WIP Editorial

1. Scaling Smart Water: Balancing Automation With Continuous Value 4/23/2025

   Let’s explore how water utilities can scale smart water solutions through four key pillars: unlocking value, empowering people, implementing innovation, and scaling digitization.

2. America Confronts Urgent Water Infrastructure Needs 4/15/2025
   The focus on water is extreme in almost every state in America. The most critical issues tend to be water resources, aging water treatment plants, flood control, aging dam structures, and leaking water pipelines. These types of projects are usually expensive, but the good news is that there is still federal funding available.
3. Is The State Revolving Fund In Jeopardy? 3/31/2025
   For decades, the State Revolving Fund (SRF) has served as a crucial financial backbone for water infrastructure projects across the U.S., providing low-interest loans to states and municipalities to maintain and improve drinking water and wastewater systems. However, recent executive actions from the Trump administration have raised concerns that even long-standing and widely supported programs like the SRF could face fundamental changes, or even outright repeal.
4. Who Should Own Your Water? The Public vs. Private Utility Debate 3/24/2025
   For decades, policymakers, industry experts, and communities have debated whether water utilities should be publicly or privately owned. Proponents of private water management argue that market-driven efficiencies can lead to better service and infrastructure investment, while advocates for public utilities emphasize the need for affordability, transparency, and public accountability.
5. Double Belts, Double Suspenders: How El Paso Is Implementing Direct Potable Reuse 3/12/2025
   The city of El Paso, TX, has always known that water is precious. After its public utility, El Paso Water, previously piloted a direct potable reuse (DPR) plant to turn agricultural irrigation wastewater into drinking water, the city is now ready to begin construction of a full-scale, 10-MGD DPR facility.
6. New Research Could Extend Membrane Life And Lower Desalination Costs 3/6/2025
   As water-scarce regions clamor for answers, developments in membrane anti-scaling bring desalination closer to viability.
7. Cybersecurity For The Win: How Water Utilities Can Embrace Digital Technology 3/6/2025

   Water and wastewater system operators are known to be a careful lot. Tightly regulated by the U.S. EPA and state agencies — and committed to public health — they cannot afford mistakes. This often results in "tried-and-true" methodologies winning out over innovative solutions, but the incredible upside offered by digital technologies has encouraged a wave of cyber adoption. Almost cruelly, it comes with cyber threats.

8. Demystifying Data as a Service (DaaS) 2/12/2025

   Like other “as a service” offerings, the idea of data as a service (DaaS) is to take the burden of ownership off the customer. But for many water industry professionals, it can be confusing how that works and where the value lies. To get a better understanding, it helps to break down exactly what this service tends to entail and what problems it aims to solve.

9. Lead And Copper Rules: Where Are We Now? 2/6/2025

   It’s been several months since the U.S. EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR) went into effect on Oct. 16, 2024. However, just days prior, on Oct. 8, the EPA approved yet another update, the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI). While water utilities knew this was coming, it still introduces a realm of confusion and uncertainty.

10. Silica Fouling In Reverse Osmosis Systems: Prevention And Treatment 1/29/2025
    The control of silica fouling in reverse osmosis systems is crucial for maintaining system performance efficiency and longevity. It prevents costly downtime and membrane damage. This article provides practical knowledge on silica scaling in RO systems, its challenges, and effective control strategies.