WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS
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After The Fire: What The 2026 Wildfires And El Niño Could Mean For U.S. Lakes And Reservoirs In 2027
In July, smoke from Canadian wildfires spread across the upper Midwest and Northeast. Now a strengthening El Niño is set to influence the coming winter. Both events matter to lake and reservoir managers because their effects on water quality will continue to emerge long after the skies clear or the El Niño passes.
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Minneapolis Flexes Its Mussels For Source Water Monitoring Solution
Protecting municipal drinking water requires rapid visibility into changing surface source conditions. Discover how combining biological indicators with continuous inline spectrometry delivers real-time contamination alerts, preventing costly treatment plant shutdowns and safeguarding consumer health.
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DEXSORB® Treatment At Groundwater Pump Station
Discover how upgrading existing filter infrastructure with advanced adsorbent media provided over 600 days of continuous PFAS removal, treating millions of gallons of contaminated groundwater to achieve strict drinking water compliance.
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DEXSORB® Treatment Of Surface Water For Gravity System
Discover how a dual-vessel lead-lag media system achieved continuous non-detect levels for target legacy contaminants, treating over 250,000 gallons of surface water to support regulatory compliance and municipal drinking water goals.
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Pretreatment Systems Enable Complete And More Economical PFAS Solutions For operators looking to optimize their PFAS removal systems, controlling the presence of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) offers an approach to minimizing operational costs due to granular activated carbon (GAC) reactivation and ion exchange media change-out.
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What Utilities Don't Know About GAC Reuse For PFAS For utilities building PFAS treatment systems, thermal reactivation of spent granular activated carbon (GAC) may sound like the obvious answer. However, service provider availability and location, specific media acceptance criteria including quantity thresholds, restrictions on GAC type and condition, and regulatory uncertainty can all determine whether reuse is a viable option.
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PFAS Funding Is Flowing — But Does The Water Sector Have Enough People To Deliver It? 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.
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The Cost Of Waiting: Utilities Face A Narrowing PFAS Compliance Window For years, the water industry's PFAS conversation centered on monitoring, testing, and regulatory anticipation. Today, that phase is largely over.
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D.C. Circuit Upholds EPA's Hazardous Substance Designation For PFOA, PFOS
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.
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How Donner Summit PUD Cut Backwash Water Use By 45% With Ultrasonic Algae Control
Recurring algal blooms severely compromise water treatment efficiency, clogging filters and wasting finished water through frequent backwashing. Targeted ultrasonic suppression controls raw water algae growth at the source, significantly improving influent turbidity and lowering operational costs.
VIEWS ON THE LATEST REGS
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For years, the water industry's PFAS conversation centered on monitoring, testing, and regulatory anticipation. Today, that phase is largely over.
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The U.S. EPA is testing a new procedural strategy to remove four PFAS drinking‑water limits from ongoing litigation, asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate those limits on the grounds that the EPA itself committed a procedural misstep when issuing the 2024 PFAS rule.
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Despite renewed public concern over fluoride and cognition, the National Toxicology Program’s findings focus on high‑fluoride groundwater conditions — not the controlled levels used in U.S. drinking water systems. Understanding that distinction is critical for utilities navigating policy questions and community expectations.
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In this Q&A, Dr. Elke Süss of Metrohm addresses the urgent need for haloacetic acid testing in response to “one of the most significant updates to EU drinking water monitoring in recent years.”
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With the U.S. EPA's PFAS rules now in place, utilities are finding themselves with a growing number of questions regarding how to treat these chemicals, the potential costs, and much more. For answers, Water Online's chief editor, Kevin Westerling, hosted an Ask Me Anything session featuring Ken Sansone, Senior Partner at SL Environmental Law Group; Kyle Thompson, National PFAS Lead at Carollo Engineers; and Lauren Weinrich, Principal Scientist at American Water.
MORE WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES
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Improve efficiency and water quality with demand-based flushing. The integration of sensors and smart networks allows utilities to remotely monitor and optimize flushing cycles.
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A tailored LC–MS approach enables sensitive detection and tracking of monoclonal antibody variants, supporting deeper product characterization and better control of quality‑impacting changes.
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Excipients are essential to parenteral formulations, which help protect APIs, enhance stability, and ensure safety. Learn how strategic excipient selection can optimize drug performance and patient outcomes.
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Discover how PFAS treatment technologies can provide safer drinking water and limit the amount of PFAS in the environment.
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Flat-rate clinical trial payments are often taxable in the U.S., while reimbursements are not. Unclear tax rules can impact participant trust, site communication, and trial retention.
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Explore a validated LC-MS/MS method for precise Semaglutide quantification in plasma, which features enhanced sensitivity, peak definition, and reproducibility using innovative technologies.
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Widespread industry retirements and staffing shortages threaten operational continuity. Adopting low-maintenance, self-calibrating monitoring technology reduces reliance on specialized manual upkeep while establishing automated digital historical records that protect critical operational knowledge through workforce transitions.
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AAV vectors hold promise for gene therapy, but removing product-related impurities remains a challenge. Learn how cell line development and process optimization are advancing rAAV production.
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Biomanufacturing leaders unite to optimize exosome/EV production. Explore their combined upstream/downstream approach for optimized cell culture, purification, and quality control.
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Explore how ozone-based treatment supports data center water reuse by controlling biofilm, organics, metals, and microbial risks while reducing freshwater demand.
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As utilities prepare for the pending 4-ppt PFAS drinking water MCL, many are discovering that legacy lead/lag designs — workhorses for decades when treating contaminants in the ppm and ppb range — simply are not optimized for the parts per trillion-level (ppt) precision PFAS demands.
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With the right help, coping with workforce upheaval, the digital transition, and asset management can be an opportunity.
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Developed from U.S. Office of Naval Research requirements, this multiparameter chlorine sensor offers extended maintenance-free operation, flow-independence, and automatic compensation for reliable, in-pipe monitoring.
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Learn why the U.S. EPA has recognized granular activated carbon (GAC) as a best available technology (BAT) for a wide range of substances within the same system.
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Discover why ozone, a powerful oxidant and sanitizer, has become a leading solution for addressing water quality challenges.
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Surface water supplies most urban drinking water, but rising variability and contamination are straining ageing infrastructure—making digital planning tools essential for resilient, future-ready treatment systems.
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Regulated PFAS limits necessitate efficient, long-term treatment strategies. Ion exchange technology offers a high-capacity, small-footprint solution that outperforms traditional media. Learn how selective resins provide a cost-effective path to compliance and simplified utility operations.
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Las Vegas Valley Water District is modernizing conservation efforts with Temetra, using high-resolution meter data to detect leaks sooner, engage customers, and secure water resources amid extreme drought conditions.