The city of Buhl, Idaho, obtains all of its drinking water from groundwater sources through multiple wells. Prior to 2009, the city did not treat the groundwater but only added chlorine in the form of bulk 12.5% sodium hypochlorite to provide a disinfectant residual. A combination of factors including: changes in EPA and state DEQ regulatory requirements, growth of the residential population and growth of the industrial food processing customers forced the City to build a new water treatment plant to provide filtration to address the naturally occurring arsenic present in the groundwater.
Water has never been more in demand, and innovative approaches to improving water security have never been more imperative. As our global population grows exponentially, cities and towns expand to accommodate new inhabitants, providing the resources and services they need. Rapid agricultural and industrial development continues apace.
In its quest to gain greater remote accessibility and increase ease of use, a progressive sewerage authority elects to think outside the traditional SCADA box.
Flanders pioneers the internet of Water, a unique intelligent water management system based on a network of connected sensors, that enables a permanent and real time follow-up of water quality and water quantity. This internet of Water will enable Flanders to tackle the growing threat of water inconvenience, water scarcity and water pollution.
Water utilities rely on accurate and dependable flow measurement for critical process controls. Regulatory agencies also require flow monitoring and reporting, with specific accuracy limits.
Nitrogen pollution flowing into the Gulf of Mexico by way of Iowa has grown by nearly 50 percent over the last two decades, according to a new University of Iowa study.
A lot has changed over the past 15 years. Back in the early 2000s, many utilities weren’t interested in understanding what was in their water beyond the contaminant and disinfection byproduct levels they were regulated to comply with. But as Pat Whalen, President and CEO of LuminUltra, explains in this ACE 2018 Water Talk interview, a steady stream of ongoing education and the modern data storage and analytics that cloud computing provides, has developed some rabid fans eager to explore the microbiology of their water systems.
Historically, fire hydrants didn’t do anything. They were there for that one day that hopefully never showed up. But in today’s connected world, fire hydrants are becoming an important asset in understanding the water distribution system, allowing utilities to monitor stress and predict leaks.
The Upper Trinity Regional Water District (UTRWD) is a conservation district created by the State of Texas in 1989 to provide water, wastewater, solid waste and storm water services to numerous towns and cities approximately 50 miles northwest of Dallas. In 2010, the UTRWD installed three 2,000 pound per day (PPD) chlorine equivalent Microclor® OSHG systems. The systems continue to provide UTRWD with a reliable supply of hypochlorite for disinfection in a manner that is less expensive and less risky than gas chlorine or liquid bulk hypochlorite delivered via truck or rail through such a heavily populated area.
Recently, I had the opportunity to tour a unique and innovative facility, the Bureau of Lab Services (BLS), the “water quality heartbeat of the Philadelphia Water Department” (PWD), as described by BLS director Gary Burlingame.
For many utilities, failing pipelines and non-revenue water are atop the list of concerns. However, these issues can be greatly mitigated by leveraging readily available data in an intelligent way — through smart water management.
A real-world, industrial application of remote process monitoring proves that a little technology can go a long way in terms of cost savings and process improvement.
Rather than waiting on water scarcity and reacting to a crisis, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is forging its own future, and that of others, by blazing a trail of water-reuse practice and policy.
Not just a solution for water-scarce cities by the sea, desalination is also vitally important for industrial processes and many inland utilities reliant on groundwater. Like other treatment technologies, continued water security and prosperity depend on improvements in the processes and developments on the horizon.
With resources constrained and needs abundant, water and wastewater utilities are obliged to understand and evolve with trends in asset management.
As manufacturing across the world further develops, new chemicals and contaminant threats are being introduced into the environment, creating new challenges for industrial and municipal treatment operations.
This overview of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling for wastewater treatment plant design reveals how it is applied to different system components, as well as why (i.e., the benefits) and when (in the design process) it should be applied.
Utility managers and operators rely on flow meters to provide critical information for process monitoring and control. They require and fully expect the flow data to be accurate and reproducible.
Two businesses are being sued by the U.S. Attorney’s office for allegedly contaminating drinking water on Long Island.
Rangely is a remote town with a population of just over 2,200 people located in the upper northwest area of Colorado, thirteen miles from the Utah border. During the course of their routine maintenance, operators noticed problems with a distribution pump. Read the full project profile to learn how Process Solutions’ trained service technicians were able to walk them through a series of diagnostics to further isolate the problem and get the system was back up and running in a short period of time.
Nick Burns, director of water treatment technology for (the Americas region of) Black & Veatch, discusses the health concerns, current regulatory status, and documented presence of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), also sometimes called perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in drinking water supplies — as determined by sampling under the U.S. EPA's Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 3 (UCMR3).
Veolia furnished West Deptford Energy with a BIOSTYR® Biological Aerated Filter (BAF) and Hydrotech Discfilter system, allowing effluent from a municipal wastewater plant to be reused, with a treatment capacity of 7.35 MGD, in the operation of their new “green” energy station.
Henry County Water Authority in Georgia, USA, had been relying on acoustic leak detection for eleven years, working with a dedicated leak detection company that uses noise loggers and other acoustic listening devices to find leaks. However, these traditional ground-based methods of monitoring Henry County’s extensive water catchments and infrastructure have their limitations.
Water and wastewater utilities rely on accurate flow measurement for important process controls. These may include recycle streams, chemical dosing systems, and other operational functions. In addition, regulators require utilities to measure certain flows, such as treatment plant influent and effluent and potable water pumping. Accurate flow measurement is also important for monitoring and reducing unaccounted-for water.
An audit by Baltimore officials has found that water meter readers wasted $120,000 through unproductive activities and slacking on the job.
At AWWA’s ACE 2018 event, Maury Gaston, Manager of Marketing Services for AMERICAN’s Ductile Iron and AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe product lines, presented on reducing energy through pipe selection, evaluating the City of Huntsville and its 1,297-mile long network. Gaston presented his findings and explained the energy savings in terms of dollars but also kilowatt hours, carbon equivalents and bond values.
Do you know that people throw away about around 4 million tons of rubbish on a daily basis, of which 12.8 percent is plastic?
The key to high rate clarifiers such as inclined plate settlers is flow distribution says Tom Grubb, Regional Manager with Meurer Research. “Each inclined plate is like a miniature little sedimentation basin,” Grubb told Water Online in a recent Water Talk interview at AWWA’s ACE 2018. “To get good effluent quality, it’s critical that you have the same flow to each plate.”
Much like investing in water infrastructure, the country often overlooks the pressing need to invest in a skilled workforce to manage these systems. Nearly 1.7 million “water workers”construct, operate, and maintain water systems found in every region, whether employed in utilities, engineering firms, or other industries. And many water workers are in short supply due to a wave of retirements and a lack of younger talent, even though they earn more competitive wages, tend to only need a high school diploma or less, and develop valuable skillsets over time.
San Jose Water Company (SJWC) provides drinking water for over a million people in the greater San Jose Metropolitan region and is a recognized leader in drinking water treatment and distribution system water quality management. With over 90 water storage facilities in service, planned maintenance and rehabilitation of capital assets is a key component of SJWC’s CIP program.
Microfiltration and ultrafiltration have become mainstays in the water treatment arena. These processes remove contaminants from water by passing it through a semipermeable membrane. Membrane filters are constructed with a variety of materials with various pore sizes. The challenge is determining which best suits the application with regard to performance, cost, and ease of operation.
Aqua Engineers is a local Hawaiian company founded almost 40 years ago which delivers operations, engineering, and construction management to the water and wastewater industry throughout Hawaii. Also, as an owner and operator, Aqua Engineers is keenly focused on the return on investment for process equipment decisions, but also on the safety of its operators and surrounding community. Read the full case study to learn why Aqua Engineers chose the Microclor OSHG system provided by UGSI Solutions for both their sites in 2016.
When it comes to the future of utility management, every arrow points toward greater adoption of 'smart' systems. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is smart, in a sense, but the mere existence of a SCADA system at your facility won't maximize efficiency and optimization. The capabilities and opportunities available to utilities through data and analytics are going largely untapped, according to two experts who joined Water Online for Water Talk, but a new initiative could help unlock its ever-growing potential.
Utilities are obsessed with taking contaminants out of water, but what about contaminants that are emitted into the atmosphere? While it's not their job to remove such pollutants, water utilities can help achieve cleaner air by not being part of the problem. It's an effort that may not be top of mind, but perhaps it should get more consideration; after all, water utilities are stewards of the environment — a badge of honor — and care for the environment most certainly includes the air we breathe.
Historic Punta Gorda, located on the shores of scenic Charlotte Harbor on the west coast of Florida prides itself in the proactive management of its water supply. With the responsibility of providing water to over 34,000 customers in the 38 square mile service area, Punta Gorda manages 237 miles of distribution pipe and two water storage facilities. The 1 million gallon (MG) Burnt Store elevated tank and the 2 MG Punta Gorda Isles ground storage tank provide distribution system balance as well as the ability to meet peak demands and fire protection capacity.
It will take months to repair the fallout from a broken water main in Philadelphia’s Center City that poured 15 million gallons of water into city streets.
Accurately measuring flow is critical for water utility operations. Also, regulatory agencies mandate flow monitoring and require annual calibration of meters. But even a meter in perfect condition and properly calibrated can read inaccurately. Flow disturbances are a common cause of accuracy and repeatability errors.
Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) serves about 142,000 customers in Riverside County, CA. The EMWD service area is one of the largest for any water district in arid southern California. On the drinking water side, EMWD manages two water treatment plants and over 15 reservoirs. With 70% of the district’s water coming from the Metropolitan Water District with chloramine disinfection, EMWD has become reliant on chloramine disinfection to manage long transmission lines and longer detention times.
Like many cities within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the City of Coppell experienced water quality challenges at different periods throughout the year. In particular, the City had difficulty maintaining adequate chloramine residuals at the 1.5 MG Southwestern elevated storage tank during the warmer summer months when outdoor watering was restricted to conserve water.
Located on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) treats and distributes water to over 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Cucamonga Valley Water District (CVWD) serves a 47‐square‐mile area with about 45,000 water connections and 35,000 sewer connections and an average daily demand of approximately 50 million gallons.
A San Jose Water Quality Engineer said, "I wasn’t convinced that PSI’s Monoclor™ chloramine dosing system would solve our problems after several failed attempts to improve residual, but with PSI offering a trial including installation, operation, and troubleshooting for three months, San Jose Water decided to invest the necessary resources to pilot this system.
American Water, the nation’s largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company, announced recently the company and its employees have raised more than $2M in the last decade for Water For People, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to improved water and sanitation systems and services in developing countries.
Jennifer Duffy has been named HDR’s water reuse practice lead, based in the firm’s San Diego, California office.
NOAA and its research partners predict that western Lake Erie will experience a harmful algal bloom (HAB) of cyanobacteria this summer that is smaller than in 2017 but larger than the mild bloom in 2016.
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) have announced the launch of the inaugural Transformative Issues Symposium on Affordability. The event will be held August 6-7 in Washington, D.C.
Leading experts and thought leaders—including six distinguished opening session speakers—will address the critical issues and challenges in automation facing the water/wastewater industry at the 2018 ISA Water/Wastewater and Automatic Controls (WWAC) Symposium, 7-9 August 2018 in Bethesda, Maryland.
Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, today announced the latest addition to its industrial software portfolio, EcoStruxure™ Augmented Operator Advisor augmented reality (AR) software.
The International Desalination Association (IDA) led a thought-provoking PUB-IDA Business Forum focused on Desalination and Water Reuse: Enhancing Climate Resilience for Cities as part of the 2018 Singapore International Water Week.
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Rapidly produce FREE engineering designs for activated sludge wastewater treatment plants. |
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Headquartered in Ansonia Connecticut, we have been serving the North American wastewater industry quickly and reliably for 35 years through our network of competent and locally committed factory trained distributors and service centers. Our 40,000 sq. ft. engineering & test center, workshop, and warehouse facility is fully equipped to help design, build, deliver, and service all your wastewater handling needs. |
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The Water Environment Federation’s Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference, WEFTEC®, is the largest conference of its kind in North America and offers water quality professionals the best water quality education and training available today. WEFTEC® 2018, September 29-October 3, 2018, in New Orleans, LA., is THE event for water professionals, industry experts, and the most innovative companies from around the world to gather for the advancement and transformation of the water sector. Learn more. |
Cristina Ahmadpour, President/Managing Director
Isle Utilities
Visit the Water Intelligence Panel page.
Aerzen’s AERprocess Dissolved Oxygen Control is an integrated solution for controlling the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in the activated sludge treatment process and the blowers used to generate the process air flow requirement. The AERprocess system is able to maintain DO concentrations at their set points using a smart and efficient control strategy.
The Headworks® TurboDrum IH™ horizontal drum screen is a unique, rotary, in-channel drum screen suitable for fine screening of sewage and industrial effluent. It is the ideal solution for large applications requiring fine screens with openings as fine as 1 mm and no carryover.
To handle the odor control needs of municipal and government agencies, OMI Industries has created MUNI® odor neutralizing product.
Ten years ago, KLa Systems was presented with the challenge of finding a more wear-resistant material for our jet aeration nozzles. The inner nozzle is the liquid propulsion nozzle of the jet aerator and continuously sees high volumes of motive liquid flow at velocities ranging from 33-46 ft/s. Traditionally, these inner jet nozzles were made from the same FRP material as the outer jet with the industry accepted corrosion/abrasion liner made up of C-Glass/Nexus and Silicon Carbide impregnated into the vinylester resin. For many years this material had held up in most industrial and municipal bioprocesses with no adverse deterioration or wear.
Veolia has developed ShaleFlow™, a cost-effective transportable solution for reuse of produced water and flowback water from hydraulic fracturing operations. This compact, modular system utilizes proven technologies designed to enable reuse with the flexibility to be moved as the field is developed.
The TrojanUV3000™B is available with a controller that enables flow pacing to maximize operating efficiency and extend lamp life. The system turns UV lamp banks on and off automatically to ensure the required dose is met using the fewest lamps and least electricity. These simple, robust, and operator-friendly systems have demonstrated their effective, reliable performance in thousands of installations around the world.
The Aqua Caiman™ represents the next generation of multi-rake mechanical bar screens. In designing the screen, Parkson combined over 40 years of experience working on thousands of in-channel screen installations with in-depth market and engineering research. This allowed us to better understand the weaknesses of existing multi-rake and articulating rake screens.
This video provides a detailed explanation of the process and benefits of the MRI Inclined Plate Settler System over conventional settling methods. MRI’s Inclined Plate Settlers and Hoseless Cable-Vac Sludge Collectors combine in this system to provide a reduced footprint, cost savings, zero energy usage, and superior efficiency and effluent quality.
Find out the importance of total cost of ownership in wastewater treatment applications and how Atlas Copco supports this approach.
The new Ovivo MBR Knowledge Center and MICRODYN-NADIR Manufacturing Plant for BIO-CEL MBR Membrane Modules is a 27,000-square-foot facility that houses a fully automated, cutting edge membrane module production line, as well as offices for Ovivo designers, engineers, and technicians.
See and hear from the Head of Business Unit Americas, from representatives of GF Piping Systems sales companies in the US, Canada and Mexico, and from representatives of each manufacturing company in the US. This video introduction includes footage from inside and out many of the GF facilities in North America.
This video provides a simple overview of the screen’s creation, function, features and benefits. From the beginning, Parkson engineers took it a step further by working with a leading design firm to rethink the industry standard step style screen from the ground up. They reviewed current offerings on the market and improved upon the common weak points. The result is the most durable escalating screen out there – the Aqua Rhino.
ABB is the best partner throughout the entire water cycle. From extraction and treatment, to distribution and the management of the wastewater process, ABB supplies an extensive range of reliable measurement products and solutions. With the most expertise in water and wastewater applications worldwide, ABB is the partner to help customers choose the optimal measurement solution precisely meeting their requirements. 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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