DRINKING WATER
Using Biological Competition To Suppress Algae Growth
Effective algae control shifts the focus from removal to nutrient management. By leveraging bioaugmentation to outcompete algae for nitrogen and phosphorus, facilities can stabilize pH levels and dissolved oxygen, ensuring long-term pond clarity and consistent wastewater treatment performance.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
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Jobsite Water Compliance
Understanding water compliance, as used on a construction job site, is critical for keeping projects on time and budget. Expected or unexpected water, and contaminants in that water, can potentially cause challenges, delays, and a hit to the bottom line.
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Hot Springs Combats Aging Infrastructure Challenges With Xylem Digital Solutions
The City of Hot Springs, Arkansas knows the challenges of dealing with aging infrastructure well. The city’s 143-year-old system covers 923 miles of water mains in rocky terrain, making it difficult to detect leaks. That is why the utility’s water department decided to act.
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The Chemistry Of A Bloom: What Water Tests Reveal About Toxic Algae
Understanding the chemistry behind algal blooms is key to early detection, effective monitoring, and mitigating their impacts. Fortunately, water testing technologies are revealing powerful insights into what’s really happening below the surface.
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Troubleshooting A Sudden Fecal Coliform Non-Compliance Event
A municipal wastewater treatment plant investigated a sudden increase in fecal coliform exceedance events.
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EPA Researchers Partner With The Minnesota Department of Health To Screen For Chemicals Of Health Concern In Water
There are many different chemicals that are released into our environment, and the ability to characterize human exposure and risk of every one of those chemicals is limited. Because information about these chemicals and their sources is limited, it’s difficult to know which chemicals are of highest concern, and regulatory agencies struggle to determine where they should focus efforts.
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10 Essentials To Specify A Thermal Mass Gas Flow Meter
Whether you are working on a plant upgrade, a process improvement or an expansion project, doing your homework on the application and installation will save you time and expense, and ensure first-time right success. To specify a thermal mass flow meter correctly, there are 10 key questions you will want to understand, consider and then be able to answer.
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The Reasons Behind The Wide Array Of Liner And Electrode Choices In Magnetic Flow Meters
Electromagnetic flow meters offer significant benefits in water, wastewater, and industrial applications because they can be reliably used to measure liquid with many different characteristics. Since these devices contain no moving parts, making them virtually maintenance-free, they are becoming the workhorse for a growing number of utilities and industrial operations. Despite the advantages, however, electromagnetic flow meters are often avoided based on the misconception that there are limitations on what they can measure.
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Dow Achieves Maximum Efficiency With Glass-Lined Storage Tank
Every morning when you pour a cup of coffee or tear open a package of frozen waffles, the science of Dow Chemical is there to help make your breakfast convenient and fresh. Dow makes high-performance materials that go into food packaging, personal care products, medications, and clothing — to name a few.
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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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Water Surge Prevention: Analysis Of Solutions And Alternatives
Water Surge could cause damage in a water conveyance system, from leaking pipes to serious breakdowns and accidents the consequences of which could lead to heavy financial costs and even loss of life. There are various solutions that are able to prevent or reduce the damage. It is important to know the differences between the solutions, and the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, before recommending the most suitable solution for the system.
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
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Simplify And Optimize Your Process With Level And Pump Control3/1/2022
Level controllers have evolved to meet today’s environmental challenges and industry demands. Learn how they support improved process management and, ultimately, a better bottom line.
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How Activated Carbon Works To Purify Air And Water10/31/2019
The first step is to define the performance limiting factors in the application. For this application, most of the adsorber is used for MTBE adsorption in the ppb concentration range. Adsorption of BTEX, TBA, or humic acids or other total organic carbon (TOC) components are removed by the front end of the column.
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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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Determination Of Polar Pesticide Residues In Food Of Plant Origin, By And Automate QuPPe Solution9/29/2014
The QuEChERS (Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe) sample extraction method was developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.
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Irrigation Technology In Agriculture: How New Technologies Overcome Challenges1/29/2019
As the world’s population continues to increase at a fast pace, more food and water will be needed to sustain humanity. In the past 50 years, we have tripled our need for water and food, and there are no signs of this trend slowing down. As a result of these conditions, smart, innovative agricultural practices are needed now more than ever. Technology can, and already does, aid agriculture in innumerable ways. One prominent part of agriculture that can use technological innovation to increase efficiency and effectiveness is irrigation.
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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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Water Treatment In Boilers And Cooling Towers10/29/2021
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%!
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FLEX-TEND® Flexible Expansion Joints, Features And Specifications12/3/2020
FLEX-TEND® flexible expansion joints are designed to protect structures and pipelines from differential movement whether this movement is earthquake induced or the gradual motion of soil subsidence. This bulletin offers a concise listing and discussion of the important features and materials of the double and single ball assemblies.
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SensyMaster Thermal Mass Flowmeter8/3/2021
SensyMaster helps to improve the operating costs of the most cost intensive process in sewage plants: Aeration. High-measuring performance and state of the art technology helps customers increase plant efficiency.
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Water Determination In Liquefied Petroleum Gas Using GC BID And Ionic Liquid Column Watercol™6/28/2018
Water in petrochemical feedstocks can cause problems for processors. Freezing of pipe lines and valves and poisoning of expensive catalysts are just a few examples.
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
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When people think about agricultural pollution, they often picture what is easy to see: fertilizer spreaders crossing fields or muddy runoff after a heavy storm. However, a much more significant threat is quietly and invisibly building in the ground.
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As water systems become more circular and complex, understanding and managing the subsurface — the hidden half of the water cycle — is becoming a critical enabler of resilience. This article explores the key trends shaping this new reality, from tackling “forever chemicals” to the water strategies redefining heavy industry.
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The White House has finalized plans to roll back rules under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), narrowing its focus and limiting what the current administration claims are needless delays for federal approval of water, energy, and other infrastructure plans. For water and wastewater utilities, the changes could speed up permitting for critical projects, although experts warn the tradeoffs could do more harm than good.
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Setting Global Standards: Inside North America's Only Full-Scale UV Disinfection Validation FacilityPortland's industry-leading facility reaches 100 reactor validations in 23 years.
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Given the maturation of sensor technology, the scientific and operational hurdles to portable lead analysis are somewhat surprising — but surmountable.
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Bathymetric modeling maps underwater terrain. It also helps guide planning, prevent hazards, and build climate-resilient infrastructure.
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.