Water Online Highlights

1. Irish Wastewater Treatment Plant Sets New Standard For Sustainable Civic Infrastructure 8/29/2025

   Wastewater treatment facilities are typically recognizable by their brutalist aesthetic: angular, gray expanses of concrete, adorned with steel walkways and stairs. However, the Clancy Moore-designed wastewater treatment plant in Arklow, Wicklow County, Ireland, bucks that trend.

2. How To Bridge The Wastewater Infrastructure Gap 8/28/2025

   Across the country, wastewater systems are reaching the end of their intended lifespans. Most treatment plants were designed to operate for 40–50 years. Now, many are now overdue for major upgrades or full replacements. This issue is compounded by decades of declining investment.

3. Acoustic Inspection As A Solution For Rural Water 8/28/2025

   To improve efficiency, a Virginia utility adopted acoustic inspection technology (SL-RAT) in 2018, enabling a shift to condition-based maintenance.

4. Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts Of Water — Companies Rarely Tell The Public Exactly How Much 8/28/2025

   As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility.

5. SORB FX, Contaminant Removal For PFAS 8/25/2025

   SORB FX systems deliver powerful PFAS removal in a compact, easy-to-operate design—ideal for small utilities seeking fast deployment, low maintenance, and proven contaminant control.

6. PFAS Pilots: Strategic Planning 8/25/2025

   PFOA and PFOS are among the most widely detected PFAS in drinking water sources, and the final limits remain among the most stringent in the world. In addition, many states are maintaining or pursuing their own PFAS limits beyond PFOA and PFOS, and future federal regulation of additional PFAS is still possible.

7. AI Could Solve America's Infrastructure Problem. Institutions Need To Let Engineers Use It. 8/25/2025

   The state of America’s crumbling infrastructure continues to be a perennial concern as the scale of the problem continually outpaces both the funding and the human resources needed to solve it. Engineers have the solution — AI systems that offer unprecedented speed and potential cost savings — but to leverage its full potential, engineers need to take on a new role — and potentially a new business model.

8. Colorado's Subalpine Wetlands May Be Producing A Toxic Form Of Mercury — That's A Concern For Downstream Water Supplies 8/25/2025

   The wetlands found across the Rocky Mountains of Colorado just below tree line are crucial for regulating the supply of clean water from the highlands to metropolitan regions downslope, including Denver. However, new research shows the wetlands also harbor a health risk.

9. Water Conservation And Reuse For Data Centers 8/25/2025

   Because of our own decades-long mismanagement of our collective global water resources, we are now facing a global freshwater crisis where the demand for freshwater is predicted to exceed its supply by 40% by the year 2030. Directly coinciding with the water crisis timeline is the growing need for data center construction in order to accommodate AI, cloud computing, and other Big Data and IoT processing.

10. Grand Canyon's Dragon Bravo Megafire Shows The Growing Wildfire Threat To Water Systems 8/22/2025

    As wildfire crews battled the Dragon Bravo Fire on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim in July 2025, the air turned toxic. A chlorine gas leak had erupted from the park’s water treatment facility as the building burned, forcing firefighters to pull back. The water treatment facility is part of a system that draws water from a fragile spring. The fire also damaged some of the area’s water pipes and equipment.