Water Online Highlights

41. Don't Ditch The Ditch: New Oxidation Ditch Technologies Enhance Nutrient Removal 9/7/2026

    Advanced oxidation ditches combine multichannel treatment, efficient aeration, and smart controls to improve nutrient removal while reducing energy use, maintenance, and infrastructure requirements.

42. Illegal Wastewater Discharges And The Importance Of Organics Monitoring In Municipal Sewer Networks 9/7/2026

    Unpredictable industrial dumping overloads municipal wastewater treatment systems, driving up utility costs. Continuous inline monitoring provides real-time visibility into shifting organic loads, enabling collection teams to catch contamination spikes early and protect downstream biological processes.

43. The High Cost Of Dirty Data In Wastewater Automation 9/4/2026

    High-frequency radar provides reliable wastewater level measurement that strengthens digital twins, predictive analytics, and automated collection systems while reducing sensor maintenance.

44. Beyond The Screen: Why Debris Management Deserves More Attention 9/4/2026

    Evolving debris characteristics and aging collection infrastructure place unprecedented operational stress on downstream equipment. Evaluating preliminary treatment efficiency helps facilities eliminate chronic maintenance demands, safeguard critical infrastructure, and protect operating budgets.

45. 5 Questions To Ask Before Reusing Clarifier Specifications 9/4/2026

    Reusing master equipment specifications without evaluating application-specific hydraulics or basin geometries creates costly mechanical conflicts. Auditing legacy requirements ensures every structural and operational component directly supports site-specific treatment goals.

46. Renewable Biogas From Wastewater Treatment: A Critical Pathway To Net Zero 9/4/2026

    Converting organic wastewater residuals into methane-rich biogas creates a circular energy system. Modernizing digester mixing, thermal management, and gas containment reduces grid dependency, lowers facility operating expenses, and advances net-zero decarbonization goals.

47. The Cost Of Waiting: Utilities Face A Narrowing PFAS Compliance Window 9/4/2026
    For years, the water industry's PFAS conversation centered on monitoring, testing, and regulatory anticipation. Today, that phase is largely over.
48. Why Water Utilities Need Better Asset History, Not Just More Maintenance Data 9/4/2026
    For water and wastewater utilities, better asset history is not about collecting more data for its own sake. It’s about making existing inspection and maintenance information useful enough to support reliability, maintenance prioritization, capital planning, and long-term service delivery.
49. PFAS Funding Is Flowing — But Does The Water Sector Have Enough People To Deliver It? 9/4/2026
    For several years, the PFAS conversation has centered on treatment options, testing, and funding. Those factors still matter, but they are no longer the primary constraint. Most utilities already understand the treatment routes available to them; the real challenge now is moving from technical possibility to operational performance, and that depends entirely on people.
50. Sunscreen For Lakes And Dams: Could A Thin Floating Layer Of Nanomaterial Shield Water From Evaporation? 9/3/2026

    Water stored in dams and reservoirs for humans to use often evaporates, especially in hot regions like southern Africa. Rising temperatures speed evaporation up, leaving less water for people, farming and industry. Daniel Kwasi Kpeglo has just completed a PhD in physics. He explains his laboratory research into a new design – a thin nanomaterial floating cover that could be placed over lakes and dams like a blanket, reducing evaporation by limiting the amount of infrared heat from the sun that reaches the water. He also outlines what hurdles need to be cleared for the design to be tested in the real world.