DRINKING WATER

ashland-water-intake AMERICAN And Partners Install Boltless Restrained Underwater Pipeline System In Ashland, Wisconsin

Beneath the waters of Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior in Ashland, Wisconsin, about 4,500 feet of 24-inch AMERICAN Flex-Ring Ductile Iron Pipe and a submerged timber crib intake structure were installed to ensure the city’s residents have quality drinking water for the next 100 years. The Ashland Water Intake Project began May 1, 2025, and is now complete.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Winter Is Coming. Are Your Water Tanks Ready?

    When winter is coming, water utilities gear up to battle the cold and its impact on their distribution systems. What happens to water tanks during the winter and how can you protect your tanks?

  • AMA Managed Solution And District Metering Strategy Help Identify Major Leaks For Highway 71

    A rural water district located between the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains in Alma, Arkansas, Highway 71 Water District No. 1, services approximately 2,500 water customers scattered across 175 miles of distribution lines throughout the countryside. 

  • Aclara RF Network System Stands Up To Hurricane Sandy

    When Hurricane Sandy struck in October of 2012, Aclara's RF network technology, which was installed across New York City's five boroughs, was under pressure to perform effectively. 

  • Ultrasonic And Radar Level Technologies: Bringing Clarity To The Water And Wastewater Market

    If your head spins after reading how amazing one level measurement technology is in comparison to another, understanding the key attributes of these technologies and their applicability to specific processes may help to clear the waters.

  • Automating Time-Consuming Water Quality Tests

    Discover established and regulated methods to individually determine and mitigate copper, iron, silica, manganese, aluminum, calcium, and other analytes of interest in water.

  • EPA Scientists Test Non-Targeted Analysis Methods Using Drinking Water Filters

    Today, researchers can rapidly search for thousands of never-before studied chemical compounds in a wide variety of environmental, residential, and biological media. This approach is called “non-targeted analysis” (NTA). It differs from targeted analysis because researchers do not have to know what specific chemical they are looking for in a sample. They can use high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to rapidly identify many of the chemicals present in a sample. The HRMS measures the accurate mass of molecules and can find chemicals that would have gone unnoticed before. This approach is beneficial not just to researchers, but to States, tribes, and local communities who might want to know more about chemical exposure.

  • Water You Waiting For? Analyze Multiple Water Samples Simultaneously With A New Field Device

    Whether it’s checking the health of a stream or a drinking water supply, water testing is performed in a variety of industrial, consumer, and applied research settings to measure water quality and chemistry. Understanding the quality of water (its features such as pH, salinity, or dissolved oxygen) and its chemistry (the presence of compounds like chlorine, ammonia, or nitrogen) is often accomplished with specialized, laboratory-based equipment and systems or field sampling methods.

  • Battling Biofilm

    Biofilms are extremely complex ecosystems that provide excellent protection for the microorganisms within. This often makes them difficult to kill, even with chlorine. Basic understanding of biofilm ecosystems and their behavior to chlorine and other oxidizing biocides can offer valuable insight into achieving better microbial control. 

  • Protecting Communities With Calgon Carbon's AquaKnight™ Technology

    Calgon Carbon’s AquaKnight GC systems are designed from the top down to improve flow, adsorption, and media life.

  • CleanFlo™ Monoscreen® Case Study

    When the polar bears at the Brookfield Zoo were introduced to their new habitats at the Great Bear Wilderness, they had no idea how much more fulfilling their life would become.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

CHEM-FEED® CFPS Engineered Skid System ship fully assembled for simple drop-in-place install and fast startup. CHEM-FEED® CFPS skids are constructed of strong, light-weight chemical and UV resistant polyethylene and feature leak-free threadless connections. Pipe material options include PVC, CPVC, PVDF, and Chem Proline® (PE).

CHEM-FEED Skids are available in One, Two and Three Pump Models with your choice of Blue-White peristaltic or Diaphragm Metering Pumps.

The PTBT1 is a lab-accurate water quality pocket tester that allows you to use your mobile device and the X2 app to measure, store and export data.

From the experts in chlorine management comes a multi-parameter water analysis system offering both chlorine measurement and control in one versatile instrument. Tailor the modular MicroChem®3 to your individual application with up to three measurement parameters. Designed with extensive customer input, the easy and innovative system includes an intuitive touchscreen display, menu-driven software to easily guide users through set-up and operation, and a USB interface for software updates and data log downloads.

Geospace Technologies offers a complete line of AMI water meter connector cables, specifically designed and manufactured to meet the rugged requirements for in-pit, underwater applications. Geospace’s unique design ensures total moisture sealing for even the toughest underwater environments, yet they are easily re-entered for troubleshooting a transponder or for a meter swap-out.

Recordall® Turbo Series meters are the smart choice for larger facilities, including hotels, apartment buildings, and commercial and industrial buildings. The direct-coupled turbine uses an exclusive floating rotor design that reduces bearing friction and associated wear to provide greater accuracy and a longer service life.

Supplying drinking water to the population and treating wastewater are two very important global challenges. On a daily basis, system planners, designers and operators are required to keep the global increase in water consumption under control in the face of growing water shortages and the salination of fresh water resources. As industry experts for water applications, we offer powerful, innovative technical solutions to assist you.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

The recoating of a potable water tank in Lancaster, PA, included an already tight timeframe and several challenges that cause delays.

How much water does it take to make a hamburger? How about to manufacture a car? Having experienced growing up with limited resources living in a refugee camp in India, Anil Ahuja is leading a movement to design sustainable cities and systems that protect the earth and the people who live on it.

See how SIWA MDM Event and Data Action Management (EDAM) helps utilities detect anomalies and identify service points with potential issues. With EDAM, utilities can define a set of conditions or rules that SIWA MDM meter data management uses to analyze data and events such as water leaks and missing reads.

Discover how integrated membrane system designs can maximize the operating stability of EDI systems and reduce mixed bed regeneration frequency.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy speaks at the 40th Anniversary of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) on December 9, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.