Billerica, Massachusetts embodies an ideal American suburb – picturesque streets, quaint houses, inviting storefronts and a central city square perfect for socializing with fellow neighbors and visitors. Located just 50 minutes north of Boston, Billerica is also a prime spot for young families who want the convenience of a close-by city with the atmosphere of a restful community.
There is little doubt about the importance of taking turbidity readings as part of drinking water treatment. However, there are certain misperceptions about the associated requirements and procedures needed to confirm the validity of those readings. The major points of confusion seem to revolve around perception of the terms “approved,” “calibration,” and “validation.” Here is a quick synopsis on what you really need to know about meeting U.S. EPA Method 180.1: Determination of Turbidity by Nephelometry for accurate turbidity readings.
Lead appears to be a pervasive problem in Chicago drinking water.
Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are widely used in potable water, wastewater, and industrial applications. However, a major issue in the application of RO membrane technology for desalination and wastewater reclamation is membrane fouling. It limits operating flux, decreases water production, and increases power consumption. Membrane fouling also increases the need for RO plants to perform periodical membrane CIP procedure. These problems decrease process efficiency, increase operation cost, and raise environmental issues related to the CIP solutions disposal.
In the cash-strapped water sector, $5.5 billion doesn’t grow on trees. That is why, for drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities facing funding challenges due to regional growth, aging infrastructure, or other needs, the recent announcement of that amount of funding under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) is welcome news.
As with so many other drinking water treatment processes, corrosion control demands a delicate balance among multiple factors. From the water-purifying chlorine that increases corrosion risk, to alternative strategies that reduce corrosion — using either elevated pH or phosphates — keeping corrosion under control requires sound strategy and reliable execution. Here are several approaches to addressing those conditions, along with options for better, more effective corrosion control.
Detroit plans to resume water shutoffs next month, and thousands of city residents could be affected.
Increased numbers of women entering the workforce brings diversity, which is especially beneficial for the water industry. The engineering field is known to be male-dominated. But this is slowly beginning to change, as more and more young women are earning engineering degrees and entering the workforce. In the past, graduating classes from engineering schools may have been 1 or 2 percent female. As of 2016, about 20 percent of engineering graduates were female.
In drinking water treatment’s ongoing battle between disinfection and disinfection byproducts (DBPs), most water utility customers are oblivious to the process. One thing they do notice, however, is when their water smells or tastes bad. Here are some insights that can help water treatment plant (WTP) operators deal with their internal concerns about DBPs and residual chlorine or ammonia levels, as well as their external concerns about customer perceptions of water quality.
A court decided last week that a woman whose water service was shut off is allowed to sue Syracuse for that action.
This white paper addresses how hydraulic models can be used to instantiate energy savings by reducing energy waste, promote better efficiencies in operating a pumping system, and exploit flexible energy tariffs available in the market place.
The industrial world is awash with data and new information from sensors, applications, equipment, and people.
At the helm of the nation’s top environmental agency during the Trump era, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was tasked with downsizing the agency and cutting regulations that are costly to industry.
Florida Governor Rick Scott vetoed a controversial wastewater bill this month under pressure from environmentalists.
A wide range of issues can disrupt the normal functioning of an urban water system, such as storms and other natural disasters, pollution, physical damage, cyber incidents, aging and insufficient infrastructure, and rapid urban growth.
District Sales Engineer Andy Singer has spent enough time troubleshooting problems in the field that not much surprises him anymore. When it comes to dry barrel fire hydrants, though, he still gets a chuckle out of some of his more outrageous experiences. Here is his educational and entertaining take on the care and maintenance of fire hydrants, and ways to maximize a utility’s return on what potentially can be a 50+-year infrastructure investment.
Bentley’s WaterGEMS Helps Identify and Prioritize Solutions, Including Implementing 43 Metering and Control Zones
Two water plant employees sustained injuries last week due to a chemical leak.
Buying IT assets off the shelf is an easy task, but managing the hardware and software requirements, permissions, licenses, and people using it across the organization is certainly not. It is not just the IT assets that need to be tracked, but also the people who are using it. If your organization has thousands of assets and hundreds of employees, you cannot keep an eye on each and every employee. The good news is you can use a cloud-based IT asset tracking system to effectively manage your IT assets, and eventually the people using it, by increasing transparency, maintaining accountability, enhancing productivity, and knowing what permissions they have with regards to equipment, what items they have responsibility for, and much more.
Since 1999, when business people at more than 150,000 companies worldwide wanted to keep better track of their customers — and be more responsive — they turned to Salesforce.com and its industry-leading customer relationship management (CRM) software. Now, companies looking for ideas on sustainability, in terms of water recycling, can turn to the new Salesforce Tower in San Francisco as a leading-edge environmental solution as well. It is estimated that the building’s water recycling system will save more than 7.5-million gallons of drinking water annually — enough to supply more than 16,000 San Francisco residents.
Ratepayers have invented a new way to peacefully protest their water utilities: paying in pennies.
One of the many travesties in the failure to properly protect drinking water in the United States is EPA’s decades-long inability to set an enforceable drinking standard for perchlorate, a chemical that harms the thyroid — critical for normal growth and development — and that contaminates drinking water systems serving over 17 million people in the U.S.
In this paper the importance of reagent water quality for toxic element environmental analyses is discussed, and the suitability of fresh ultrapure water produced using MilliporeSigma water purification systems for ICP-OES and ICP-MS trace element analyses in environmental laboratories is demonstrated.
According to reports from experts such as the World Economic Forum, natural disasters and other extreme weather incidents are expected to increase in intensity not only throughout 2018, but in the future as well.
Organizers on the Monterey Peninsula in California who want their privately-owned water provider to become publicly-owned have taken a step toward accomplishing that goal.
Measuring the level of tanks used to hold fluids for custody transfer can be expensive. This is not due to the cost of the measurement instrumentation, but to what inaccurate measurements can cost the company. Picking the right instrumentation for applications is important. Which radar level technology should you choose for tank gauging in custody transfer applications? Frequency Modulated Continuous Waveform (FMCW) or pulsed Time-of-Flight (ToF or PToF).
In this white paper, learn how to decrease alarms due to redundant level devices not matching, especially in applications with high pressure and/or high temperature. The importance of Gas Phase Compensation (GPC) and how it affects level readings of guided wave radar (GWR) devices is critical. The presence of polar gas also can have an effect on the accuracy of any GWR that does not have GPC when installed in applications where high temperature or pressure is present. This paper will discuss these issues and address how to overcome them.
Wastewater pros may have a new role in fighting the opioid crisis. Biobot Analytics, a startup staffed by chemists, engineers, and architects, founded at MIT, focuses on bringing the emerging field of “wastewater epidemiology” to cities.
Cape Town was supposed to run out of water on April 22, but an intense conservation effort averted disaster.
Water workers came to the rescue of a Los Angeles teen after he fell into sewage system on Easter Sunday.
Hurricane Harvey provided a stark reminder to Houston, Port Aransas, and other Texas communities of the power of storms and the consequences of living on a flood-prone coast.
Los Angeles is taking a firm position on the proposed Delta tunnels project: If city residents must pay more than their fair share, the city will oppose the deal.
The Greater Lawrence Sanitary District (GLSD) in North Andover, MA, was one of 28 organizations nationwide to be honored for an innovative water or wastewater project in the most recent PISCES Recognition Program sponsored by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). PISCES stands for Performance and Innovation in the SRF Creating Environmental Success.
Sewage sludge is a byproduct of treated wastewater. It is composed of both organic and inorganic materials, a large concentration of plant nutrients, organic chemicals, as well as pathogens. Therefore, it is extremely important to properly treat such sludge in order to minimize its environmental repercussions.
Houston residents living near a chemical plant damaged by Hurricane Harvey are seeking answers about what they were exposed to during the storm and why they were not warned about a major chemical spill.
KUB's water system has experienced 30 percent to 35 percent non-revenue water over the past 10 years; hard-to-find underground leaks are the big culprit. Reducing leaks improves customer service, increases operational efficiency, reduces expenses for chemicals and power, and has other benefits.
Matchpoint was hired to conduct one day of leak detection services for the Port of Morehead City. The objective of the survey was to find a 1 to 2 gallon per minute leak that the Port highlighted as a concern on over 3,500 feet of pipe.
Albion, MI, completed the update of several components of its four-MGD plant in the fall 2017. Afterwards, the plant superintendent became interested in testing the impact that optimizing his mixing might have on other aspects of his conventional activated sludge process with enhanced biological phosphorus removal. Read the full case study to learn how the test showed that there can be dramatic opportunities for right sizing mixer thrust, when the equipment is available to take advantage of it.
Flint residents received a positive ruling from the Supreme Court in March, allowing them to proceed with their legal battles.
It was the final game of a spring training Freeway series between the Dodgers and the Angels, both of Los Angeles, when a sewage emergency cut things short.
The 2010 Water Stewardship Act enacted by the state of Georgia has accelerated several utilities’ water loss and control programs. Provoked by the Act and the Water Supply Efficient Improvement Plan mandating that “by July 1, 2016, Public water systems shall develop and conduct a water loss control program to investigate, assess, and implement efforts to improve water supply efficiency,” Columbus Water Works (CWW) set out to develop a comprehensive plan for not only meeting, but exceeding the required objectives.
In 2007, White House Utility District (WHUD), a water utility serving approximately 90,000 consumers and businesses in Tennessee, faced a dilemma: how to meet a projected growing demand for water within the budget and capital constraints faced by municipal and mid-sized utilities everywhere.
The City of Boise and Brown and Caldwell recently announced receivership of a national honor in the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 51st Engineering Excellence Awards competition.
The Collaborative Laboratories for Environmental Analysis and Remediation at The University of Texas at Arlington has expanded its partnership with oil field equipment supplier Challenger Water Solutions to develop water recycling technologies that will transform waste from unconventional oil and gas development into reusable water.
The Mueller® Encoder Eight (ME-8) register combines proven reliable mechanical components with an innovative new automated data acquisition system that improves meter accuracy and functionality for utilities.
A new battery energy storage system is now online at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority’s wastewater treatment plant in Atlantic City, N.J.
EBML, the water authority of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, has installed i2O’s dNet solution to gain detailed insight into the performance and condition of its water network.
Global Water Intelligence (GWI) recently announced the winners of the 2018 Global Water Awards, which were presented on Monday 16 April at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris, France, as part of the Global Water Summit 2018.
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) recently released a first-of-its-kind report at the Mid-Atlantic scale that examines the vulnerabilities of several critical economic sectors to climate change.
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Hydra-Stop, based in Burr Ridge, IL, is the largest insertion valve and line stop fitting manufacturer in the world. For over 35 years, Hydra-Stop has provided solutions for water control to thousands of municipalities and contractors around the world. Hydra-Stop assists municipalities, water utilities, contractors and engineers manage and maintain aging water systems while minimizing the disruption of the most basic human need... water. Learn more. |
Mariyana Spyropoulos, President
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
Visit the Water Intelligence Panel page.
750 → 3,000+ lb/day MOS
Frac-on-the-fly water disinfection! Providing residual disinfection down-hole where it counts most.
The RAFTS water resources engineering software has been used in the analysis and management of both urban and rural watersheds and in the design of flood protection systems and the analysis of river systems for over 30 years.
Sludge removal for Water and Wastewater Treatment.
Desalitech ReFlex Max Reverse Osmosis systems are highly efficient, typically reducing brine waste by 50% to 75% and energy consumption by up to 35%.
VigorOx® WWT II is a strong wastewater disinfectant for use in wastewater treatment that can replace chlorine or improve the performance of a UV system. VigorOx WWT II, a peracetic acid (PAA)-based formulation, is an equilibrium mixture of acetic acid (vinegar), hydrogen peroxide and water.
80% of your capital is invested in the distribution network. Aquis puts you in control.
The fourth and final introductory video of the series, follows how biosolids are treated throughout the process. Reviewing thickening, aerobic and anaerobic digestion, dewatering and drying. An introduction to wastewater treatment unlike any other out there.
The third video of the series, follows how water is treated throughout the treatment process. Reviewing primary clarification of insoluble BOD and other settleable material, biological treatment, secondary clarification, tertiary filtration, phosphorus removal, denitrification, disinfection and discharge.
The Mountain Regional Water District (MRW) and the city of Park City both wanted to improve their HMI/SCADA systems. Each was seeking a more reliable and robust HMI that could provide good data visibility, alarming, and expandability at an affordable cost.
Duperon Corporation was founded in 1985, and revolutionized headworks screening with the FlexRake, the first multi-rake screen with no lower sprocket. Duperon’s patented innovations are now installed in more than 1,800 locations worldwide. Click the video to learn more.
Making sure your data is safe and secure is very important. See how OpWorks can help make that happen.
The newest OpWorks feature allows you to pull up equipment information instantly. Using QR codes is easy and fast.
Affordable wastewater solutions for municipal, commercial, community, residential, and commercial applications. Whether you need decentralized wastewater collection, treatment systems, or both, Orenco has your answer.
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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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