Big Data is on the minds and lips of many water system managers, but how many utilities are actually utilizing it? Jason Carter, the Water Utility Innovation Leader at Arcadis, lamentedly states that the water industry is behind, but he also sees a clear path forward — one where Big Data plays a central role in operations and, consequently, newfound efficiencies. In this Water Talk interview, Carter provides examples of how utilities can leverage data for improved operations, pinpoints the cost savings associated with Big Data, and forecasts the future in terms of adoption and implementation.
Jeff Garner, Senior Vice President with MWH Constructors, covers a lot of area in this Water Talk interview, which focuses on alternative project delivery models (particularly the construction manager at-risk (CMAR) approach), the water-energy-food nexus, and the thermal hydrolysis process (THP) for on-site energy generation. Garner summarizes the essential questions for both utilities and industry: "How can I get the quality job, delivered on time, safely ... and at the budget I can afford?" Click on the player below to hear Garner's thoughts on available solutions.
Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are not new, but they are the subject of renewed interest among utilities, and for Carollo Engineers Vice President Andrew Gilmore. He sat down with Water Talk's Todd Schnick and Kevin Westerling to discuss the MBR renaissance and the reason for their rise in popularity. Gilmore also shares insight on the cost of MBR as compared to other options and highlights real-word examples of installations that are raising the bar for MBR capabilities.
State lawmakers in Pennsylvania failed to pass legislation to address drinking water contamination last week in a sign of the difficulty of locating funding to clean up PFAS pollution.
The adoption of water reuse can be unavoidable due to water scarcity, but it may also be a choice. And when it comes to choices, cost is usually a deciding factor. Gary Hunter, Senior Wastewater Process Engineer with Black & Veatch, helps make sense of the dollars required for recycled water schemes in this Water Talk interview. In it, he shares three keys affecting the cost for reuse, as well as concepts and technologies that can be used to improve reuse economics.
In this Water Talk interview, Steve Drangsholt, Northwest Infrastructure Sales Leader with Brown and Caldwell, discusses the value of organizations for a young professional (YP) in the water/wastewater industry. Drangsholt speaks on the skills that YPs need to develop to advance in their careers, and how organizations such as the Water Environment Federation (WEF) — where he serves in the House of Delegates and as Vice Chair of the Awards Committee — can provide the means and opportunity to do so.
Want to hear some good news on water reuse? Listen to this Water Talk interview with Christina Brown, Director of Program Management at Brown and Caldwell, to learn about the EchoWater project, which will allow the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District — the largest inland discharger west of the Mississippi — to reuse half of their discharge while also reducing nitrogen loading into the Sacramento River.
James Schlaman, Director of Water Resources at Black & Veatch, explains what community-based public-private partnerships (CBP3s) are (and what they aren't), how they work, and what makes them attractive — particularly for stormwater management improvements.
There’s a lot to be said for the old adage, “Use the right tool for the job.” When it comes to flow meters for municipal or industrial water treatment plant (WTP) and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operations, however, the sheer number of choices can be overwhelming. That is where using a process of elimination to winnow out styles that don’t fit the performance criteria of an application can make it easier to compare the few remaining options. Here is a checklist of considerations to accelerate that process.
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.
A joint effort between the city of Hollister, the San Benito County Water District and the Sunny slope County Water District, the group proposed the West Hills Water Treatment Plant (WHWTP) project to improve drinking water quality, water supply reliability, and to balance regional water resources in the Hollister Urban Area (HUA). Historically, HUA relied primarily on local groundwater basins for meeting their drinking water demands. While groundwater met all drinking water regulations, it is high in minerals and hardness that often resulted in scaling and the need for further conditioning. Along with other initiatives, the WHWTP project enables the District to meet these goals through increased surface water capacity from the San Luis and San Justo Reservoirs.
Japan plans to release radioactive water tainted by the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Reliable and effective disinfection is a cornerstone of water and wastewater treatment, needed to protect public health. Most drinking water utilities are required to maintain a minimum disinfectant residual in the distribution system. This ensures adequate chemical was applied and remains in the system to kill pathogens. The most commonly used disinfectants — chlorine gas and bulk sodium hypochlorite — require operators to regularly handle these hazardous chemicals. Operators must be extensively trained in specialized procedures to ensure their safety and that of the community.
Most of the manufacturer’s representatives have just returned from attending WEFTEC 2018, held in New Orleans from September 30th through October 3rd. This year’s Annual Technical Exhibition & Conference was a showcase of the latest technologies, developments, and services for the water sector and continues to be the largest water quality event in the world.
The Ultra Mag electromagnetic flow meter (or "magmeter") sets itself apart from the start, with a stainless steel body, steel flanges, and a consistent 3M fusion-bonded epoxy liner, inside and out, to eliminate wear, abrasions, and corrosion.
An increasing number of towns are banning the addition of fluoride to water, a common practice across the country.
As pressure on water resources grows, there is at least one “water cop” trying to maintain order.
As water utilities migrate toward remote system monitoring and real-time control, the risks associated with cybersecurity tick upward as well. While the rewards of digitalization offer real promise, the associated complexity and security concerns pose corresponding risks. That is why it is important to have an overall risk-management process for the organizational level, the business process level, and for the information system and data levels as well.
An infusion of $6 billion in federal funding for critical water infrastructure projects appears to be on the way to some very happy state and local officials. What a great gift!
In the world of water and wastewater, it's not enough to simply get a measurement back on how your system is performing. The non-linear process of water treatment and distribution requires ongoing adjustment and diagnostics based on process and regular instrument analysis. In this Water Online video, Tom Siller, Senior Director for Hach's Software Business Unit, discusses Claros, a new water intelligence system that not only analyzes but looks to fill the knowledge void as we face a generational change in our treatment operator ranks.
A suspended U.S. EPA official is calling out the Trump administration for what she sees as negligence on rules protecting children from lead.
As water and wastewater treatment plant (WTP/WWTP) processes and control systems become more sophisticated, maximizing operator effectiveness becomes more complex as well. A well-planned alarm and control strategy can make a significant difference between valuable decision-making information and confusing, disjointed, data points. This article highlights key strategies for foreseeing problems in advance, fixing them faster, and having a higher success rate by maximizing operator effectiveness.
Water and wastewater treatment applications encompass a wide range of processes, technologies, and physical/chemical methods. Among them, filtration and separation technologies are the core of treatment processes, and in many cases, they can be critical process bottlenecks. Engineering firms, engineering procurement and construction contractors, and end users have high expectations regarding a plant's operation, process design, efficiency, and performance.
There are a variety of costs that are easy to overlook in water treatment. But as Herman Coello, Products Manager for SIEMENS Process Instrumentation, explains in this Water Online video, accurately measuring your flow and treatment parameters can reduce them all. Much-overlooked expenses such as pumping inefficiencies and chemical overdosing can all be reduced to save operating expense.
In September of 2016, Ted Henifin took the first sip of water purified at a pilot treatment plant developed by HRSD (Hampton Roads Sanitation District). Now, the innovative water treatment program known as SWIFT — Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow — is changing the lens through which communities and government officials view wastewater, drinking water, aquifer replenishment, and even fighting sea level rise.
The fate of a water utility in Indiana lies in the hands of a court.
In water plant operations, there’s no such thing as simply maintaining the status quo. Any utility that is not moving forward is falling behind. Whether a water treatment or wastewater treatment plant (WTP/WWTP) chooses to rely on in-house resources or outside specialists, here are some lifecycle management approaches they can use to upgrade control capabilities without compromising performance or return on investment.
Boiler feedwater is comprised of two very important, and increasingly expensive resources: steam condensate return and city (or well) makeup water. The condensate is valuable due to low electrical conductance, purity, and high temperature. The makeup water is valuable because it is being overused and under conserved in many parts of the country, making the cost of water rise in almost all parts of the U.S.
A Q&A with Berkeley Lab hydrological science expert Bhavna Arora, who explains how unseasonably warm weather and drought can affect water quality
The water utility in San Angelo, TX, is urging customers who paid their water bill online during the summer months to immediately get a new card.
While the laws of physics and chemistry have not changed, the ways that water and wastewater treatment plants (WTPs/WWTPs) are being forced to deal with them certainly have — e.g., disinfection byproducts (DBPs), tighter turbidity standards, harmful algal blooms, and PFAS challenges. Even when plant throughput stays the same, the demands on plant personnel continue to increase. Here’s how evolving toward better workforce management processes can help.
The City of Paramount conducted a pilot study for arsenic, manganese and iron treatment system at their Well 15 site. The onsite pilot test was designed to demonstrate the performance of the Loprest Water Treatment Company treatment process proposed for the new treatment plant.
When it becomes necessary to expand or blend water supply sources, variety is not necessarily the spice of life. Whether new water sources are surface water or groundwater, fresh, brackish, seawater, or water recovered from aquifer storage, they can ultimately impact water treatment plant (WTP) operations and finished water quality — including compliance with the U.S. EPA Lead and Copper Rule.
Prioritizing and funding pressing infrastructure needs can be challenging for water treatment and wastewater treatment plants (WTPs/WWTPs) of any size. The problems are particularly stressful for smaller utilities where a thin layer of upper management staff wears an inordinate number of hats. The good news is that funding assistance does exist — if you know where to look for it and take the right steps to apply for it.
Matt Shoemaker, North American Sales Manager for Leopold -- A Xylem Brand, talks through the features of the Type 360 Underdrain, a bolt-down system with a design that allows for longer filter runs, higher efficiency, less backwash water, and extended media life. With a flow concept that avoids dead zones and patented self-cleaning capabilities, the Type 360 is easy to own and operate. Get a close look and hear more about its unique properties in this video.
Loprest has been designing and fabricating manganese removal systems using manganese greensand for over forty years. Drawing on that experience; filtration rates, run times, backwash procedures, chemical dosage rates, etc. are all established by theoretical calculations and history. Therefore, Loprest’s goal in this pilot study was to conduct uninterrupted operation per bid testing procedures and document the results.
In 75 years, El Paso Water has come full circle. More than seven decades ago, El Paso’s population growth was stretching the border city’s water supply and requiring new approaches that would enable the city to continue to thrive.
The U.S. Senate has just approved “America’s Water Infrastructure Act,” which was also passed by the House of Representatives in September, clearing the way for Presidential signature. While much of the bill focuses on traditional water projects to be carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers, it includes several provisions directly addressing drinking water infrastructure.
Elevated concentrations of strontium, an element associated with oil and gas wastewaters, have accumulated in the shells of freshwater mussels downstream from fracking wastewater disposal sites, according to researchers from Penn State and Union College.
Recently, Environmental groups filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging an EPA rule designed to gut coal ash disposal regulations that provide environmental safeguards for communities living near toxic coal ash waste dumps.
WaterStart is proud to announce Virgin Valley Water District (VVWD) as a new member in its organization. Established in 1993, VVWD provides a safe and dependable water supply to the citizens and visitors in Mesquite and Bunkerville.
On the eve of the biannual meeting of the USDA's National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), in St. Paul, Minnesota, The Cornucopia Institute has formally submitted a citizen's petition requesting the USDA ban use of wastewater from the oil and gas industry in organic crop production.
David J. Martinez, engineering project lead for Sandia’s infrastructure computing services, received the DOE’s Federal Energy and Water Management Award for his contribution to a technique that saved water by substituting a reusable liquid refrigerant in place of evaporative-water cooling towers when outside temperatures are low enough to make that feasible.
Fluence Corporation Limited (ASX: FLC) is pleased to announce that it has signed contracts totaling US$7.6 million through its Egyptian joint venture entity The International Co. for Water Services & Infrastructure (IWSI) to supply three separate NIROBOX™ Smart Packaged seawater desalination plants to projects owned by the Egyptian Ministry of Housing.
A new study led by York University researchers has found that fluoride levels in urine are twice as high for pregnant women living in Canadian cities where fluoride is added to public drinking water as for those living in cities that do not add fluoride to public water supplies.
MGX Minerals Inc. is pleased to report that engineering partner PurLucid Treatment Solutions (“PurLucid”) has delivered the first petrolithium and advanced wastewater treatment system to a centralized treatment and processing facility north of Edmonton and proximate to the Alberta oilsands.
Endress+Hauser announces it plans to build a new 100,000+ square-foot Gulf Coast Regional Center Campus in Pearland, TX, just outside of the Houston area.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 Administrator Trey Glenn participated in meetings with Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson and other industry stakeholders to discuss critical issues impacting agriculture in Mississippi.
Yorkshire Water has begun a trial which it hopes will inform the way water is provided to businesses.
WinCan, a market leader in sewer asset management software and inspection data storage, was awarded PACP 7.0 and LACP 7.0 certification.
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Siemens Industry Inc. is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. As one of the world's leaders in industry automation and an experienced provider of integrated technologies, we offer products and systems tailored to the requirements of the water and wastewater industry. Learn more. |
Andrew Shaw, Global Practice and Technology Leader in Sustainability and Wastewater
Black & Veatch
Visit the Water Intelligence Panel page.
A patented polymicrobial blend of facultative bacteria specifically selected for their ability to degrade organic waste and eliminate noxious odor.
The Macro Porous Polymer Extraction (MPPE) Technology is a higly effective, fully automated, remote controlled and guaranteed method for removing dissolved and dispersed hydrocarbons from water with efficiencies of 99.9999% down to below ppb level by means of extraction in an MPP bed
Building smart cities takes technology and networking solutions with in-depth views and infrastructure control. The Sensus FlexNet® communication network is a long-range radio network that provides scalable and reliable two-way infrastructure.
Aquavista™ offers a wide and flexible range of digital solutions that respond to your challenges. From operators to management, Aquavista™ provides your plant personnel with a tool to efficiently manage plants and water treatment equipment.
Orbisint CPS11D is a digital pH electrode with Memosens technology for standard applications in process and environment technology. It is designed with a dirt-repellent PTFE diaphragm and a built-in temperature sensor.
The HYDROVEX® FluidSep Vortex Separator is a tool in the treatment of CSO and Stormwater. The treatment relies on the properties of the controlled vortex to eliminate settleable suspended solids, as well as floatables carried by the incoming water
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.
The Ultra Mag electromagnetic flow meter (or "magmeter") sets itself apart from the start, with a stainless steel body, steel flanges, and a consistent 3M fusion-bonded epoxy liner, inside and out, to eliminate wear, abrasions, and corrosion.
In the world of water and wastewater, it's not enough to simply get a measurement back on how your system is performing. The non-linear process of water treatment and distribution requires ongoing adjustment and diagnostics based on process and regular instrument analysis. In this Water Online video, Tom Siller, Senior Director for Hach's Software Business Unit, discusses Claros, a new water intelligence system that not only analyzes but looks to fill the knowledge void as we face a generational change in our treatment operator ranks.
There are a variety of costs that are easy to overlook in water treatment. But as Herman Coello, Products Manager for SIEMENS Process Instrumentation, explains in this Water Online video, accurately measuring your flow and treatment parameters can reduce them all. Much-overlooked expenses such as pumping inefficiencies and chemical overdosing can all be reduced to save operating expense.
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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