DRINKING WATER

testing-for-yesterday's-water Testing For Yesterday's Water In A PFAS World

Relying on assumptions when designing water treatment systems creates unnecessary financial and operational risks. Adopting predictive modeling and data-driven testing provides the precise, actionable insights required to optimize performance, manage costs, and ensure compliance.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • Automatic Rinse Tank Controls
    10/29/2021

    Proper rinsing is one of the most important steps in quality manufacturing or metal finishing. Plenty of low cost, good quality water for rinsing has been available in the past, so rinse water conservation has been largely ignored.

  • Advances In Paper-Based Devices For Water Quality Analysis
    2/22/2017

    Water quality test strips have been around for decades. They are usually constructed from a porous media, including different types of paper, and undergo a color change when dipped into water containing the analyte of interest. These test strips have seen application in swimming pools, aquariums, hot tubs, remediation sites, and other commercial/environmental areas.

  • VFD Energy Savings For Pumping Applications
    4/6/2017

    In the early days of variable frequency drive (VFD) technology, the typical application was in process control for manufacturing synthetic fiber, steel bars, and aluminum foil.

  • Application Note: Troubleshooting A pH Electrode
    1/26/2011

    Many factors affect performance of a pH electrode. When performance degrades, it is always a challenge for the analyst to identify the cause. Common troubleshooting procedures, which include evaluation of slope, electrode drift, time response, and accuracy, take considerable time. By Thermo Fisher Scientific

  • Water Treatment In Boilers And Cooling Towers
    10/29/2021

     Most people recognize problems associated with corrosion. Effects from scale deposits, however, are equally important. For example, as little as 1/8" of scale can reduce the efficiency of a boiler by 18% or a cooling tower heat exchanger by 40%!

  • Analyzing Total Organic Carbon In Sea Water
    4/2/2015

    The analysis of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in seawater can be both challenging and expensive. The concentration of organic carbon in seawater is of considerable interest. The effect this matrix can have on TOC analyzers can lead to rapid consumable turnover, costly maintenance and repairs.

  • Application Bulletin: Reverse Osmosis
    3/19/2008

    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

  • Lab Gas Sub-Metering Accuracy Improves With Thermal Flow Meters To Save Money
    12/1/2017

    Facility administrators will find the advanced ST100 Series Thermal Mass Air/Gas Flow Meter from Fluid Components International (FCI) helps them improve the accuracy of specialty gas point of use and sub-metering operations to achieve accurate billing in their labs for better cost tracking and control.

  • Optimizing Brine Flow In A Geothermal Power Plant
    1/27/2022

    Different flow meter technologies were used in this geothermal power plant to monitor and measure brine. However, these traditional technologies failed. That’s where Panametrics PT900 Portable Ultrasonic Flowmeter was able to help.

  • Take Control Of Your Water Distribution Network With Digitalization And Remote Monitoring
    5/19/2022

    Any process plant constantly generates a high volume of status data. Today, this data can be extracted from the plant, stored, analyzed, and prepared to meet operator needs and lower marginal costs.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

Installed under pressure, up to 250 psi, the Insta-Valve 250 increases operator safety, limits environmental impact, and saves up to 100% of the costs related to system shutdown.

Gray iron pipe preceded Ductile Iron pipe by well over 100 years. Its intended use was to convey water as well as wastewater. Continuous tests and field experience have brought the production and use of Ductile Iron pipe to maturity. It has replaced gray iron pipe in practically all applications. Ductile Iron is a high-strength, tough material used in water and sewer systems in all states within the U.S. and in many other areas of the world.

The OPTIFLUX 4300 is an electromagnetic flowmeter (EMF) for advanced process applications with aggressive liquids or abrasive media. The high-end flowmeter is particularly suitable for critical applications requiring high accuracy and many diagnostic functions. It enables reliable measurement even under very harsh process conditions with temperatures up to +180°C / +356°F, low conductivities (≥1 µS/cm), high solid contents (up to 70%) and high pressures (up to 1500 bar / 21751 psi). For custody transfer applications, the OPTIFLUX 4300 has a wide range of certifications including OIML R49 and R117 or MI-001 and MI-005. It can also be used for flow measurement in district heating networks requiring MI-004 approval.

The tried-and-trusted SITRANS FST020 transmitter has been upgraded to deliver enhanced performance, user friendliness and options for customization.

SureSafe™ Filter Cartridges will inhibit the growth of Legionella on your filter cartridges. Silver has been used to help sanitize liquids for more than 4,000 years. Permanent Silver Zeolite fibers are used to manufacture HARMSCO® SureSafe™ Filtration Media which inhibits the growth of biofilms on and in the filtration media.

Loprest has been providing ion exchange treatment systems for the removal of arsenic, nitrate, perchlorate, hardness, fluoride and other contaminants for many decades. 

 

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

Discover how specialized restrained joints facilitate efficient horizontal directional drilling and bridge piping through a simplified, tool-free assembly process that ensures long-term reliability.

Runoff from farmlands can carry nutrients, insecticides and sediment that impact source water for downstream communities.

The Western Governors' Drought Forum webinar “Once Marginal, Now Crucial: The Growing Demand for Re-used, Produced, and Brackish Water” explores the technological and regulatory obstacles to utilizing re-used, produced, and brackish water.

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.

RIP Kitty Hach-Darrow (October 20, 1922 - June 4, 2020), co-founder of Hach Company

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.