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

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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.
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 Contaminated With 'Forever Chemicals' During Pregnancy Linked To An Increased Risk Of Childhood Asthma
While most of us are routinely exposed to low levels of PFAS, some communities are exposed to far higher levels from nearby pollution sources. A new study shows that in one of these at-risk communities, children were more likely to develop asthma if their mothers were exposed to very high PFAS levels during pregnancy.
The Pragmatic Shift In Source Water Protection: Moving From Symptom Management To Root-Cause Accountability A shift in how we approach source water protection is long overdue. Currently, we are trapped in a cycle of escalating costs, forced to treat symptoms like algae and invasive weeds expediently with chemicals while the underlying risk in the reservoir compounds. True risk management requires breaking this cycle.

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Ion Exchange Resins Reduce Pollution From Refineries

A single operational oil and gas refinery produces millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater a year, leading to environmental pollution concerns. Ion exchange resins are a metal- and ion-removal solution to help clean this wastewater for plant reuse or safe disposal. This application guide explains how resins can be used to demineralize refinery water in process, boiler, and cooling water applications.

Arkal Super Galaxy Self-Cleaning Disc Filter

The Arkal Super Galaxy is a high-flow rate, self-cleaning, automatic disc filter. It is practical for water and wastewater treatment plants, central water systems for irrigation, large cooling tower power plants, ballast water, and saltwater, as it handles desalination. In addition, it controls algae and reduces hydraulic filtration degrees to less than 20 microns. Its vertical and horizontal installation options accommodate all space issues.

Toray RO Seawater RO Elements

Following 4”, 8” and 16” membranes can be used in multiple membrane systems to treat sea water or high salinity water > 10’000 ppm. The 4” membrane types can be used for small private or shipboard sea water desalination.

Why Should We Care About NSF/ANSI 61 Certification?

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.

Ozone Destruction System

NeoTech Aqua Solutions’ line of 254 nm wavelength low-pressure lamps effectively destroys residual ozone and a member of our technical staff will professionally size your UV system.

UV Advanced Oxidation For Surface Water Remediation

Surface water contamination demands advanced treatment solutions. Learn how UV advanced oxidation simultaneously destroys complex micropollutants and inactivates pathogens in a single step, offering a scalable, cost-effective alternative that eliminates chemical residuals and reduces seasonal operating expenses.

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EPA Seeks Court‑Ordered Removal Of 4 PFAS Limits

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.
Clearing LCRI Hurdles

Assessing what lies ahead in the 10-year race to go lead-free, otherwise known as the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI).

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Precision Medicine In IMIDs - The Path To Improved Healthcare Outcomes

Precision medicine is opening new possibilities for IMIDs by moving beyond symptom‑based care. Find out how emerging multi‑omics tools are reshaping how these complex diseases are understood.
UV Advanced Oxidation For Potable Reuse

Faced with rising water scarcity, advanced facilities are utilizing UV advanced oxidation to destroy persistent chemical micropollutants and achieve stringent pathogen disinfection in a single step, ensuring a highly pure, reliable potable water supply.
Q&A: Navigating PFAS In Medical Devices

Explore how PFAS in medical devices pose environmental and health concerns, prompting regulatory scrutiny.
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.
When It Comes To PFAS Removal, Not All Media Are Created Equal

As regulatory standards for PFAS become more stringent, specialized ion exchange resins provide a more efficient, high-capacity alternative to traditional carbon media, ultimately lowering long-term operational costs and improving overall system throughput and performance.
From Depths To New Heights: Revolutionizing Wastewater Pumping With Above-Ground Technology

Read this article for an overview of key advantages, as well as examples of how communities have achieved cost savings by moving towards above-ground systems.
Foreign Action Notification To Health Canada

Health Canada is tightening foreign action reporting expectations. MAHs need to understand what the updated draft guidance means for their compliance and monitoring processes now.
Covalent Warhead Reactivity: A New Look At GSH Reactivity Assays

Understanding covalent warhead kinetics is key to reducing safety risks early in discovery. Learn about a new approach to GSH‑based measurements that offers clearer predictors of toxicity.
What Is Aseptic Processing?

Aseptic processing sterilizes products and packaging separately, then combines them in a sterile environment. See how this method ensures safety, extends shelf life, and protects medicines from contamination.
2,080 Hours: What Five Sensors Gave Back To One Utility

Routine sensor maintenance silently drains utility workforce capacity through constant recalibration, reagent refills, and travel time. Transitioning to low-maintenance monitoring technology reclaims thousands of operator hours, allowing short-handed crews to focus on vital system infrastructure priorities.
Filters For Medical Device Reprocessing

Enhance medical device reprocessing with multi-stage filtration that reduces bacteria and contaminants, limits recontamination risk, protects device integrity, and supports safer infection control.
900 Series Chemical Process Control Case Studies

Learn how ECI consultants radically reduced costs and wastes while improving working conditions and ensuring compliance using 900 Series Monitor/Controllers.
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.
Selecting A Platform Filter For High Concentration mAbs

Read more about how Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies evaluated a prime filter with challenging simulant solutions and how the experimental data confirmed superior performance, which demonstrated twice the throughput.

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.
Preparing Water Infrastructure For The Future

The current state of the water infrastructure in the U.S. is in need of critical attention. Aging and underfunded systems, increasing demand, and the impacts of climate change are putting immense pressure on the nation’s ability to deliver this essential resource.
City Of Mesa Leverages Hybrid-Cloud Architecture To Drive Operational Efficiency At Their Water Resources Department

Transitioning to a hybrid-cloud architecture allows municipal utilities to securely centralize operational data. This structure gives engineering teams and consultants safe, self-serve access to near real-time insights, streamlining regulatory reporting and optimizing chemical usage.
AgentV's Virtues At The Vanguard Of Extracellular Vesicles

Learn about a novel solution dramatically improving the purification and yield of promising nanoscale vesicles for medical applications.

WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS

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