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

WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS

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.
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.
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?

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

NIROBOX™ Containerized Desalination Solutions

Small-footprint, containerized solutions to treat water from any source- at any scale.

SALINO® Pressure Center

In small to medium-sized desalination systems the SALINO® Pressure Center proves that greatness has nothing to do with size. The 4-in-1 technology combines all relevant components needed for pressure boosting and energy recovery in one RO system.

Pile Cloth Media Filtration Removes 97% Of Microplastics From Wastewater

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.

Activated Carbon And Adsorption Of Trichloroethylene (TCE) And Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)

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.

Sewage Treatment Mini Train System: WWT-50

The highly scalable newterra WWT-50 Sewage Treatment Mini Train System is designed for rapid mobilization to serve camps of 200 to 800 people. These efficient plants are configured in trains that allow modular expansion and easy redeployment of assets. Each base configuration consists of two 40' containers that provide 50 m3 (13,200 US gal) of treatment capacity – enough for 200 people. Supplementing the base system with one 40' Adder container doubles capacity to 100 m3 for up to 400 people.

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.

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What Utilities Should Know About School Lead Data

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.
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.

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Nanobubble Ozone Technology – Advancing Mass Transfer Through Physics

Nanobubble physics enable higher ozone stability and mass transfer efficiency in water. Discover how the negative surface charge of these microstructures improves localized oxidation and penetration into difficult matrices.
The Site's Guide To Recovering Clinical Technology Costs From Sponsors

Gain sponsor approval by positioning technology as key to streamlined workflows, compliance, and patient safety — reducing risk and improving collaboration. Explore strategies now.
Process Intensification And Other Ways To Adapt To Changing Needs

As biologics manufacturing evolves, gain insight into why productivity depends on smarter investments, flexible production strategies, and supplier support that can address shifting modalities.
Cell Culture Media Mixing In A Benchtop Single-Use Mixer

Explore how efficient powder-liquid mixing and sterile filtration preserve media integrity and support reproducibility in biopharmaceutical workflows, with promising scalability for larger-volume applications.
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.
EPA's Proposed Perchlorate Regulation: What It Means For Treatment Engineers And Oxidation Strategies

EPA’s proposed perchlorate regulation challenges utilities to integrate advanced oxidation and separation technologies, enabling reliable removal, regulatory compliance, and flexible treatment for emerging contaminants.
Martin County Saves Millions With leadCAST's Automated Workflows And Statistical Analysis To Tackle LCRR

With the LCRR deadline fast approaching and over 59% of its service lines unverified, Martin County recognized the significant work ahead in preparing to meet the LCRR requirements. The county needed to establish a clear strategy for its compliance program, and to support this effort, it needed an engineering consulting partner with extensive expertise in LCRR.
In A Drought, Non-Revenue Water Is The Cheapest New Supply You Have

Drought conditions force utilities to seek new water sources, yet reducing non-revenue water offers an immediate supply boost. Eliminating sample waste and targeting line flushing recovers fully treated water without expensive capital projects.
Custom Tank Designs That Actively Manage PFAS Mass Transfer Zone (MTZ)

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.
GeoTree - LOCTITE GeoSpray Minimizes Impact To Wildlife And Water Quality During A Creek Culvert Rehabilitation

Trenchless geopolymer rehabilitation offers a sustainable solution for culvert repair in sensitive ecosystems. Its rapid-curing, low-toxicity properties allow for quick service reinstatement, preserving hydraulic capacity and protecting local water quality and aquatic life without the need for disruptive excavation.
EDL, MDL And LOQ: Understanding Detection Limits In Water Analysis

Understanding the distinct boundaries between theoretical detection, laboratory capabilities, and reliable quantification ensures defensible water-quality reporting. Master these analytical metrics to select appropriate methods and avoid overstating data certainty in compliance reporting.
Quantification Of Semaglutide With A Reliable Analytical Method

Explore a validated LC-MS/MS method for precise Semaglutide quantification in plasma, which features enhanced sensitivity, peak definition, and reproducibility using innovative technologies.
Decontamination Of Aseptic Pharmaceutical Isolators Using Vaporized And Aerosolized Hydrogen Peroxide

Aerosolized hydrogen peroxide decontamination cuts isolator cycle times from 70 to 15 minutes while drastically reducing biocide and overall energy usage.
Increase Throughput For Intact Mass Confirmation And Impurity Screening

Accelerate intact mass analysis of GLP-1 analogues with automated purity calculations, sub-ppm mass accuracy, and impurity detection for consistent results in under one minute per sample.

Wideband RF In Electronic Warfare: Balancing Power, Bandwidth And Real-Time Performance

Modern electronic warfare demands wideband RF systems that balance gain, linearity, efficiency, and power—enabling real-time detection, response, and reliable performance across an increasingly complex spectrum.
Contamination In The Shadows: Risks Lurking From Environmental Issues

Discover how science-based bio-decontamination strategies effectively eliminate invisible pathogens and rapidly restore facilities to operational safety following major infrastructure disruptions.
The New Imperative For Water Treatment: A Shift From Compliance To Efficiency

As water scarcity and energy costs rise, new ultrafiltration membrane technologies deliver higher flux, longer lifespan, and reduced fouling — turning water treatment from a compliance task into an efficiency opportunity.
Smarter Cell Washing And Pre-Formulation For Allogeneic Therapies

Discover common pitfalls in cell washing and pre-formulation, including incomplete contaminant removal, manual handling, and throughput issues that compromise product quality and efficiency.

WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS

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