DRINKING WATER
Quick-Lock Saves Contractor $225,000
Mechanical point repair offers a cost-effective, efficient alternative to traditional lining for fixing pipe defects. These thin-profile stainless-steel sleeves restore structural integrity and seal leaks quickly, significantly reducing project costs while maintaining optimal flow.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
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Ozone Makes A Comeback
Ozone has been a proven effective method of water treatment and disinfection for well over a century.
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Iron And Manganese Removal Without Chlorine
Iron or manganese removal commonly involves injecting chlorine or potassium permanganate, followed by filtration with sand or coated greensand media. Chlorine can affect the taste and odor of the water as well as involve high levels of maintenance and costs.
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Historic Town Builds A “Smart” Water System With ORION® Cellular And BEACON® Software as a Service (SaaS)
Paducah Water in Kentucky identified a need to upgrade its water system. The utility used a manual reading system for decades and investigated multiple solutions, including touch-read and drive-by systems. None of the solutions met its requirements. “In both of our attempts to deploy new solutions, we found the equipment and systems to be unreliable. We even had to stop our implementation efforts after having installed 1,000 new water meters,” said Bill Robertson, general manager of Paducah Water. “We had to keep looking.” Read the full case study to learn more.
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Enhancing Data Capabilities For Greenville Water Utility
The Greenville Water Utility in Indiana is leveraging Qatium to enhance its water management and leak detection capabilities, significantly improving service efficiency.
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Ozone Disinfection System Provides Second Stage Treatment For Water Treatment Plant
Tampa Bay Water’s state-of-the-art surface water treatment plant has provided high-quality drinking water to the Tampa Bay region.
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Embracing An Evolved Maintenance Strategy
Learn how you can find a permanent, cost-effective solution that offers flexibility, improved safety, and more.
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Hidden Costs: The Impact Of Non-Revenue Water On Utilities And Communities
Water utilities must grasp the complete scope, including social and environmental costs, to comprehend the consequences of ignoring or postponing measures to address NRW.
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Harness The Power Of One Bacterium To Remove PFAS From The Environment
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a family of synthetic organic molecules, which are not naturally occurring in nature. Due to the strong carbon-fluorine bond present in these molecules, they are especially long-lived once released into the environment and are resistant to regular chemical remediation methods.
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Product Recovery Through Ozone Oxidation Of Waste Liquor
The manufacturing of soda ash from Trona is a multi-step process that results in the production of a waste liquor that contains significant levels of organic contamination.
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Cooling Towers Are Not The Problem — Or At Least They Don't Have To Be
Water quite literally flows through every facet of life, being the key element for everyone and everything on Earth. The world’s population is increasing at 1.1 percent (roughly 83 million) every year, an incredible and alarming rate straining the world’s fresh water supply. The increasing pressures between what humanity demands and what is currently available emphasizes the importance of conservation.
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
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Determination Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Seafood4/20/2015
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of organic compounds found naturally in the environment. PAHs are monitored by the US Environmental Protection Agency due to their carcinogenic characteristics.
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Pikeville, Kentucky Medical Center Leak Found Despite Ambient Noise6/23/2021
Leaks found in 60 psi high density PE pipe by FELL in less than three hours. Acoustic and CCTV failed to find any leaks after more than a year of investigation. Read the full case study to learn more.
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Protecting Pumps From Dead Head Conditions4/6/2017
The C445 motor management relay offers the most configurable protection options in the industry, with features specifically designed to protect critical pumps from costly damages due to dead-head and other underloaded or starved pump conditions.
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Flow Meter Enhances Chlorination System Performance For Municipal Water Department12/12/2017
The water municipality at a mid-size city in the Western region of the U.S. serving a population of about 180,000 people needed to address a chlorine disinfection system problem at one of its water treatment plants.
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Application Note: Miami Conservancy District Uses Nitrate Screening As Conjunctive Management Tool1/20/2010Tasked with monitoring a watershed covering nearly 4,000 square miles, almost 2,300 miles of rivers and streams, and a huge aquifer that provides drinking water for more than 1.2 million people, water quality monitoring specialists at the Miami Conservancy District (MCD) in Dayton, Ohio, have their hands full. By YSI
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Best Practices In Moist And Wet Gas Flow12/20/2021
The Wet Gas MASSter sensor is for use in applications that have a high level of moisture or condensation present in the gas flow stream that cannot otherwise be removed.
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What Are You Doing To My Pipe: Can PVC Pipe Be Loaded?4/13/2021
The argument has been used that PVC pipe is delicate and can’t be subjected to any kind of loading. In EBAA's years of testing we have found that is not the case at all. PVC can take an extreme amount of strain.
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Application Bulletin: Reverse Osmosis3/19/2008
Osmosis is the phenomenon of lower dissolved solids in water passing through a semi-permeable membrane into higher dissolved solids water until a near equilibrium is reached
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LC-MS Analysis Of 33 PFAS Compounds In 5 Minutes11/4/2021
In response to environmental testing demands for faster LC-MS analyses, the new Ascentis® Express PFAS HPLC and delay columns allow the highly efficient separation of 33 PFAS compounds in 5 minutes with reduced background contamination.
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Immediate pH Correction For Fluctuating Flow2/19/2014
In a number of water, wastewater and industrial process applications, pH is one of the most critical and highly sensitive analytical measurements. Examples of critical pH applications include: Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems in which a controlled feed of caustic solution is typically added to the feed stream in order to convert a portion of dissolved carbon dioxide into bicarbonate precipitate allowing for removal by the RO membrane. By Rafik H. Bishara, Steve Jacobs, and Dan Bell
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
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Einstein once said of compound interest, "He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn't, pays it." The same logic of compounding applies to the organic sediment accumulating on the floor of your drinking water reservoir. The longer you wait to address it, the more exponentially expensive it becomes to fix.
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The April 1 snowpack measurement has long been the single most important number in western water management, considered a strong proxy for how much water the mountains are holding in reserve. But in 2026, that savings account has been woefully deficient.
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Why Colorado River Negotiations Stalled, And How They Could Resume With The Possibility Of AgreementThe five most common sources of conflict between people are values, data, relationships, interests, and structure. The current Colorado River negotiations include all five.
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Water agencies across the U.S. are facing a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that poses a conundrum: Should they take a cautious or aggressive approach to treating PFAS contamination in their water system?
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The U.S. EPA’s 2026 trichloroethylene (TCE) compliance deadlines are now forcing a concrete shift toward source-zone destruction. In situ chemical oxidation (ISCO), sequenced with enhanced bioremediation, is proving to be the most credible path to groundwater contaminant rebound mitigation.
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Generative design strengthens PR29 investment cases by enabling rigorous optioneering, accurate cost estimates, and clear outcome alignment, helping water companies meet rising regulatory expectations.
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:
- Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
- Drinking water treatment of source water
- 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.