes may such as multiple clusters  311  may be interconnected. Master nodes may also comprise satellite communication links, blimp communication links, and the like to service very remotely located locations where power and telephone connections are not available. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that many variations of communication topographies in node communication systems may be effected either automatically or manually.  
      As another benefit, it will be noted that node communication system  301  effectively creates an independent communication network that may be utilized, and rented out, for other purposes. Such a node system interconnected with other node systems may become very large, e.g., hundreds of square miles, and form a network of fixed position computers as might be useful for many purposes such as collecting data. For instance, the master computer, e.g., master computer  180  shown in  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8 , may be programmed to interface with modules built by customers/suppliers of a large node system. As an example, environmental sensors in a solar-powered walkie talkie node could monitor the local streams and/or rivers within the node network and communicate with environmental equipment system nodes to the environmental agency. In this way, it would be possible to monitor and detect pollutants over wide areas, at many remote points, to thereby pinpoint possible sources of pollution at a very early stage. In another embodiment, the website  18  discussed hereinbefore may be utilized to directly enter lab testing results of samples and/or to receive the collected environmental sensor data whereby the environmental agency will have immediate access. Where appropriate, the data may be displayed on maps or in other ways which enhance the value of the data.  
      As another example of use for purposes unrelated to environmental installations, a standard weather package may be connected to the node network to obtain many readings over hundreds of square miles such as air temperature, humidity, pressure, ground temperature, rain levels, wind rates, and so forth to thereby provide a valuable service which farmers, television stations, and the like, may pay for in order to provide more accurate information than competitors. Such a system might also be useful for collecting data related to tornado tracking/warning due to the ability to network desired sensors to fixed locations over a wide area.  
      Another use of the so created communication network may be for location information of service personnel as might be useful for wastewater maintenance service companies. For instance, a transponder positioned on the service personnel truck would provide automatic location and route tracking of the truck as each node detects the presence thereof. The arrival time, time on location, departure time, service truck numbers, and so forth, could be automatically recorded by the node as another embodiment of a system that does not require single purpose, separate and permanently mounted personnel detector as mentioned hereinbefore. If a service truck drops off service personnel at various locations, then each service personnel could be appraised of the location of the service truck as may be useful.  
      Another use might be to activate equipment such as irrigation equipment, anti-mosquito fogging equipment, spraying equipment, farm related equipment, and so forth.  
      Another use may be for animal or people tracking using infrared sensors/movement sensors. Other data may also be transmitted through the node to node network, e.g., email, and the like. Accordingly, it will be understood that the present invention may be utilized for purposes related or unrelated to environmental systems.  
      Another use might be the creation of a wide range Wi-Fi Internet access network for relatively remote areas. Note that the homeowner may receive an email of a system alarm or a reminder of low chlorine levels, or the need for other chemicals, or the like utilizing the present system.  
      In another embodiment of the invention, rather than manufacture node system  300 , a pre-existing coast-to-coast walkie talkie phone service with custom equipment design may be available at a relatively overall low cost blanket manufacturing/subscription rate from an OEM provider, assuming very large numbers of nodes would be utilized for establishing node networks.  
      However although specific examples are discussed immediately above, e.g. walkie-talkies, it will be understood that a local node system may utilize any suitable transmission means as is available which may provide a suitable cost/benefit and/or transmission distance available as current or future technology permits. Specialized communication nodes may also be utilized. For instance, once designed and programmed, relatively low-cost specialized, highly reliable, data communication systems may also be provided which may operate using, for instance, spread spectrum transmission, which may take advantage of the relatively low speed data rate communication links required to support wastewater system monitoring, and which operate with slow data rates but with highly reliable data communications links between the nodes at longer distances, e.g., even 100 miles or so whereby even very weak signals transmit slowly but very accurately and reliably.  
      In another embodiment, each environmental system such as a wastewater system would comprise a two-way walkie talkie node capable of communicating with any other node within 50 miles. Thus, a network of linked nodes could be set up whereby a communication could cover hundreds of miles so long as any particular wastewater system was within 50 miles of another node. Due to the need to provide only a commercially available, substantially low cost walkie talkie transceiver at each wastewater installation, and no other equipment except a node such as the service shop where Internet access is available, the costs may be even further reduced.  
      In accord with one embodiment of communication system, no external required phone line communication need be installed. In one possible embodiment, the system may comprise an FM transceiver master controller module that is located at the main control panel. The master controller communicates with a secondary or slave FM transceiver that is located in a residence or facility which preferably has an internal phone line extension, or a dedicated line to thereby communicate system status to a central monitoring station and/or website  18 . In another embodiment an FM transceiver signal is sent by injecting the signal onto the ac wiring of a house. The master control sends the data to a secondary slave which is located in the house and may conveniently be plugged into an ac outlet. The house or facility preferably has an internal phone line extension, or a dedicated line to thereby communicate system status to a central monitoring station and/or website  18 .  
      Although a particular compliance system organization has been described, other computerized compliance system organizations could be used. For instance, each service personnel could have a handheld computer that communicates data to a desired location. Computer interconnections between the handheld computer and controller  12  could be made either by cable or wirelessly. The inspection data and details of repair may then be transferred by the handheld computer. Thus, the system may be set up quite differently and still effect the same functions and purposes. Each service company might set up a system that communicates between the service personnel, the unit, and a centralized data collection center whereby the data is available from all sources to the regulatory agency.  
       FIG. 10  is a schematic for a personnel detection system  400  in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention indicating a plurality of environmental equipments systems such as systems  402 ,  404 ,  406 ,  408 , and  410 . In this example, each system is surrounded by a service personnel detection zone which may be of different sizes, shapes, and relative positions with respect to the systems. For instance, the service personnel detection zones might be 20 yards in diameter or larger, e.g., a hundred or few hundred yards. Generally, the zones are set electronically by wireless means and may be configured in a desired size and shape. Moreover, there may be several detection regions. For example, system  402  may utilize a smaller service personnel detection region  412 , or a larger service personnel detection region  414 , or both. In the example shown in  FIG. 10  with respect to system  402 , for example, two service personnel detection regions surround system  402 . Instead of having system  402  at the center, one or both detection regions could be adjacent or somewhat off to the side. It will be understood that this is only an example and that one service personnel detection zone may be used for each system, such as system  402 , but that others may also be used.  
      In one preferred embodiment, the service personnel detection regions are defined wirelessly by suitable electronics. For instance,  FIG. 11  shows GPS locator  450  which may utilize programming related to GPS signals to define a geophysical region such as service personnel detection regions  412  or  414  or both.  FIG. 12  shows personnel locator  500  which may utilize cordless telephone technology to contact monitoring electronics  502  which monitors the environmental equipment system as described hereinbefore. In this case, the transmission range of the cordless telephone electronics wirelessly defines service personnel detection regions  412  or  414 . In another example, in  FIG. 13 , a camera such as camera  550 , which may be an inexpensive CCD device, may be utilized to provide a wireless personnel detection region and may also be utilized for visually monitoring environmental equipment  552 . In this case, the camera visual range and orientation wirelessly defines the service personnel detection zone. The above and or other electronic service personnel detection devices may be used by themselves or in combination. As well, various communication means may be utilized in conjunction with these systems for communicating the electronic detection of the service personnel to a database such as web server  26  of  FIG. 2 .  
      In  FIG. 10 , a service truck may travel along a service route to all of the sites which require service for that day, leaving from and returning to base  418 . The route may have legs between each stop, such as leg  416 ,  420 ,  422 , and so forth, which establish the route.  
       FIG. 11  shows one possible GPS locator  450  which may, in one possible embodiment, be mountable on a truck dashboard or windshield, such as with a suction cup  454  and a power connection to a cigarette lighter receptacle, for charging and perhaps for viewing on display  452  of a road map showing the route for the day, such as the route shown in  FIG. 10 . Upon reaching a location in a truck, and parking the truck, such as at parking spaces  424 ,  428 , or the like, locator  450  may be carried by the service personnel to the environmental equipment system through a respective personnel detection zone. Alternatively, the personnel detection zone may be large enough to encompass the parking space for the truck so that it is not necessary to remove GPS locator  450  from the truck. Or both zones may be required to show the service personnel has been detected depending on the programming. For instance, parking space  424  is within service personnel detection zone  430  but not within smaller personnel detection zone  408 . In any case, GPS antenna  456  and GPS  458  will show the geophysical position of the service personnel as he moves to environmental equipment system  408  as being within the service personnel detection zones  430  and  408 .  
      There are numerous options for communicating GPS information or service personnel detection information to servers or the like using communication systems discussed hereinbefore to provide a record of when the service personnel arrived and/or how long he/she was on location. For instance, upon leaving, the service personnel might utilize cellular phone circuitry  460 , if this component of device  450  is available, by pressing a button to send information that provides an accumulation of time and location data which will show when the service personnel arrived, how long the service personnel stayed, the service personnel ID, when the service personnel departed, and any other desired information. Microprocessor memory  462  may also contain the location of the service personnel detection zone and microprocessor  461  may be programmed to utilize cellular electronics  460  to send the time of arrival and departure without need of the service personnel to press a button, and may save the information as a backup in case the cellular line did not make a good connection. As well, if the option is available, either manually or under microprocessor control, service personnel detection information might be sent via local cordless phone circuitry, or by walkie talkie utilizing local wireless electronics  464 . GPS locator  450  may also comprise I/O  463  that may be physically connected to a socket in the electronics of dialer  12  (See  FIG. 1 ) at the environmental equipment system, or a computer, or the like at base  418  (See  FIG. 10 ) in order to communicate the presence of the service personnel to a storage unit such as web server  26 . GPS locator  450  may also comprise an electronic means for describing the services made, the costs, and so forth which may also be downloaded at base  418 , or which could be transmitted as discussed above. Accordingly, service personal detection information such as arrival and departure times from location, and perhaps other information, may be transferred to server  25  (See  FIG. 2 ) or the like.  
      GPS locator  450  need not comprise all of the above described components, some of which are redundant. For instance, in another embodiment shown in  FIG. 12 , ID device  500  may comprise cordless phone circuitry such as send/receive integrated circuit  504  or other cordless phone circuitry for wirelessly connecting to dialer  502 . Thus, a send/receive integrated circuit is not required, but may be an inexpensive means for implementing the device. Dialer  502  may also comprise send/receive integrated circuit  506 . Dialer  502  may make a connection to a telephone line without need for running wiring by using cordless phone circuitry to connect to a local phone line through send/receive integrated circuit  510  which may be in a local building such as a house where the environmental equipment is a wastewater system, as described hereinbefore in connection with  FIG. 8 . In this example, each service personnel might be given ID device  500  which may be in the form of a readable card, badge, or the like. Upon reaching location, a button or any other means on device  500  may be activated to send ID information such as the service personnel&#39;s identification number. The button may also be pressed upon leaving thereby providing a record of how long and when the service personnel was on location. The service personnel detection information may then be sent to server  25  (See  FIG. 2 ) through line  508 . If dialer  502  does not have a send/receive integrated circuit and instead uses a hard wired line, then the send/receive chip may be built in or may be added by connecting module  512  to a connector on dialer  502  whereby module  512  contains the appropriate electronics and/or programming.  
      In  FIG. 13 , one or more low cost video cameras such as charge coupled devices  550  may be utilized for monitoring environmental equipment  552  and/or also for detecting service personnel within a service personnel detection zone which may be formed within a visual range of device  550 . The video data may show what the service personnel do, e.g., checking fluid levels. CCD  550  may be activated by pressing a button, by motion or infra red sensors, or by device  500  or the like. As well, video frames may be regularly taken and then discarded except during time periods in which the service personnel were on location. The video may be used in conjunction with other devices discussed hereinbefore or by itself. For purposes of the present invention, a CCD camera sensitive to electromagnetic waves such as light waves may be considered an electromagnetic antenna.  
       FIG. 14  is a schematic diagram showing alarm verification system  600  for verifying that alarm circuit  610  in environmental equipment system  606  is operational, in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment of the invention, power is supplied to building  604  and environmental equipment system  606  from power lines of power company  602 . This power may typically, but not necessarily, come from a single drop or outlet from a power line transformer.  
      As discussed above, it will be understood that a large number of environmental equipment systems  606 , such as aerobic wastewater treatment systems, are utilized by businesses and homeowners. The business or homeowner building  604  is often located some relatively short distance from the wastewater treatment system  606  as discussed above.  
      In one preferred embodiment, breaker box  608  may be utilized with the wastewater treatment system  606  to provide circuit overload protection. In this case, alarm circuit  610  may utilize breaker  612  that is separate from the one or more breakers  614  that supply power to other wastewater treatment system electrical components  619 . Therefore, if breakers  614  are tripped, then alarm circuit  610  still has power and will be able to sense the failure of operation utilizing one or more sensors as discussed hereinbefore. However, it is possible that breaker  612  that supplies power to alarm circuit  610  could trip. In this case, it would be desirable that this malfunction be detected. As well, it is possible that functionality of alarm circuit  610  may be compromised in other ways. While a self-test may be utilized to verify sensor operation of alarm circuit  610 , e.g., motor current sensors, other problems may develop. For instance, transmitter  616  that transmits the alarm signal could fail.  
      As discussed above, a regularly scheduled heartbeat signal may be sent from wastewater treatment system  606  to remote server  26  or receiver  14  or other server that would indicate a failure in the event that a regularly scheduled transmission is not received. For example only, if a heartbeat signal or regular transmission signal were scheduled for once a month, then a failure may be indicated if the heartbeat signal is not received by server  26  or receiver  14  within that time period. If desired, the heartbeat signal could include any readings from alarm sensors and/or may indicate that a self-test shows that all alarm sensors are within the acceptable range of readings. The heartbeat signal may be sent to a server, such as a third party server or service company server as discussed above.  
      In some cases, the cost of sending the heartbeat signal may be negligible. For instance, if local calls are used or if email or other computer connections are utilized, then a heartbeat signal could be sent to a server very frequently, perhaps several times per day or even more often. However, if telephone costs are not negligible, or it is not desired to utilize the local telephone line except in off hours, it may be desired to reduce costs of sending the heartbeat signal so that, as a non-limiting example, only one heartbeat signal is sent each month or in any desired time period. Alternatively, it may be desired to eliminate the heartbeat signal and call only if there is an actual failure in system  606 , whether of alarm circuit  610  or equipment  619 . Even when costs associated with transmission of the heartbeat signal are not negligible, it may be desirable that the operational status be verified more frequently than once a month. The present invention provides this functionality and/or other functionality without the need for excessive communication costs or tying up the local telephone line.  
      If desired, household circuits such as kitchen lights, or the like, could be powered through breaker  612  which also includes alarm circuit  610 , as some regulators have indicated may be a desirable option. With such a configuration, the homeowner would be aware of the power failure due to the failure of the kitchen lights or other devices to operate, and would know to take steps to restore power. However, providing a common breaker for the household and alarm circuit  610  may be more costly and require the cost of additional wiring between building  604  and environmental system  606 . The present invention also eliminates these costs and results in a more reliable system.  
      As discussed above, such as in conjunction with  FIG. 7-9 , system  600  may utilize slave transmitter or slave node  618  for communication with environmental system  606 , Transmitter  616  and slave node  618  may also be referred to herein as first and second communication nodes. As also discussed above, local nodes such as slave node  618  may be utilized to check for a heartbeat signal of other locally positioned nodes such as transmitter  616 . Accordingly, slave node  618  may be programmed to detect what is referred to herein as a local heartbeat signal from transmitter  616  to slave node  618 . Alarm circuit  610  may verify operation, run self-tests or the like, and be programmed to transmit a signal through transmitter  616  to slave node  618  at any desired time interval, e.g., each minute, each hour, or the like. If this local heartbeat signal is not received by slave node  618 , then slave node  618  may be programmed to report the failure to receiver  14 , server  24 , or the like, or wait to report the failure, as discussed below. If the local heartbeat signal is received, then it can be assumed that alarm circuit  610  and transmitter  616  are functioning properly in which case slave node  618  may be programmed, if desired, to provide an external heartbeat signal to the server at some desired interval, e.g., a monthly heartbeat signal to receiver  14  or server  26  or other server to verify operation of environmental system  606 . In another possible embodiment, the external heartbeat signal to the remote server may be eliminated as unnecessary in light of the local heartbeat signal between transmitter  616  and slave node  618 .  
      With the local heartbeat signal between alarm circuit  610  and slave node  618 , it is possible to verify system operation virtually continuously without incurring the frequent communication costs to receiver  14 , server  24 , or the like.  
      In this non-limiting example, slave node  618  may be powered by a house circuit through a standard house breaker box  620 , and may be used to turn off or flash house lights  622 , flash indicator lights  624 , or the like within building  604 , to thereby notify the homeowner that power to alarm circuit  606  and/or other environmental equipment  619  has failed. For instance, indicator lights  624  may comprise a green light which stays on when there are no problems and a flashing yellow light that indicates a problem. As another possibility or additionally, slave node  618  may comprise a socket into which a house lamp  622  is connected. Alternatively, slave node  618  may comprise a controller for a house lamp  622  that may be mounted through a power controller, such as are commonly used in house or building lighting systems, e.g. controllers that operate wirelessly or through the house wiring. When communication to the server is desired, slave node  618  may connect to a server or receiver, as described hereinbefore, e.g., receiver  14  and/or web server  26 . Slave node  618  may connect to receiver  14  or web server  26  or other servers or receivers via an 800 or 888 number or other toll free number to avoid long distance phone costs. Alternatively, slave node  618  may connect via local computer network and/or via modem, wirelessly, through cable, through house power line, or the like, to a local ISP (Internet Service Provider) to provide a warning over the Internet. Slave node  618  may comprise a dialer programmed for dialing the desired number, perhaps at off times, e.g., 1 AM to 4 AM, to avoid interference with other phone calls made by the business or homeowner. To further reduce communication costs where groups of environmental systems may be located, if desired, a local number may be provided in the form of a local phone number for the receiver  14  phone number. For example only, if receiver  14  is physically located in Hawaii, a telephone line may be obtained in Hawaii that has a Houston telephone number whereby callers in Houston calling to receiver  14  are charged only for a local call instead of a call to Hawaii. Alternatively, the local number of an ISP in Houston may be utilized by slave node  618  whereby an Internet connection made by a local call in Houston connects through the Internet to a server in Hawaii, without incurring long distance call costs.  
      As also discussed above, slave node  618  and alarm transmitter  616  may be implemented in many ways. For instance, slave transmitter  618  and alarm transmitter  616  may comprise a cordless telephone link wherein relatively inexpensive cordless telephone integrated circuits may be utilized. Slave node  618  may simply connect to any household telephone outlet and may be plugged into a power socket for power. In this embodiment, as discussed above, service personnel may carry a badge or device with a similar cordless telephone integrated circuit to connect to alarm transmitter  616  and/or slave node  618  to verify their presence at environmental system  606 , as discussed hereinbefore.  
      Slave node  618  could be implemented in other ways. For instance, slave node  618  may be programmed to call an ISP to communicate through the Internet directly to server  24  or another server. ISPs may be selected which utilize local telephone numbers to reduce phone charges. Heartbeat calls or communications to the server may include cumulative data from multiple local heartbeat signals and may include the times related to the malfunction. As well, any desired updates or changes to desired reporting frequency, additional local telephone numbers to connect to the ISP from the server, or the like, could be implemented by automatic downloads during scheduled reporting times, Alternatively, local telephone numbers may be set up for receiving local calls to a remotely located receiver  14  without long distance phone costs, as also discussed above.  
      Many possible constructions are available for slave node  618 . Instead of being a box that plugs into a wall socket, slave node  618  may be a circuit board that connects to a local computer and/or may comprise a wireless connection to a local network or the like. Other potential constructions of slave node  618  are described above, such as in conjunction with  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 7-10 .  
       FIG. 15  is a flow diagram for operation of slave node  618  which describes operation of alarm verification system  600  in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, slave node  618  continuously monitors for a local heart beat or transmission from transmitter  616  as indicated by decision block  702 . The time period may be virtually any time period, e.g., each second, minute, hour, or the like. A clock or timer may be provided in slave node  618  for this purpose. Slave node  618  does not need to make a connection to receiver  14  or server  24  or other remotely located server for this purpose. Thus, it is not necessary to incur telephone costs or tie up the local telephone line as slave node  618  monitors for heart beat transmissions from transmitter  616 . So long as the local heartbeat signal is received as indicated at  704 , then the operation of alarm  610  is verified.  
      If the heartbeat signal is not received within a specified time period as indicated at  706 , then it may be desirable to provide a period during which slave node  618  waits before reporting a problem. The absence of the heartbeat signal may be temporary due to servicing of the unit by service personnel or other short term outages. Thus, in decision box  708  a comparison may be made between the elapsed time since the last heartbeat signal was received and the present time. If the time is less than a desired elapsed time before reporting, e.g., 12 hours, and/or an early morning reporting time, e.g., 1 AM to 3 AM, then counter  710  may be used to count the elapsed time or a clock may be utilized for comparison with a desired reporting time, or other data may be utilized for making this determination.  
      If the elapsed time has expired, or if the desired reporting time is present, then a second check may be made as indicated at decision box  712 . For instance, it may be desirable to send the report only once to avoid wasting phone costs and/or tying up the local line. If the report has not been sent in, it may be desirable for slave node  618  to then contact receiver  14 , server  24 , or any desired location to report the problem, as indicated at  714 .  
      The report may state the time period during which the local heartbeat signal was not received. The report may be viewed by third party operators, regulators, respective service personnel, and the system owner. The information may be sent to a service company who may be able to fix the problem remotely such as by calling the homeowner and asking that the breaker  612  be checked. If this solves the problem, then a reset signal may be generated by transmitter  616  and/or by slave node  618  as indicated at  712  so that should another heartbeat signal be received, then the selected waiting period before reporting will start again.  
      If desired, a monthly, bimonthly, or other time period heartbeat signal may be sent from slave node  618  to a remote server or receiver to verify that the connection between slave node  618  and the remote server or receiver is operational, as indicated at  718  and  720 . However, due to the absence of a working phone line, or warning lights  624  or  622 , the homeowner is likely to notice and repair such conditions. For instance, if the phone line goes out, then because the line is preferably the same line which the homeowner may normally use, it is likely the homeowner will get this repaired. Likewise, if a breaker in breaker box  620  is tripped, the absence of a circuit is likely to be noticed and repaired. As well, power company  602  may provide outage information that may be monitored by receiver  14  or server  24 , as indicated at  718 .  
      Accordingly, in one possible embodiment, the present invention provides a system which utilizes slave node  618  to verify operation of alarm circuit  610  at relatively frequent intervals, e.g., hourly, without the need for continuously contacting a remotely located server or receiver, e.g., server  26 , receiver  14 , or the like.  
      Referring now to  FIG. 16 , there is shown a flow diagram that describes operation of a sparse data permit threshold verification system and/or method  800  in accord with one possible embodiment of the present invention. In one embodiment, the system reduces data transmitted to a minimum, i.e., the system transmits only a sparse amount of data. In one embodiment, system/method  800  only provides whether or not the permit requirements have been violated, with the assumption that lack of any data transfer is indicative of compliance with environmental requirements. This sparse data is sent very quickly, essentially real time for this type of system information, to those who will find the information most useful for regulatory and economic reasons. Thus system/method  800  operates at a low cost. System/method  800  also reduces costs of users by directing them immediately to trouble spot wastewater treatment systems that require immediate attention while avoiding wasting time with wastewater treatment systems that do not require immediate attention.  
      A large amount of data can conceivably be generated to determine and/or monitor system status. As alluded to in the background of the invention, it will be appreciated that the wastewater treatment system may be described in terms of various types of flow rates. An instantaneous flow rate could be utilized which may have a maximum flow rate that is much higher than a threshold flow rate specified in terms of gallons per day as might typically be set by the regulatory agency and/or the system manufacturer. Moreover, an average number of gallons/day processed by the system over a period of several months may be quite different from the threshold intended by the regulatory agency and/or the system manufacturer. In one embodiment, system and/or method  800  provides very quick means for determining whether the system flow rate threshold, which may typically be set by the regulatory agency, is met or is not met.  
      As noted above, in one preferred embodiment, sparse data is provided concerning system operation. In other words, only a relatively limited amount of information is provided as compared to the total possible amount of information that could be provided. While, complete running totals of gallons pumped updated each minute or hour or day are available, in one embodiment the only information provided is whether the threshold flow rate of interest to the regulatory agency has been exceeded. This information is provided when it occurs, thereby allowing a response by regulatory personnel and/or other persons of interest to prevent or limit damage that may be caused. If no report is received, then the regulatory agency can presume that the processing capacity of the system has not been exceeded.  
      Wastewater treatment systems can thoroughly process only a certain amount of wastewater depending on the capacity of the system, which may vary. As discussed above, wastewater treatment systems may typically receive a permit from a regulatory agency that sets forth the allow flow rates for the system. For example, a wastewater treatment system might be permitted to process up to a threshold amount of 500 gallons per day of wastewater. If these flow rates are exceeded, then a regulatory violation occurs and, as discussed hereinbefore, it is highly desirable that persons of interest be notified as soon as possible to limit additional local and/or environmental damage.  
      To determine whether the threshold of the system has been exceeded, it is necessary to determine the rate of flow through the system utilizing a flow rate sensor such as pump operation sensor  802 . Pump operation sensor  802  or other types of flow sensors, as are well known, and may be utilized to monitor flow rates, such as the flow rate in gallons per day through the wastewater treatment system. For instance, a timer may be utilized to turn on a pump for a predetermined amount of time each time the need for pumping fluid arises. As a non-limiting example, the pump might be set up to run for two and one-half minutes each time the pump operates. A typical pump may run at a speed that is relatively constant. As a non-limiting example, and depending on the size/power of the pump, the pump might pump 10 gallons per minute. So by counting the number of times as indicated at  806  that the pump is operated, it is possible to determine a suitably accurate indication of how much wastewater has been pumped within any particular time period of interest, e.g., the number of gallons per day processed by the system. In the above example, if the pump is turned on twenty times, then the system will have processed 500 gallons of wastewater. Accordingly, in one possible embodiment, the flow rate sensor may comprise pump operation sensor  802 .  
      In another embodiment, pump operation sensor may simply count the number of minutes that the pump is operated and the pump may or may not run for a preset length of time each time it is turned on. In the example above, if the pump operates for 50 minutes, then the system will have processed 500 gallons of wastewater.  
      In another embodiment, any type of flow meter, such as electromagnetic, optical, acoustic, mechanical or the like may be utilized to determine the flow rate through the system.  
      Thus, system/method  800  provides programming which permits a system processor, as discussed herein, to make a determination of whether the desired flow rate threshold is reached. There may be different methods for determining whether a threshold of 500 gallons per day or per a 24 hour period have been reached or exceeded. For instance, in one possible mode of operation, counter  806 , which may count the number of times the pump is turned on or the number of minutes of operation, may be reset to zero once a day as suggested at  804 . Thus, a system processor might be programmed to create an accumulated count of an amount of wastewater to be treated within a particular period of time and then reset the count each day.  
      In another embodiment, the processor may be programmed to maintain counts for each period in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) accounting method whereby the accumulated count is decreased for flow that occurred outside of the period of interest. For instance, if 50 gallons were pumped 25 hours ago, and the period of interest is 24 hours, then that 50 gallon amount would be deleted from the accumulated count whereas the remainder of the accumulated count which occurred within the 24 hour period of time would remain in the accumulated count for now. Thus, instead of one daily reset to reset the accumulated count to zero, the reset may be limited (e.g., on a FIFO basis) and may occur hourly, by the minute, or with any other desired method by which it can be determined, whether the flow rate as desired by the regulatory agency and/or as specified by the system manufacturer is met.  
      In one preferred embodiment, the system does not communicate until the threshold as may be stated on the environmental permit is reached or exceeded. Once the threshold is exceeded, as tested at  808 , then the system may contact a desired location and/or parties as indicated at  810 . For instance, the system could be programmed to contact a server via a telephone line and/or by any means discussed hereinbefore. The server could be programmed to relay the message of a permit violation to regulators, property owners, system manufacturers, service personnel, and the like. The server could relay messages to any desired persons of interest and/or persons located within a selected distance from the wastewater service system of interest by any desired means such as by email, electronic voice telephone message, and the like.  
      While the particular wastewater processing system could also be utilized to make multiple telephone calls to various entities, it would generally require a communication link for the many different systems thereby increasing costs. It is more efficient for many systems to notify a server whereby one server can utilize only one two-way system, e.g., a dedicated phone line, that can be utilized to contact many persons Thus, instead of utilizing a dedicated phone line which may cost $20/month per unit, thousands of units may share a single $20/month dedicated phone line in accord with the present system, thereby minimizing costs.  
      It will be understood that the period of time may be daily, 24 hours, 36 hours, 12 hours, or the like. As well, the present invention can also provide moving average information and/or provide warnings based on average usage, moving average usage, unusual types of usage, predictive software that indicates that a trend towards misuse and/or permit violations are likely to occur. For instance, at  814  a daily counter may be utilized for counting and maintaining a longer term accumulated running total of usage. In  816 , any questionable trends, and the like, can be queried. There may be numerous possible types of problems anticipated thereby and/or the regulatory agency has the option to set forth any of a number of different types of usage to check, and may set forth such requirements in the permit. Even highly complicated requirements that might be desirably selected by the regulatory agency can be implemented at very low cost in accord with the present system whereby, in one preferred embodiment, only sparse data that gives a notification only when the desired requirements are violated is sent real time. In this embodiment, no information may be sent for standard usage that complies with regulatory requirements thereby eliminating cost both to send, and saving time of the regulatory agencies and others to look only at those systems that actually require attention.  
      As suggested at  818 , all types of information such as average usage, hourly usage, monthly/weekly/daily averages, and the like may be stored and may be reported as desired as indicated at  820 . Appropriate responses by the server can then be made so that if the software determines it necessary, the parties may be contacted or not. As indicated at  822 , the system memory can be reset in many different ways such as a clean reset, FIFO reset, reset of some types of data but not other types, and the like. Moreover, as indicated at  824  and  826 , if desired, onsite download of data is available and/or might be implemented by a telephone transfer either manually by personnel present at the location, by the customer, or the like.  
      Accordingly, in one possible embodiment, the system  800  reduces data to a minimum and thereby provides only a sparse amount of data indicative of failure to comply with the permit requirements. Even though the particular requirements may be complex, the no go type information is inexpensively forwarded to the desired parties. In this embodiment, no time/cost is required to be used for normal operation thereby saving system and personnel costs. Moreover, the sparse data is sent very quickly, essentially real time for this type of system information, to those who will find the information most useful for regulatory and economic reasons  
      The foregoing disclosure and description of the invention is therefore illustrative and explanatory of a presently preferred embodiment of the invention and variations thereof, and it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes in the design, organization, order of operation, means of operation, equipment structures and location, methodology, and use of mechanical/electrical/software equivalents, as well as in the details of the illustrated construction or combinations of features of the various elements, may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. As well, the drawings are intended to describe the concepts of the invention so that the presently preferred embodiments of the invention will be plainly disclosed to one of skill in the art but are not intended to be manufacturing level drawings or renditions of final products and may include simplified conceptual views as desired for easier and quicker understanding or explanation of the invention. As well, the relative size and arrangement of the components may be greatly different from that shown and still operate within the spirit of the invention as described hereinbefore and in the appended claims. It will be seen that various changes and alternatives may be used that are contained within the spirit of the invention.  
      Accordingly, because many varying and different embodiments may be made within the scope of the inventive concept(s) herein taught, and because many modifications may be made in the embodiment herein detailed in accordance with the descriptive requirements of the law, it is to be understood that the details herein are to be interpreted as illustrative of a presently preferred embodiment and not in a limiting sense.