CONSUMER OUTREACH RESOURCES

• AMI Adoption: Challenges And Opportunities For Local Water Providers In California

  Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is particularly impactful in drought prone areas, incentivizing water conservation and alerting both service providers and consumers to possible leaks in real time. Researchers at UC Berkeley have used FirmoGraphs’ database of meeting minutes and capital improvement plans to analyze recent trends in AMI adoption among California drinking water agencies.

• Reconsidering 'Environmental Racism'

  Water Online recently published an article for Water Innovations on environmental racism — Environmental Racism In America: How It's Affecting Vulnerable Communities — and I paused during the editing process to consider watering down the key phrase to "environmental injustice" before ultimately deciding that I might also be watering down the transgression itself. However, the very consideration made me wonder why I had the instinct to tone it down in the first place.

• Water Is Health

  World Water Day both celebrates clean water and reminds us that 2 billion people live without access to it. Safe drinking water is one of the most fundamental elements of health — healthy water keeps people healthy; sick water makes people sick.

• Environmental Racism In America: How It’s Affecting Vulnerable Communities

  The history of decisions that have led to environmental pollution, with impact on some more than others, calls for corrective measures to atone for the injustice.

• The US Water Alliance Recovering Stronger Team Releases Report On Community-Driven Water Utility Consolidations And Partnerships

  The US Water Alliance and partners just released a report entitled Catalyzing Community-Driven Utility Consolidations and Partnerships. Based on an in-depth stakeholder process as part of the Alliance’s Recovering Stronger initiative, the report examines strategies, tactics, and resources for community-driven consolidations and partnerships in the state of California. Though focused on California, this report reveals lessons and ideas that can spark similar dialogues and progress in communities across the nation.

• The Age Of Aquarius

  The cast of Hair seemed to know the start date of the Age of Aquarius — "when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars" — though astrologers have argued for centuries about when the sun would be lined up with the constellation of the water carrier and signal the start of an era of enlightenment.

• Water Is Life

  In the Beginning, there was water. The first couple of lines of the Bible describe a newly formed earth covered in water, a swirling deep. From there, the rest of creation emerged.

• Are You A Water Player? Be The Brand.

  Leading innovators in the water industry share tips on creating strong branding for water companies and their personnel.

• Activated Carbon Before PFAS: Getting Back To Taste And Odor

  While activated carbon has garnered a lot of attention for its efficacy in removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) compounds from drinking water, it had a history in water treatment long before PFAS entered the public consciousness. Water Online spoke with Eli Townsend, applications engineer at Calgon Carbon, to discuss some non-PFAS challenges — e.g., taste and odor — and how water treatment plants (WTPs) can use activated carbon to solve them.

• Millions Of Americans Struggle To Pay Their Water Bills — Here’s How A National Water Aid Program Could Work

  Running water and indoor plumbing are so central to modern life that most Americans take them from granted. But these services aren’t free, and millions struggle to afford them. A 2019 survey found that U.S. households in the bottom fifth of the economy spent 12.4 percent of their disposable income on water and sewer services. News reports suggest that for low-income households, this burden has increased during the pandemic.