DRINKING WATER

Modern sewage treatment plant-GettyImages-1328743788 7 Challenges Municipal Water Treatment Professionals Are Facing And How To Solve Them

Solutions that offer instant, chemical-free disinfection, manage costs, handle high organic loads, and control emerging contaminants are defining the path forward for water facilities.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Severn Trent Exceeds Leak Reduction Targets With Innovative Itron Water Solutions

    Severn Trent’s smart metering program, powered by Itron’s technology, is transforming water conservation—reducing leaks by 6 million liters, cutting costs, and empowering customers to use water more wisely.

  • From Zero To 2 Million

    Since 1977, Endress+Hauser has produced over two million electromagnetic flowmeters. That is more than any other manufacturer. “This magic number stands for high-quality measuring technology and, above all, satisfied customers in all kinds of industries,” says Bernd-Josef Schäfer, Managing Director of Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG, the center of competence for flow measuring technology.

  • 6 Objections To AMI – And Why They Are No Longer Valid

    This article presents common misconceptions about advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) among water utilities, and why modern AMI technology, in particular NaaS, overcomes them.

  • Australian City Installs Microclor On‐Site Sodium Hypochlorite Generation System

    Bathurst is the home of the Bathurst 1000 Race, the largest NASCAR-style “touring car” race in Australia. On race day, tens of thousands of additional visitors tax the capacity of the Bathurst 5 million-gallon-per- day wastewater treatment plant. The diligence and capability of the treatment staff allows the plant to meet the challenge every year. 

  • Prefabricating Plastic Piping For Better Form, Fit, Function, And Financing

    Thermoplastic piping systems have long proven their value for certain aspects of chemical and water conveyance at water and wastewater treatment facilities. Maximizing that value by using plastic piping specialists to help engineer and prefabricate the perfect piping designs offers multiple benefits, from pushing the design envelope to optimizing costs and timing. Here are some key factors to consider.

  • Sustainable Water Management Solutions

    Explore how utilities can deal with non-revenue water, or water that has been produced and is lost before it reaches the customer. 

  • Specifying Performance Over Equipment Quickly Reduces THMs In The Colorado Springs' Distribution System

    Colorado Springs, Colorado, enjoys some of the highest quality drinking water in the country, with most of its water coming from high country snowmelt. Despite its pristine origin in the mountains, the water at the far end of the distribution system is prone to developing trihalomethanes (THMs) due to low turnover and high water age.

  • Listening For — And Finding — The Leaks That Can't Be Seen

    Decades ago, farmers and ranchers around San Marcos, Texas, formed a utility to get water to cattle. Today, Crystal Clear Special Utility District (CCSUD) serves not only rural operations but swaths of a growing metropolis stretching from San Antonio to Austin, providing water to nearly 6,000 connections.

  • Drinking-Water And Wastewater Infrastructure Act Of 2021: The Breakdown For Metered Technology

    In May of 2021, the Senate passed the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021 (DWWI Act). They have allocated $250 million of grant money, broken down into $50 million segments each year starting in 2022 and ending in 2026. Due to this bipartisan legislation, small public water systems should consider taking advantage of this unique funding opportunity. Keep reading to see if you may qualify.

  • Key Indicators Of Tube Settler Strength: Module Design And Construction

    There is a common misconception about tube settlers that thicker material, whether it’s thermoformed or extruded, yields a stronger, more structurally capable module. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable assumption. However, when we look at the details of module design and construction, we see that this is not always true.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The HYMAX VERSA is a coupling that can wrap around damaged pipe usually repaired with the cut-and-replace technique while providing dynamic deflection to reduce the risk of damage caused by ground shifts.

High precision, non-contact nephelometer, approved alternative method to US EPA 180.1, for the continuous measurement of turbidity in potable water.

Meet HYMAX Pro dedicated size couplings – the newest addition to the HYMAX product line, designed to join the same/differing diameter plain ends without welding and/or special pipe fittings.

The OPTISONIC 3400 is a 3-path ultrasonic inline flowmeter designed for a wide range of standard or more demanding process applications with homogeneous, non-viscous aqueous liquids as well as viscous fluids of up to over 1000 cSt. It is also the perfect choice for applications with cryogenic products (as low as -200°C / -328°F), media with extended temperature ranges (up to +250°C / +482°F) as well as low or extreme pressure ratings. The OPTISONIC 3400 offers a broad range of diameters – from DN25 / 1" for dosing purposes to DN3000 / 120" for water transportation pipelines.

Shelter space and the overall initial investment in analytical equipment can be expensive. The PGC5000 oven with an integrated controller offers a low initial investment solution by integrating the single board computer (SBC) directly into the PGC5000B or PGC5000C gas chromatograph ovens.

The new SITRANS FMT020 transmitter is a high performance, robust, intelligent product, designed for a wide range of applications requiring highly accurate and reliable flow measurement of conductive fluids.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

Scientists are developing robots that might someday be able to creep through the pitch-black mines to help prevent spills. A 2015 spill from Colorado’s Gold King Mine unleashed 3 million gallons of water that fouled rivers in three states with toxins.

Toxins from harmful algal blooms are increasingly contaminating source waters, as well as the drinking water treatment facilities that source waters supply. EPA researchers are helping the treatment facilities find safe, cost effective ways to remove the toxins and keep your drinking water safe.

Out of sight, the country’s underground water infrastructure is aging and failing. In this interview, AMERICAN’s Derek Scott and Maury Gaston discuss the problem, challenges facing cities, and the latest technologies for providing and protecting one of our most precious resources — water.

IPR'S CIPP liner system for gravity-flow sewers and culverts is the most proven, cost-effective trenchless pipeline rehabilitation system in the industry. It is also the most widely specified form of trenchless pipeline rehabilitation.

How researchers at UC Merced are developing a better understanding of the three sources of water upon which California depends in order to adapt to the effects of environmental changes and make better use of this most precious of our natural resources.

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.