While the Clean Water Act (CWA) is a federal regulation, the job of enforcing its standards has been kicked to the state level, where results can be mixed. Bluefield Research recently analyzed the trend and its impact, presenting its findings in a recent Water Online webinar. It was also a topic of discussion at WEFTEC 2019, where Bluefield's president, Reese Tisdale, sat down with Water Talk. In the interview, Tisdale addressed the...  Continue Reading..

Some of the more complex wastewater screens — the initial step to removing objects from the incoming stream — are designed around the idea of generating residual business, so they require regular maintenance. That’s what prompted Duperon to invent the FlexRake, which has no lower sprockets, bearings, or tracks to foul or jam.  Continue Reading..

An increase in extreme weather events combined with stricter regulatory requirements is making it more difficult than ever for municipalities to keep pace at their wastewater operations. As a result, asset management has been thrust into the spotlight.  Continue Reading..

As storm activity continues to grow, utilities are under increasing pressure to mitigate sewer overflows. Building enough storage to handle the excess runoff until it can be treated is no longer practical — in most places, it’s not even feasible to create a large enough space — and the issue will only get worse as storms continue to intensify. Meanwhile, most settling technologies that address overflows require chemicals and a...  Continue Reading..

When it comes to big projects, often part of a municipality's capital improvement plan (CIP), it's the planning part that is too often overlooked, or simply not well executed. This causes a number of problems during implementation — problems that can increase risk, waste time and money, and degrade project outcomes. In this Water Talk interview, James Strayer of Black & Veatch describes the typical problems capital programs...  Continue Reading..

There’s a big difference between pipe and a true piping system, according to Brian LaBelle of GF Piping Systems. His insights from this Water Talk interview captured at ACE19 in Denver highlight the advantages of ever-advancing plastic piping capabilities that are helping the water industry engineer and fabricate resilient alternatives to aging infrastructure by using customized polyethylene, polypropylene, and PVDF piping systems.  Continue Reading..

Technology is on pace to reach a milestone of 26 billion devices connected through the Internet of Things (IoT) by the end of 2019. In the water industry, IoT capabilities are enabling utilities to leverage meter reading data collected via secure private cellular networks to satisfy multiple purposes — increasing its value exponentially. In this Water Talk interview, Kristie Anderson from Badger Meter discusses how advances in smart...  Continue Reading..

Using a calendar to determine when maintenance is needed for pumps, blowers, and other equipment no longer gets the job done. That’s because the ability to harness data to drive condition-based maintenance is now available. Understanding how your assets are performing, versus how they should be performing, is a key step towards predictive analytics. In this Water Talk interview, Manuel Parra, business development director for water and...  Continue Reading..

There are a variety of technology vendors serving the water and wastewater industry, and many offer products and prices that are very comparable. Sometimes the differentiator comes down to the service, which is driven by company culture. In this Water Talk interview, Rich Cavagnaro, CEO of AdEdge Water Technologies, and Fariha Hassan, a project manager with AdEdge, discuss the positive ways to impact company culture and how that can go a long...  Continue Reading..

Aging infrastructure is shaping up to be an enormous burden on municipalities. The next 30 years will require a $1 trillion investment just to keep up with the replacement curve for water distribution pipes. At the same time, leak targeting and physical condition assessment of existing networks is an expensive proposition. In this Water Talk interview, Doug Hatler, chief revenue officer for Fracta, discusses the application of artificial...  Continue Reading..