DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-2204179431_450_300 How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is Transforming Water Loss Management For Utilities

AI is reshaping water loss management by turning complex utility data into clearer priorities, faster insights, and more proactive decision-making—without replacing the people responsible for running the system.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • BEACON SaaS Increases Efficiency And Reduces Water And Energy Consumption

    Located in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California, an area hit hard by recent droughts, the City of Merced’s Water System Division appreciates the value of water and successful water management. Strict water mandates, put into effect across California after the historic droughts of 2014 and 2015, along with continuing population growth, made the city’s need for flexible and efficient water management solutions more critical than ever.

  • Protecting Our Water – Keep Chemicals In The Tank

    Leaking or overfilled tanks can cause environmental problems, contaminate drinking water, and cost a company millions of dollars. Proper instrumentation, monitoring and control can prevent these problems. By Bill Sholette, Level Products Business Manager, and Ricardo Chavez, Solutions Business Manager, Endress+Hauser

  • Responsible Reclamation – City of Abilene, Texas

    To combat drought, Abilene, Texas, implemented a reuse system utilizing O3​ + BAC to remove trace organics. This solution met strict standards, ensured water resilience, and proved more cost-effective than AOP alternatives.

  • A Pilot Study Involving Three Different Treatment Media (Loprest)

    As part of a feasibility study for arsenic treatment at an elementary school in California, a pilot study was conducted to test the performance of three different treatment media: (1) greensand and anthracite, (2) standard sand and anthracite, and (3) manganese dioxide.

  • 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.

  • Lightning Fast Response Prevents Extended Down Time

    The City of Gordon Texas’s drinking water facility was struck by lightning. Thinking long term, and desiring the latest technology available, the City took this opportunity to upgrade their on-line instrumentation with a range of new continuous monitoring on-line instruments including chlorine analyzers, pH monitoring, temperature monitoring, and turbidity monitoring.

  • Drop-By-Drop: A Thorough Approach To Mitigating Leaks, Conserving Water, And Reducing Costs

    Implementing water distribution modelling and asset management solutions can help water utilities find and reduce water leakage, pipe breaks, and water theft, and prioritise damaged pipes to be replaced while minimising the impact on communities and infrastructure. 

  • 'Smart Water' Benefits Without 'Big Data' Intimidation

    For water treatment plants (WTPs) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) pressured to do more with their data despite being pinched by a tight budget and a need to retrain employees, a new strategy can make all the difference. Here is how one such approach makes ‘smart water’ analytics less intimidating and how it has helped one utility make more cost-effective decisions while saving precious time and money.

  • Testing For Microplastics: Challenges And Solutions

    Learn about the methods and technologies currently used for testing microplastics, the limitations of those tests, and how to use them to get the most accurate measurements possible.

  • Monitoring Strategies For Controlling Legionella Growth In Water Systems

    Legionella is a genus of bacteria that are found widely in aquatic environments, particularly in constructed water systems with warm temperatures. These bacteria are known for causing Legionnaire’s Disease and Pontiac Fever. This whitepaper focuses on monitoring strategies that can be used as a component of a water management plan for controlling Legionella growth in various types of water systems (cooling towers, hot water, potable water, etc.) and reducing associated risks.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

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

The TrojanUVSwift®ECT provides year-round drinking water treatment as well as seasonal advanced oxidation for the removal of algal toxins and taste and odor-causing molecules.

The Proline Promag W 400 electromagnetic flowmeter is a versatile standard flowmeter for the water and wastewater industry.

Recordall® Fire Hydrant Meters are designed for use in measuring potable cold water from a fire hydrant or other non-permanent installation where flow is in one direction.

The OPTIFLUX 1300 is an electromagnetic flowmeter (EMF) with lightweight wafer-style design. The meter is an economical solution for applications with conductive liquids (≥ 5 μS/cm) and higher solid content (up to 70%). Unlike the OPTIFLUX 1100, the OPTIFLUX 1300 offers a better accuracy. The flowmeter already meets the demands of many applications in various industries. It has established itself as the preferred solution for OEM machinery applications, dosing systems, compact skids, chemical handling systems or pump and firefighting systems.

E-Series® Ultrasonic water meters use solid-state technology in a compact, totally encapsulated, weatherproof and UV-resistant housing. These meters feature an easy-to-read, nine-digit LCD display and are suitable for residential and light commercial smart water meter applications.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

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.

Water scarcity challenges are growing. Manufacturing the products used in our daily lives consumes a large amount of water. Reusing treated wastewater provides the most sustainable source of clean water.

Nick Dugan is an environmental engineer working in EPA's Cincinnati laboratory. He is currently focused on bench-scale trials evaluating the impact of common drinking water treatment oxidants on intact, toxin-producing cyanobacterial cells over a range of water quality conditions.

Through a partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Law Enforcement Division – DWR is able to provide funding for Luna, a seven-year-old German Shepard from the Czech Republic, who is trained to protect her handler, apprehend suspects, and detect various threats to Delta species and environments.

Bill Gates challenges Jimmy to taste test water from the Omniprocessor, which turns sewage into clean drinking water.

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.