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

Look to Newterra for quality service. Stretch your investment dollars farther by ensuring that your equipment is taken care of by our experts. Newterra offers a wide range of services to help keep your systems running optimally and give you peace of mind.

DE NORA TETRA™ Modular Deepbed™ Filter Modular Packaged Filtration Plant

The DE NORA TETRA™ Modular DeepBed Filter Plant from De Nora Water Technologies is designed as a competitive filtration plant for tertiary effluent from small to medium size sewage works. The Modular DeepBed Filter utilizes the technology of DeepBed filtration that has made the TETRA filter such a successful tertiary treatment process over many years in Europe and the United States.

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.

NeoTech CU-4 X™

The NeoTech CU4-X™ UV Water Treatment Control Interface is a remote and compact master controller capable of managing up to four NeoTech ultraviolet water treatment chambers independently and simultaneously.

PFAS Testing Program

There are over 4,500 compounds currently classified as PFAS compounds. BioLargo's PFAS treatment is customized to the water to reduce energy, breakthrough, waste products, and operation and maintenance costs.

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

Sample Manager: Modernizing Operations

See how one utility moved off spreadsheets and onto a real system.
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.
Village Of Lombard's Success Story: Proactively Managing Community Response With Customer Request Sampling

How one utility got ahead of customer request sampling instead of falling behind on it.
Removal Of Naturally Occurring Uranium With Purolite™ A300E

Discover how ion exchange technology effectively removes radioactive uranium isotopes from municipal wastewater. This case study explores the transition from pilot studies to full-scale remediation, highlighting the importance of technical support in meeting stringent local water quality standards.
Wastewater Phosphate Monitoring … It's All About The Sample

Swan’s new Sample Filtration Cabinet delivers reliable orthophosphate monitoring, helping wastewater operators optimize chemical dosing, improve efficiency, and maintain regulatory compliance.
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.
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.
Engineering Resilience In Water Supply: How Ozone-Based Oxidation Supports DC Water's Pure Water DC Vision

Securing urban water futures requires shifting toward resilient, multi-source supplies. Advanced oxidation provides a critical barrier against emerging contaminants, enhancing treatment efficiency and ensuring long-term reliability without chemical residuals. Explore the foundations of engineering a decentralized, drought-proof water supply.
Analytics: A Referee For The Tug-Of-War Between MSC-EVs' Nature And Nurture

Like a referee in a contest, advanced analytical methods are essential to mediate the push and pull of different factors influencing therapeutic efficacy.
3 Utilities Turning Wastewater Into Opportunity With Advanced Treatment And Reuse

Read about three of the most pressing wastewater challenges utilities face today and how Stratmoor Hills, Key West Resort Utilities, and Beijing Water Group are using advanced treatment and reuse to overcome them.
Accelerating The Seed Train: Enabling N-1 Intensification

Discover how N-1 intensification shortens production timelines and improves cell viability by replacing traditional filtration with automated, low-shear separation techniques to achieve higher seeding densities.
Microfiltration Membranes Lead The Way In Water Filtration

For water treatment professionals prioritizing precision and efficiency, hollow-fiber microfiltration membranes are revolutionizing the way industries and municipalities treat water.
Data Centers, Water Reuse, And Ozone: Engineering Treatment Systems For The AI Infrastructure Boom

Explore how ozone-based treatment supports data center water reuse by controlling biofilm, organics, metals, and microbial risks while reducing freshwater demand.
Optimization And Scale-Up Of A Plasmid DNA Production Process

Optimizing pDNA production in E. coli requires strategic media selection and scale-up planning. Explore a study that identifies ideal conditions for high-yield manufacturing.

Pitot Testing: The Gold Standard For Wholesale And Production Meter Accuracy Evaluation

For most water utilities, master and production meters represent the system's financial and operational truth. These meters quantify the volume of water entering the distribution network, support water accountability programs, validate NRW calculations, and influence everything from treatment costs to rate structures.
Challenges In Ensuring Long-Term Water Quality (And How To Address Them)

Read about how mixers help prevent stratification, maintain consistent disinfectant distribution, and reduce sediment buildup, thereby mitigating public health risks associated with water storage.
Charged For Action: The Hidden Secrets Of AEX Oligonucleotide Analysis

Understanding how to fine-tune pH and ionic strength allows for the detection of truncated sequences and single-nucleotide variants, turning complex purification challenges into reproducible data.
Designing For Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) In Surface Water Treatment Plants

The Toledo water crisis exposed treatment gaps, highlighting harmful algal blooms as a core design challenge requiring flexible, multi-barrier systems and scenario-based planning.

WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

Newsletter Signup

VIEWS ON THE LATEST REGS

MORE WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES