DRINKING WATER
From Utility To Ally: Smart Water Management For Customer Satisfaction
Smart water technologies improve customer satisfaction through accurate billing, leak detection, and data-driven insights, helping utilities build trust, reduce losses, and enhance operational efficiency.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
-
Testing Better Paths To Contaminant Control
As a utility, it is tough enough to be notified that you need to remove a new contaminant of emerging concern (CEC). It’s even harder without having a complete picture of what is involved.
-
Fast And Simple: The Benefits Of Remote Water Quality Monitoring
Traditional water quality monitoring methods can be slow and labor-intensive. Remote distribution monitoring, using street-level telemetry systems, is becoming increasingly popular, providing near-real-time information and building trust with consumers.
-
Case Study: Monitoring And Protecting Water Quality In Lake Mead, Nevada Lake Mead is one of several reservoirs along the Colorado River; however, due to increases in population and agricultural operations in recent decades, this once-expansive lake in the desert is becoming more compromised. While inflow into Lake Mead primarily is from the Colorado River, a small percent is also from rivers on the northern side of the Lake and from Las Vegas Wash on the northwest side. Las Vegas Wash transports treated municipal wastewater effluent, stormwater and urban runoff, and shallow groundwater seepage from the Las Vegas urban area to Boulder Basin in Lake Mead. Effluent flow rates have more than doubled in recent years, prompting concern over potential effects to reservoir water quality, especially since some of the water is pumped for the municipal water treatment plant at Saddle Island
-
In-Situ Oxygenation System Enables Increase In Capacity For Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility
To increase capacity within the existing footprint of a wastewater treatment facility in Michigan, two existing tanks were converted to aeration tanks with pure-oxygen aeration provided by Praxair’s In-Situ Oxygenation (I-SOTM) System.
-
Pasteurized Equivalent Water Treatment At Tnuva Ba'Emek, Israel
In the heart of Israel’s Jezreel Valley, Ba’emek Advanced Technologies—part of the Tnuva Group—faced a critical challenge: how to sustainably reuse water extracted from whey during dairy processing without compromising safety or quality.
-
Electrocoagulation Unlocked
Despite electrocoagulation's demonstrated effectiveness, developing a reliable, low maintenance reactor with sufficient water processing volume has proven to be a significant engineering challenge.
-
Why Reducing Non-Revenue Water Matters For Water Utilities
In today's challenging environment, water utilities face mounting pressure to operate more efficiently while maintaining high service levels and managing aging infrastructure. At the heart of these challenges lies a critical issue: non-revenue water (NRW).
-
Australian City Installs Microclor On‐Site Sodium Hypochlorite Generation System
Bathurst is the home of the Bathurst 1000 Race, the largest NASCAR-style “touring car” race in Australia. On race day, tens of thousands of additional visitors tax the capacity of the Bathurst 5 million-gallon-per- day wastewater treatment plant. The diligence and capability of the treatment staff allows the plant to meet the challenge every year.
-
Why Vessel Design Is The Ultimate Performance Driver For Media Filters
Choosing the right media is only the first step. Vessel and underdrain design often determine whether filtration systems meet expectations — or quietly fall short over time.
-
Santa Monica, CA Case Study The City of Santa Monica shut down the Charnock well fields in 1996 after finding methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) and later trichloroethylene (TCE) and 1,1-Dichloroethene (1,1-DCE) in the water.
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
-
Background And Summary Of Tests For The 2000PV Restraint4/13/2021
The 2000PV is a restraint for PVC pipe and the standardized mechanical joint. This product is the result of years of testing and evaluation and its performance has been proven by thousands of hours of proof tests, as well as third-party evaluations. This report describes the 2000PV through the 12" size.
-
Scrubber Application1/27/2022
This customer supplies district heating and electricity for the region of Sønderborg. For one of their waste applications a MAG meter failed within 6 months, and was successfully replaced with a Panametrics Aquatrans AT600.
-
TOC Monitoring In Process Return Condensate4/23/2021
Industrial power plants or co-generation power plants utilize steam for industrial purposes other than power production.
-
Active Energy Control – Energy Reductions Of Up To 10% Above Standard Drives4/1/2017
Energy costs continue to increase. At the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce utility bills without sacrificing operations or comfort.
-
Determination Of Pesticide Residues In Tea4/10/2015
In 2012, Americans consumed well over 79 billion servings of tea, which is just over 3.60 billion gallons.
-
Leak Detection On Water Distribution Network Using Clamp-On Flowmeters5/22/2023
A global engineering company realized that their leak identification methods were time consuming and expensive, and so began to explore alternative solutions, such as ultrasonic flow meters.
-
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.
-
Pile Cloth Media Filtration Removes 97% Of Microplastics From Wastewater12/6/2023
Learn about filtering microplastics from industrial wastewater prior to discharge, and how this is one way to effectively reduce the volume of this waste material from entering our surface water.
-
Recording & Control: In Coagulant Dosage Applications For Potable Water Treatment7/1/2019
Potable water or drinking water as it is also known, is water that is safe to drink or to be used in food preparation. Typically, in developed countries, tap water meets the required drinking water standards, although only a small proportion is actually drank or used in food preparation.
-
Network Monitors Water Quality In Shale Gas Drilling Region9/2/2011High-pressure injection of water, sand, and chemicals that fracture shale deposits deep underground to free trapped natural gas is employed by drillers tapping the Marcellus shale beds, a geologic deposit that stretches from central New York to Virginia and contains gas believed to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. By YSI
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
-
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?
-
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.
-
Our infrastructure systems have operated in managed deterioration for decades. And not surprisingly, once they deteriorate badly enough and cross over into active failure, all cost discipline disappears.
-
Currently, water infrastructure is outdated and fragile, prone to breakages and leaks. Reactive approaches to water infrastructure are only implemented after an incident and are more expensive than simple maintenance fixes. Geotechnical Internet of Things (IoT) devices enable water and wastewater industry professionals to identify and address issues before they escalate into catastrophic events.
-
A new study linking certain groundwater sources to higher Parkinson’s risk underscores a broader question for the water sector: how environmental exposures in drinking water may influence long-term health.
-
The growing demand for water across a variety of sectors combined with the increasingly understood complexity of emerging contaminants is creating a dynamic marketplace for filtration media. The goal of selecting the right filtration media is not to meet minimum standards but to achieve the right balance of performance, durability, and operational simplicity to ensure long-term compliance and cost-effective operation.
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.