Flexible Financing Through Community-Based Public-Private Partnerships James Schlaman, Director of Water Resources at Black & Veatch, explains what community-based public-private partnerships (CBP3s) are (and what they aren't), how they work, and what makes them attractive — particularly for stormwater management improvements.  Continue Reading...

How Physical Modeling Can Help Achieve Optimal Performance And Maximize Existing Infrastructure When it comes to infrastructure design or redesign, understanding hydraulic conditions — for all foreseeable scenarios — is paramount. You might call it "test driving" your facility.  Continue Reading...

The Microbes Have Us Outnumbered 20 To 1: Should We Be Worried? 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...  Continue Reading...

Intelligent Fire Hydrants Provide Utilities With System Performance Data Historically, most fire hydrants sit idle after they are installed. They were there for that one day that hopefully never shows up. But in today’s connected world, fire hydrants are becoming an important asset in understanding the water distribution system, allowing utilities to monitor their water system operation and predict leaks.  Continue Reading...

The ABCs Of PFCs 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).  Continue Reading...

Ease Of Installation And Maintenance Fuels Innovation At AMERICAN 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.  Continue Reading...

Even Flow Secret To Clarification Success 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.”  Continue Reading...

From Australia To California, Log Reduction Credits For MBR Systems Jon Loveland, Global Practice Leader - Alternative Water Supply at Black & Veatch, shares insight on a major development for membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems and potable reuse.  Continue Reading...

Unleashing Smart SCADA 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...  Continue Reading...

Pushing The Needle For Progress, Reducing Water-Utility Air Emissions 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 —...  Continue Reading...