DRINKING WATER

hydrant-450x300 No Easy Way To Add Supply: Bozeman Chooses Continuous Acoustic Monitoring

When water rights are fixed, capturing underground leakage is critical. Continuous acoustic monitoring identifies developing pipeline vulnerabilities early, reducing leak runtimes from months to days, cutting non-revenue water waste, and saving thousands in emergency repair costs.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Unlocking The Flow: The Transformative Value Of Meter Data Management For Water Utilities

    MDM systems transform raw meter data into actionable intelligence, enhancing operational efficiency, driving proactive leak detection, improving billing accuracy, and supporting vital water conservation initiatives.

  • Drinking Up The Election: How Presidential Candidates Are Addressing Water Concerns

    Election season is in full swing and while it may not be the “hottest” topic being debated amongst presidential candidates, the topic of water isn’t being ignored as we approach November. Several candidates have addressed the challenges plaguing water and wastewater systems nationwide.

  • Thrust Restraint Design Equations And Soil Parameters For Ductile Iron And PVC Pipe

    These equations and soil parameters are an effort to provide the piping system designer with conservative techniques and parameters for the design of underground restrained joint piping systems. 

  • Why A Little Knowledge About Sensors Can Be A Dangerous Thing

    Every day our technical support people answer questions on the selection of sensors for pH, ORP, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. No issue generates more confusion than cell constants for conductivity sensors. The vast majority of returns we process are for conductivity sensors that were ordered with the wrong cell constant. It turns out that cell constants are something that we all read but that most of us don’t really understand. Pick the wrong cell constant for a probe and your analyzer will happily give you numbers to 3 significant digits. The only problem is those numbers are wrong. By Mark Spencer, President, Water Analytics

  • Here's To Microbrews And POTWs

    As local breweries grow in popularity, their initial focus on hand-crafted recipes can quickly shift to business realities such as the costs and logistics of process wastewater treatment. Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), brewery owners, and consulting engineers all have roles to play in making that trajectory smoother for up-and-coming craft and microbrewers.

  • Article: Water Quality Management Using Cloud Computing - Solution For Corporate Control Of Environmental Impact Data One of industry’s most vexing impediments in responding to environmental problems has been difficulties in properly centralizing and managing captured water quality data. A different approach from the heretofore standard (and now outdated) “consultant-centric,” spreadsheet-based environmental information management system — with its typical project delays and increased costs — is now essential. By Locus Technologies
  • ATLC Designs Water System 25 Days Ahead Of Schedule

    Learn how OpenFlows WaterGems and STAAD helped to optimize designs while saving costs. 

  • AMERICAN Flow Control's Semper™ RPM With “Lift And Shift” Capability Helps Lowcountry Regional Water Resolve System Pressure Issues

    In the summer of 2020, the Lowcountry Regional Water System in Hampton, South Carolina, had a customer located in an industrial park report a low water pressure issue. The company was a commercial laundry that served the hospitality industry and provided linens to hotels around the Hilton Head area. The low water pressure issue was causing the company’s heat recovery system to work improperly shortly before the July 4 holiday. In its first use of the AMERICAN Flow Control SEMPER™ Remote Pressure Monitor (RPM), Lowcountry Regional Water System deployed two units to resolve the issue. One device was located on the water system’s side of the meter and the other device was placed inside the company’s building, where water enters the facility at the backflow preventer.

  • Why Is Kemio Technology Suitable For Monitoring Drinking Water Quality?

    In this article, read about a platform that ensures safe drinking water and offers a user-friendly, four-step procedure for repeatable and reliable results without the need for interpretation.

  • Omaha Municipal Utility District

    Despite the large capital costs invested in a new pressurized CO2 feed system – a competing product to BlueInGreen’s supersaturated carbon dioxide gas-dissolution (CDOX®) technology — facility managers were unsatisfied with its performance

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • Application Note: Miami Conservancy District Uses Nitrate Screening As Conjunctive Management Tool
    1/20/2010
    Tasked 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
  • 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.

  • Pipe Repair On A Budget
    3/7/2014

    A new pipe-repair solution promises to save time and money, while also being sustainable, long-lasting, fully scalable, and safe for workers.

  • Why Should We Care About NSF/ANSI 61 Certification?
    3/17/2021

    According to National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), it's a set of standards relating to water treatment and establishes criteria for the control of equipment that comes in contact with either potable water or products that support the production of water.

  • Operations And LRV Calculations At Southwest Pipeline Project Drinking Water Treatment Facility
    4/14/2016

    This presentation will discuss the operation of a 4 MGD pressurized two-stage Ultrafiltration (UF) plant over a 14 month period at the Oliver-Mercer-North Dunn (OMND) Drinking Water Treatment Facility, North Dakota.

  • 'TOTEX' Is Key When Purchasing Instrumentation
    4/29/2021

    There’s a lot to be considered in the price tag of an ultrasonic instrument. Derek Moore from Siemens explains how the historical way of thinking only of capital costs needs to change to the more holistic approach of total expenditures.

  • Reducing And Reusing Water In Steel Manufacturing
    2/28/2022

    The art of manufacturing steel for industries is well over 100 years old. Within this time, the steel business has fulfilled consumer needs, including construction, transportation, and manufacturing. The steel manufacturing process is quite intensive as it requires a lot of water to cool down the application. Steel plants constantly look for strategies that can help sustain the steel for a longer time by efficiently improving water and energy consumption.

  • LC-MS Analysis Of PFAS Compounds In EPA Methods 537.1, 533 And 8327
    11/4/2021

    The Ascentis Express PFAS HPLC column is designed for the separation of novel and legacy PFAS as per recent EPA methods. A specific PFAS delay column prevents background PFAS contamination from interfering with sample results in quantitative LC-MS methods.

  • Veterinary Drug Residue Analysis Using The AutoMate-Q40: An Automated Solution To QuEChERS
    10/1/2014

    QuEChERS is a Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe extraction method that has been developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.

  • Activated Carbon And Adsorption Of Trichloroethylene (TCE) And Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)
    12/30/2013

    Trichloroethylene (TCE) and Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) are two of the most common solvents that contaminate groundwater supplies in the United States. Both solvents see frequent use in the extraction of fat, in the textile industry, in the production of various pharmaceutical and chemical products. TCE is also used as a degreaser from fabricated metal parts, and PCE serves as a component of aerosol dry-cleaning solvents.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

Ideal for field and environmental testing, the TB 350 turbidity meter delivers the most reliable measurements for low range to high range samples without sacrificing accuracy.

With 90 years of water treatment experience, Loprest has the expertise to design an effective treatment process for your water treatment challenges.  From basic filtration and ion exchange to multiple contaminant applications, challenge Loprest for an economic, effective solution of your water quality compliance issue.

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.

HYMAX GRIP®  joins and restrains a wide selection of pipes of different types and diameters, easily and reliably. Due to its patented design, it allows the joining of pipes of the same or different materials and diameters and preventing axial pipe movement.

The OPTIFLUX 4050 is an electromagnetic flowmeter (EMF) for chemical applications in non-hazardous areas. It provides cost-effective measurements with good accuracy and standard diagnostics and communication options. The extra isolation of the electronic device and housing makes this EMF particularly suitable for use in areas with extreme humidity and chances of flooding.

Harmsco® MUNI HP filters provide unsurpassed performance. Our patented Hurricane® design separates dense solids prior to cartridge filtration for extended filter life, increased dirt holding capacity and reduced maintenance costs.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

  • For several years, the PFAS conversation has centered on treatment options, testing, and funding. Those factors still matter, but they are no longer the primary constraint. Most utilities already understand the treatment routes available to them; the real challenge now is moving from technical possibility to operational performance, and that depends entirely on people.

  • Water stored in dams and reservoirs for humans to use often evaporates, especially in hot regions like southern Africa. Rising temperatures speed evaporation up, leaving less water for people, farming and industry. Daniel Kwasi Kpeglo has just completed a PhD in physics. He explains his laboratory research into a new design – a thin nanomaterial floating cover that could be placed over lakes and dams like a blanket, reducing evaporation by limiting the amount of infrared heat from the sun that reaches the water. He also outlines what hurdles need to be cleared for the design to be tested in the real world.

  • As many cities developed, streams that once flowed on the surface were buried underground to make way for growing infrastructure. However, as heavier rainfall, extreme weather and aging infrastructure place growing pressure on cities, these buried streams could become part of the solution. Restoring streams to the surface — a practice known as stream daylighting — can help manage stormwater, restore habitats, and create greener, more walkable public spaces.

  • Data centers are evolving into industrial-scale thermal-management facilities as artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), cloud platforms, and accelerated computing increase rack power density. Modern AI racks can exceed 50–120 kW per rack, creating substantially higher heat-rejection requirements than conventional enterprise infrastructure. ASHRAE's (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) AI Data Center Energy Performance Framework identifies liquid cooling as an important architecture for these high-density environments.

  • The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently rejected industry challenges to the EPA's designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA, leaving the agency's April 2024 rule fully intact. While the case centered on the EPA's authority to make the designation, its practical significance for water utilities is simpler: the liability concerns that have accompanied the rule since its adoption remain unresolved.

  • In August 2026 the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both on the Colorado River, hit their lowest levels since they first began to be filled in 1936 and 1963, respectively. The federal government and the seven Colorado River basin states have been unable to reach an agreement about who should reduce water usage by how much to avoid catastrophic declines in lake levels.

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 in challenging environments.

Appearing on The Weather Channel's "Wake Up With Al" morning show, water expert Dan Theobald puts drinking water to the test by measuring total dissolved solids (TDS) in tap water samples from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New Jersey, as well as bottled water samples.

Did you know satellites can measure Earth’s oceans from space? The Jason-3 satellite, set to launch in July 2015, will collect critical sea surface height data, adding to a satellite data record going back to 1992.

In this episode of The Water Online Show, host Travis Kennedy is joined by Mike Sadar of Lovibond to demystify two critical specifications often listed on instrument spec sheets: Limit of Detection (LOD) and Limit of Quantification (LOQ).

Learn how a tool-free, verifiable locking system streamlines complex installations like deep-bore directional drilling and provides the security needed for critical 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:

  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.