Latest news, insights, and discussion on US and global drinking water regulations.

WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS

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.
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.
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.
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.
SRP-Funded Technology Provides Affordable PFAS Testing For Homeowners
Widespread chemical contamination leaves many small water systems without viable testing options.Discover how an innovative, plant-based extraction method delivers affordable, highly accurate screening to identify complex contaminants and protect public health.
The Enzyme Bottleneck: Why Conventional Lake Management Is Failing — And What The Science Says About Genuine Bio-Dredging For decades, the dominant framework for assessing and managing lake health has been built around surface water measurements: chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, water clarity, and the composite Trophic State Index derived from them. These metrics are familiar, standardized, and widely accepted. They are also, according to a growing body of peer-reviewed literature, measuring the wrong part of the lake.
Ozone Off-Gas: What It Reveals About System Efficiency, Safety, and Design
Learn how ozone off-gas impacts system efficiency, safety, and performance, and why monitoring and management are critical for optimized water treatment operations.
UK Reservoirs, Water Shortages, And Legionella Risks Is there a clear link between a less plentiful water supply and an increase in Legionella in our domestic water systems?
The Devastating Legacy Of Algaecides: Why The Quick Fix Is Failing Our Lakes As warmer months approach, water management professionals must confront the compounding consequences of biocidal algae treatments.
What Is The Future Of Source Water Protection? Water utility managers and municipal leaders have long struggled amid the convergence of several threats to public water supplies. During a recent Water Online Live event, I sat with a panel of industry experts to examine the transition from reactive crisis management to a proactive, adaptive resilience framework.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

Water Reuse: Solutions For Sustainability, Efficiency, And Resilient Water Systems

What is water reuse?

Water reuse is the process of treating and reclaiming water from various sources for practical purposes, including groundwater recharge, industrial applications, wetland restoration, agricultural irrigation, public access area uses, as well as drinking water applications. By reusing water, communities can reduce dependence on traditional water supplies, avoid costly imported water from 3rd party providers, and improve resilience in water systems. Thanks to progress in water treatment technology, along with economic and regulatory incentives, water recycling has become a cost-effective and sustainable solution to meet the growing demand for highly treated water and overcome supply shortages during droughts.

There are three primary types of water reuse: Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR), Direct Potable Reuse (DPR), and Non-Potable. In IPR reuse systems, advanced treated water is either injected into an environmental buffer (groundwater, river, or reservoir) before being extracted again for use, whereas DPR is directly blended into the drinking water treatment plant or distribution system. Non-potable water is not intended for human consumption and can be used for irrigation, industrial processes, laundry, or toilet flushing.

Advanced treatment technologies, such as membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet disinfection, ozonation, and advanced oxidation processes (AOP), play a crucial role in ensuring the quality and safety of reclaimed water.

Why reuse water?

As water scarcity continues to rise, water reuse is an essential strategy for creating a more sustainable future. The use of recycled water reduces the demand for freshwater sources, which are becoming increasingly scarce due to population growth, climate change, and other factors.

Here are some key benefits of water reuse:

Safeguard quality and resilience: Reused water is purified well beyond drinking water standards, improving resilience and ensuring quality for both potable and even non-potable purposes.
Uphold safety: Treatment processes like ozone and ultraviolet light can be used to disinfect or break down complex contaminants, ensuring water is pathogen-free and concentrations are below maximum contaminant levels (MCL).
Ensure cost savings and efficiency: After treating a waste stream to discharge level, it may require less treatment to bring it to reuse standards, making reuse not only environmentally responsible but also cost-effective in many scenarios and locations.
Conserve traditional water supplies: By reusing water, we can lessen our reliance on conventional water resources like rivers, lakes, and aquifers, thereby conserving them for future generations.
Reduce carbon footprint: Water reclamation is often more efficient than treating a raw water resource, which can lessen environmental impact.
Enable versatility and customization: Advanced treatment systems are tailored to meet specific needs for a variety of sectors, including industrial, urban, agricultural, and public access area uses.

How to reuse water

The major aim of every reuse project is to minimize human health risk associated with the use or consumption of reclaimed water. While the exact treatment requirements depend upon the source water quality and the reuse purpose, to be cost-effective, the treatment must be energy efficient and have a high-water yield.

An adequate treatment design plan depends on the application the water will be used in. In non-potable applications, normally filtration and disinfection will suffice, while potable reuse generally requires a combination of advanced treatment processes such as membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, disinfection, and/or advanced oxidation.

Xylem has brands and solutions to fit every stage of the water reuse process:

beginning with the transport of raw sewage and wastewater with Xylem brands like Flygt
to secondary treatment to remove most dissolved and suspended organic matter and nutrients with brands like Sanitaire and Envirex
to tertiary stages that remove residual particulate matter, nutrients, TDS, and nematode eggs with brands like Leopold and Davco
along with disinfection and advanced oxidation that inactivates pathogens, and breaks down trace constituents and emerging contaminants of concern with brands like Wedeco, ETS-UV, ATG UV Systems, Pacific Ozone, and Wallace & Tiernan
and finally, digital solutions like YSI, OI Analytical, Xylem Vue that leverage remote monitoring, alerts, and data analytics for proactive and predictive maintenance

Based on practical knowledge from decades of combined brand experience, thousands of installations worldwide, and strengths in powerful R&D innovation, our team looks at the entire wastewater process at your plant. We will work with your consulting engineer and State regulators to integrate the right technologies to meet your intended targets. Modular design makes it easy to fit your requirements now and easily expand to meet your future needs.

Water reuse partnership

Though Xylem has teams of specialists, years of expertise, deep understanding of water regulations, and a broad solutions portfolio, we understand the complexities of water systems and the potential to partner with various water treatment experts. Xylem has partnered with hundreds of different firms around the globe to ensure the most efficient and viable water systems for communities and municipalities.

Our goal is to thoroughly understand each project, determine the best methods, and customize optimal solutions that meet local regulations and requirements while delivering resiliency, quality, and cost savings.

Let us be your partner in making every drop count. Contact us today to discuss your project needs.

Disinfection Series

The NeoTech Aqua Disinfection Series is specially designed to disinfect water and is an essential component in advanced oxidation processes.

Electrochemical Nano Diffusion (END)

Based on proven electrodialysis reversal (EDR) technology, the END® system transforms two key components of traditional EDR to deliver maximum recovery with minimum energy consumption in numerous brackish water treatment applications.

Reverse Osmosis: RO Meter

This compact instrument has been designed specifically to demonstrate and test POU reverse osmosis or distillation systems. By measuring electrical conductivity, it will quickly determine the parts per million/Total Dissolved Solids (ppm/TDS) of any drinking water

High Capacity BABA Compliant Filter Housing

Harmsco has developed a higher capacity filter housing that is BABA compliant, and it is available in a 3X, as well as a 5X model.

OPUS® Technology - Optimized Pretreatment and Unique Separation Technology

OPUS technology combines a proprietary high rate chemical softening process, MULTIFLO, with filtration, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis operated at an elevated pH in single-pass or double-pass mode to generate high effluent water quality suitable for discharge, recycle or reuse.

VIEWS ON THE LATEST REGS

PFAS Label on hundred dollar bill-GettyImages-2193126716

The Cost Of Waiting: Utilities Face A Narrowing PFAS Compliance Window

EPA Seeks Court‑Ordered Removal Of 4 PFAS Limits

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.
Putting The National Toxicology Program's Fluoride Review In Context

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.
HAAs In The EU: Monitoring For Haloacetic Acids Under The Drinking Water Directive

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.”
PFAS Unpacked: Experts Answer Questions On EPA Rules, Funding, Treatment, And More

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.
Monitoring Know-How For PFAS Regulations

A Q&A to explain and resolve issues confronting water suppliers as they endeavor to comply with the monitoring requirements of federal PFAS regulations.

MORE WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES

The Retirement Cliff Is Here. Your Analyzers Shouldn't Need A 30-Year Operator.

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.
Every Bad Chlorine Reading Costs You Twice

Inaccurate residual readings force water treatment facilities to overdose expensive chemicals or risk regulatory non-compliance. Maintaining measurement accuracy across fluctuating water conditions eliminates costly safety margins and lowers daily chemical expenses.
How Advanced Biological Technologies Overcome Complex Wastewater Treatment Challenges In The Oil And Gas Sector

This white paper explores how advanced biological technologies — including MBBR, IFAS, SBR, and MBR systems — are transforming wastewater management in this sector.
The Evolution And Impact Of PFAS Regulations

In this article, Transcend will break down the evolution and impact of PFAS regulations over the years while suggesting innovative technology to assist the affected industries.
From Syringes To Wearables: Formulation's Impact

High‑concentration biologic formulations for prefilled syringes and on‑body devices enable easier self‑administration, reduce treatment burden, boost adherence, and address complex formulation challenges.
Tips For Navigating Tax Season As A 1099-MISC Recipient

Explore the tax implications for individuals who received compensation for participating in clinical trials, specifically focusing on the issuance of the 1099-MISC.
Cracking The Reproducibility Code: Sera Is A Key Component

Struggling with reproducible cell culture results? Sera variability is a major culprit. Learn how to choose the right sera, test lots, and stock up to ensure consistency and boost reproducibility.
2025 Clinical Trial Payment Tax Implications Explained

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.
Development Of A High Sensitivity SPE-LC-MS/MS Assay

Achieve ultra-sensitive glucagon quantification with ionKey/MS, μElution SPE, and advanced MS fragmentation to deliver low LOD, reduced sample loss, and enhanced confidence in results.
Size Matters: Mastering Size Exclusion For Oligos

Learn how to separate molecules strictly by size, effectively remove salts, and select the correct pore specifications for a gentle, non-destructive purification workflow.
Designing And Evaluating A Water Treatment Media Pilot

Evaluating the use of activated carbon and other media for water treatment is a crucial step to ensure project goals are achieved.
PFAS Pilots: Strategic Planning To Reduce Risk And Optimize Costs

Learn why piloting PFAS treatment is essential to reduce risk, optimize costs, and ensure compliance—plus the seven key steps to design a pilot that delivers reliable, real-world results.
APOEε4: Why Alzheimer's "Prophet" Struggles To Become A Therapeutic "Savior"

Explore the technical hurdles of APOE-targeted development and the precision tools—including target proteins and pre-formed fibrils (PFFs)—required to bridge the gap from risk identification to commercial success.
A True PFAS Solution Is About More Than Removal

Engineers and project managers must take a complete cradle-to-grave approach when considering which technologies to implement as well as which vendors to partner with for their PFAS solution.

Recent Updates To The Declaration Of Helsinki Affecting Clinical Trials

The World Medical Association (WMA) has announced a significant, rare update to its cornerstone ethical document, the Declaration of Helsinki, which guides medical research involving human participants.
Nutraceutical Packaging Inspection: Challenges, Technologies, And Solutions For Supplement Manufacturers

Advanced X-ray inspection, metal detection, and checkweighing technologies ensure fill accuracy, eliminate contaminants, and protect nutraceutical brands.
EU Annex 1: Building Modern CDMO Sterile Fill/Finish Facilities

A CDMO guide to implementing EU Annex 1 for modern sterile fill/finish facilities, covering cleanroom design, contamination control, utilities, personnel, monitoring, and audit essentials.
PPD Filters: Pleated Polypropylene Depth Media

Increase process efficiency using high-capacity depth filtration to remove contaminants, protect downstream filters, and extend filter life for more consistent results.

WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

Newsletter Signup

VIEWS ON THE LATEST REGS

MORE WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES