The Flint lead crisis began in 2014, but all these years later, revelations continue to surface. Daugherty Johnson, former Flint utilities administrator, offered new insight into Flint’s water issues to Genesee District Court Judge Jennifer Manley on November 6.
Water is becoming more complex for industry. Its cost as a component of production is on the rise, and greater regulatory scrutiny continues to expand post-process wastewater treatment. Against a backdrop of growing water scarcity, industrial leaders are focusing more time and energy into leveraging water acquisition and usage to their competitive advantage. The days when access to water was taken for granted are over. In fact, by 2030 global water demand is projected to exceed available water by 40 percent.
As the anticipated retirements of an aging utility workforce are raising concerns among water utilities nationwide, the issue of attracting, training, and retaining qualified replacements grows more urgent. To help water industry managers, employees, and prospective employees protect the public welfare, the industry offers a variety of certification guidance and assistance to get utilities where they need to be.
State and local government have long sought to reassure residents of Denmark, SC, that their taps are safe, as many residents are suspicious of their rust-colored water.
A water management district in Florida had a slithery problem to contend with recently in the form of a 17-foot Burmese python.
Among the notable defeats on election day was a proposed $9 billion water bond in California.
The cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation are all situated at the western end of Lake Superior, along the St. Louis River where it flows into the lake.
Plans are in place for New Jersey American Water customers to be paid back for what amounted to a loan to the state’s biggest water utility.
According to population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau, millennials are expected to become the nation's largest living adult generation by 2019. 37 percent of millennials were homeowners in 2015 and this number continues to rise, making them a significant fraction of a utilities' customer base.
Traditionally when it comes to analysis, there have been two ways to measure pH. The first is the inexpensive method of using test strips, which requires little time or training. The second requires the use of a pH electrode or probe and because it requires more training, time, and equipment, is far more expensive. However, a hybrid application is now available that brings together the ease of use of test strips with technology to ensure preciseness.
Looking around the room at the Southwest Membrane Operators Association (SWMOA) board meeting, it was brought to my attention that this was the first time SWMOA has had two women on the board of directors — myself and Christiana Daisy, Operations Manager at West Basin Municipal Water District. Pretty impressive, considering that female representation in SWMOA has only been ~10 percent since its inception in 2006.
With more water and wastewater utilities, as well as industrial facilities, moving toward digitalization, it’s important to understand the needs of data gatekeepers and decision-makers to set them up for success.
When water demand declines, water quality and utility budgets can suffer. When the situation arose in Akron, OH, a smart solution emerged.
Guided wave radar technology provides accurate and reliable level and interface measurement in effluent treatment areas, ensuring regulatory compliance and reducing costs in wastewater applications.
Everything may be bigger in Texas, but there is more of everything in New York City — including biosolids, which require smart, sustainable management.
No utility wants to enact an emergency plan, but every utility should have one in place.
When the California hexavalent chromium maximum contaminant level (MCL) comes back in 2019, treatment technology improvements will have already significantly lowered the cost of compliance.
The City of Dallas captured an additional 600,000 gallons of billable water in four months.
If I were asked to describe the makeup of the Water Online and Water Innovations audience, I could say it’s a mix of engineers and operators focusing on clean and/or wastewater processes within municipal or industrial settings. But that wouldn’t tell the whole story, because you are much more than that — you are caretakers of our planet’s most valuable resource.
Nicole George, Product Manager - Pumping Variable Frequency Drives with Eaton, starts this Water Talk discussion with a description of the Internet of Things (IoT) before going deep on capabilities, particularly with pumping systems and variable frequency drives (VFDs). Learn how IoT-enabled pumps can help manage operation more efficiently and save on labor costs with cloud-connected, VFD-powered data analytics and health monitoring.
The cost of operations is a rising concern for many water utilities, in addition to the chief concern of treating to regulations and protecting the environment. What may be overlooked, however, is the importance of power management to help achieve these objectives. In this Water Talk interview, Eaton Corporation's Joel Benzing explains how intelligent electrical infrastructure can help enhance plant productivity and efficiency by aiding, optimizing, and protecting the facility's equipment as well as its people.
When the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) implemented a STAR® network system to read meters for its nine million customers, it never expected that the benefits of the system would extend beyond simple meter reading.
Onshore crude oil production has increased in the United States over the past few years. Oil producers, specifically the North Dakota Pipeline Authority and the Bakken Shale field producers are transporting crude oil by rail and train to both the East and West Coast oil refineries. While rail tends to be one of the safer and more efficient ways of transporting crude oil, there is still a risk of a spill. Oil spills are threats to both ground and surface waters, which can ultimately impact drinking water.
Many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are facing stricter limits on nutrient discharges, yet each plant and situation is different and solutions are not one-size-fits-all. Bryce Figdore, Wastewater Process Engineer with HDR and Water Talk podcast guest, talks about another tool at utilities' disposal — nitrification bioaugmentation using granular sludge.
Partnering with the Water Research Foundation, Brown and Caldwell has developed the Blueprint for One Water — a user-friendly document for the practical application of 'One Water' planning. According to Lisa Skutecki, Brown and Caldwell's Southern California Water Resources Group Manager, 'One Water' is the concept of breaking down barriers across the water sector.
Retrofitting your existing S&L Pump Station with new components can give it new life. In fact, you just might retire before it does.
Delivering the best MBR experience, Smith & Loveless announces the new TITAN MBR™.
A Greensboro city worker died in North Carolina last week after falling from a water tower while reportedly performing a maintenance exercise on the structure.
Water workers in South Carolina recently unearthed a pipe that seemed, by today’s standards, ancient.
The Water Department in the City of Redmond, which serves approximately 28,000 residents, needed to streamline its process of collecting meter reads to save costs and improve data integrity.
The lead crisis in Newark, NJ, has clear echoes of the disaster in Flint, MI.
Water loss control can be challenging, confusing, and time-consuming. Effective water loss control requires a multi-step process, including water audit (also referred to as a water balance), component analysis and intervention.
In the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the World Bank held a high-level meeting on recovery and resilience in the Caribbean on October 13, 2017, at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
A city near Phoenix recently greenlit a major indirect potable reuse project designed to support the water supply in an area threatened by drought, rising demand, and climate change.
This is the time of the year for ghouls, goblins, and things that go bump in the night. Of all the scary things that your water utility might confront on all hallows ‘eve, however, the most chilling might be unforeseen non-revenue water losses from leaks, theft or meter inaccuracies.
Of the issues facing utilities, financing — or lack thereof — ranks at or near the top of most lists. During this Water Talk, Reese Tisdale, President of Bluefield Research, discusses the rise in operating expenses (OPEX) over the past 10 years, explains the reasons and repercussions, and forecasts where costs will go from here.
Among water treatment industry professionals, consensus is growing that small- to medium-scale decentralized desalination and wastewater treatment plants are the way forward in a water-stressed future. But governments continue to announce new water mega-infrastructure projects at an alarming rate. Because the public policy debate appears to have simply not caught up with current technology, many companies and NGOs with a focus on small- to medium-scale water treatment or renewable energy have begun to see the Caribbean as something of a new frontier.
The Trump administration may relax the rules preventing the oil and gas industry from discharging wastewater into rivers and streams.
The FAMAE Foundation launches on November 15 PRECIOUS WATER!, an international innovation challenge with €2,000,000 as prize amount aimed at entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses, students, researchers, NGOs, and community groups.
Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of $1.5M for Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG).
Wastewater treatment specialist WPL has supplied a packaged wastewater treatment system for Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s new £3.6M visitor centre.
MGX Minerals Inc. (“MGX” or the “Company”) (CSE: XMG / FKT: 1MG / OTCQB: MGXMF) and engineering subsidiary PurLucid Treatment Solutions Inc.(“PurLucid”) are pleased to announce they have received notice of publication of its patent for a new method to produce boiler feed water using low energy water treatment.
Evoqua Water Technologies, an industry leader in mission critical water treatment solutions, recently announced the national launch of its optimized Water One service platform, which enables customers to outsource their water treatment systems and focus on their core business, while Evoqua manages the operation and maintenance of customers’ water treatment systems.
From university buildings to bridge replacements, this year’s 2018 Design-Build Project/Team Award winners are the best design-build projects in the nation and demonstrate how Design-Build Done Right continues to deliver project innovation and savings to communities from coast to coast.
Slow-motion collisions of tectonic plates under the ocean drag about three times more water down into the deep Earth than previously estimated, according to a first-of-its-kind seismic study that spans the Mariana Trench, a crescent-shaped trench in the Western Pacific that measures 1,500 miles long and is the deepest ocean trench in the world.
Data is becoming more and more important. It allows us to access a wealth of information that can prove useful in making decisions not only in our daily lives, but also in water treatment.
Thames Water Utilities Ltd., Microvi Biotechnologies, and WesTech Engineering, Inc. are conducting a collaborative demonstration for transformational wastewater treatment at the Thames Water treatment plant in Sherfield-on-Loddon, UK.
Seasonal spikes of atrazine – a weed killer that can disrupt hormones and harm developing fetuses – contaminate drinking water in corn-growing areas of the Midwest and beyond, according to an analysis of federal records by the Environmental Working Group.
Burns & McDonnell announced David Kinchen has joined its team in Texas to expand the firm's water services in the region. In this role, Kinchen will grow the team of engineering, construction and design professionals to deliver water and wastewater solutions for municipalities, utilities and industrial clients.
High humidity causes numerous problems inside water treatment plants, but it’s most prominent in Midwest facilities for one reason: groundwater.
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KSB is an international supplier of highly engineered pumps, valves and related systems. With 40 manufacturing facilities and 170 service centers, KSB operates in 130 countries on five continents. The KSB brand provides customers with reliable, quality products and technical expertise that only years of experience can deliver. Learn more. |
Amir Cahn, Executive Director
SWAN Forum
Visit the Water Intelligence Panel page.
The TrojanUVSwift™ offers proven performance against waterborne pathogens including viruses, bacteria and protozoa. Our advanced systems meet disinfection targets with unsurpassed reliability with no known disinfection by-products.
Pressure transmitter with metal sensor; With analog electronics or communication via HART, PROFIBUS PA or FOUNDATION Fieldbus.
The Navigator 500 Sodium analyzer provides a continuous measurement of the sodium ion concentration in demineralization plants and in the steam / water cycle of steam-raising plants.
EVERLAST™ Pump Stations combine convenient standard packages with advanced S&L pumping technology options to simplify system selection and provide the right service for every user. Select the base model below that best meets your needs to get started.
This highly flexible system has demonstrated its effective, reliable performance around the world. It features Trojan’s patented ActiClean™ chemical/mechanical cleaning system to minimize maintenance. It is well suited to wastewater disinfection applications with a wide range of flow rates, as well as challenging effluent (primary and combined sewer overflows) and high level disinfection such as tertiary wastewater reclamation and reuse.
The Parkson Helisieve® In-Channel Fine Screen combines fine screening, conveying and dewatering to create a highly economical system that produces screenings dry enough to take to a landfill without the need of an additional dewatering press. Screen openings are available in the standard 1/4” perforations or optional 1/8”. The heart of the system is a shaftless spiral with a brush in the screen basket area to keep the screen clean.
Retrofitting your existing S&L Pump Station with new components can give it new life. In fact, you just might retire before it does.
Delivering the best MBR experience, Smith & Loveless announces the new TITAN MBR™.
At Fluence, we have more than 30 years of experience in the design, construction, and operation of waste-to-energy plants for a wide range of industrial and municipal clients. Our proprietary anaerobic treatment technologies process wastewater and sludge to produce biogas, which can be used to produce electricity and thermal energy, or which can be purified to produce biomethane for injection into the grid.
Silicon carbide, or SiC, membranes are made from one of the earth's hardest natural materials, making them extremely strong and resilient. They are also hydrophilic, lending to a high flux rate (4 to 6 times that of other membranes) and making them particularly suitable for stormwater/CSO applications.
Sun Chemical Advanced Materials delivers SEPAREL® hollow fiber membrane modules for liquid degassing, a proprietary technology from the DIC Corporation. SEPAREL modules are optimized for the degasification of various liquids, including water, inkjet ink, and a range of corrosive chemicals. Learn more.
Providing expert insight into the most important topics in the water and wastewater industry.
Water Online is the leading source of technical information and thought leadership for the drinking water and wastewater treatment community. If you are an operator, municipal manager, engineering consultant or industrial plant manager involved in the design or maintenance of stormwater, clean water and wastewater systems, you now have access to a comprehensive Web community delivering the latest updates on water and wastewater collection, treatment and distribution technologies to give you the knowledge to succeed in your industry.
In providing this technical information, the site offers detailed coverage of the basic operational elements of the water and wastewater industry: the resource management, supply, treatment and distribution of drinking water and the collection, treatment and disposal of stormwater and wastewater. Water Online covers the many ancillary functions that are required such as: nutrient removal, contaminant removal, wastewater aeration, water instrumentation, utility management and automatic meter reading (AMR), water quality analysis, water membranes, reverse osmosis and desalination, drinking water disinfection, wastewater filtration, pumps, flow control & measurement, stormwater management and sludge conditioning and disposal.
Water Online serves the information needs of engineers, water management planners, operational managers, consultants, elected officials, government personnel and others who are involved in the municipal water supply industry, and the municipal and industrial wastewater treatment field. Reflecting the dynamic and interactive character of the Web, Water Online is the most convenient source of technical, operational, product, management and regulatory information available for the water and wastewater industry.
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