It is once again safe to drink tap water in the nation’s capital after D.C. Water’s boil-water notice was lifted.
The city of Camden, NJ, is facing a lawsuit regarding the transparency of local water shutoff policies.
The architects of Denver’s water infrastructure had a knack for predicting the future. They planned for the population of the city to grow.
A new report gave water ratepayers a voice on whether their water utility is meeting their needs.
Ratepayers have invented a new way to peacefully protest their water utilities: paying in pennies.
Many water utilities stay in close contact with ratepayers, but when budgets are tight, communications outreach is a task that sometimes gets pushed aside.
According to population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau, millennials are expected to become the nation's largest living adult generation by 2019. 37 percent of millennials were homeowners in 2015 and this number continues to rise, making them a significant fraction of a utilities' customer base.
Eileen O’Neill, Executive Director of the Water Environment Federation (WEF), joined Water Talk from WEFTEC — the world's largest annual water quality event — to discuss WEF initiatives, the state of the water/wastewater industry, and challenges and opportunities for the future.
By now, most of the utilities managing the 80 percent of U.S. water meters not yet capitalizing on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) have heard about the advantages offered by the 20 percent of utilities that are. Unfortunately, utilities large and small still cite a variety of reasons delaying their step up to AMI productivity — including smart meter installation costs, lack of in-house expertise, and capital budgets for IT support.
Can you imagine calling the electric company to demand a rebate because you had just received your bill and realized that over the past month, you inadvertently left all your lights on? As ludicrous as this scenario seems, it’s exactly the type of call water utilities receive from their customers.
Water has never been more in demand, and innovative approaches to improving water security have never been more imperative. As our global population grows exponentially, cities and towns expand to accommodate new inhabitants, providing the resources and services they need. Rapid agricultural and industrial development continues apace.
Traditionally (and unfortunately), contact between water providers and their customers has been mostly negative. Utilities might only share news on rate hikes, health advisories, service or traffic disruptions, etc., and typically only hear from customers who have a complaint. However, there are utilities with great reputations and relationships in the communities they serve; and the key to their success, besides providing excellent service, is a focus on positive communication.
As the utilities sector enters a new era, customer engagement is not just encouraged; it is expected. In 2018, social media has become a crucial part of digital communications strategies, making customers more informed and engaged than ever before. According to We Are Social, the number of social media users worldwide in 2018 is 3.196 billion.
Just as different water utilities use different processes for turning raw source water into potable drinking water, so too do they take different routes to account for, and bill for, their output. Here is an overview of a cellular-based approach to collecting and leveraging data from water distribution operations that can achieve the greatest business advantage.
Consumers are taking advantage of technology to gain knowledge and demand rapid, inexpensive (sometimes free) delivery of goods. In supply chain terms, that’s called the last mile — getting the product to the consumer as quickly as possible.
The idea that ratepayers are afraid of what advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) may bring into their homes has made water utilities wary of implementing the technology. But are the fears justified? A new survey investigates the phenomenon and lights a path forward.
The Aclara RF Network Data Collector Unit II (DCU) for water and gas utilities enhances your AMI network by providing reliable and flexible, two-way communications for water and gas meters.
Battelle has developed a breakthrough technology that empowers paralyzed patients to regain conscious control of their fingers, hand and wrist. The Battelle NeuroLife Neural Bypass Technology skips damaged areas of the nervous system to allow the brain to communicate directly with muscles.
Across the board in all product areas, we see two key drivers of growth: Connected Industry and line competence. The common term is “Internet of Things” – its close relative in manufacturing is Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), which at Bosch is called “Connected Industry” (CI. The far-reaching connectivity of various technology areas aims to make our lives even easier and safer in the future – both in a personal and an industrial context. In manufacturing, this means improving upon how all steps are interlinked in the value chain and ensuring equipment operability and product quality. This is accompanied by substantially more flexibility in manufacturing. Above all, Connected Industry holds the key to improved service. Two examples already implemented are the traceability of products and the remote service. Connectivity of packaging and process equipment offers customers of the pharmaceutical and food industry additional opportunities to assure quality and increase productivity.
Developed with Aprecia’s proprietary 3DP manufacturing process, ZipDose® Technology helps patients who need medicines that are easy to take and caregivers—including physicians and nurse practitioners—who want medicines that are easy to administer. By enabling delivery of high-dose medications in a rapidly disintegrating form, ZipDose overcomes patient adherence and difficulty swallowing challenges.
The SUEZ poseidon® gravity Oil/Water separators are fabricated in different stainless steel grades, designed to meet strict industry standards, and facilitate compliance to environemntal regulations. SUEZ poseidon® API Oil/Water separators are prefabricated packaged units allowing for reduced installation costs.
KOMAL industries is a Water Treatment Plant manufacturing company dedicated to offer to our customers the finest commercial, industrial and medical Reverse Osmosis system. We are committed to provide the most innovative, technologically advanced and high quality system. Our knowledge and experience enable us to manufacture most of our parts in-house to ensure system reliability. Our meticulous quality assurance program ensures system reliability and a product that you can depend on.
The SUEZ IDEAS Center provides treatability, piloting and R&D services that comply with today’s ever-changing environmental regulations and anticipate the complex system challenges that await tomorrow’s industrial and municipal clients. SUEZ’ state-of-the-art laboratory is staffed by renowned research and development engineers and scientists who are equipped to analyze the composition of water and wastewater samples and develop the best technical, cost-effective solutions for SUEZ clients.
Minimizing duties is one of the fastest and easiest ways to squeeze significant financial returns out of a company’s global supply chain. A dollar, yen, pound, or euro saved in duties goes straight to a company’s bottom line, which is what makes these programs so appealing. Duty minimization opportunities come in many forms, including preferential trade agreements, foreign trade zones and duty drawback. In order to take advantage of them, organizations must first determine eligibility. After determining eligibility, organizations must establish the appropriate procedures and documentation to qualify for them. Finally, organizations must track and administer the programs on an ongoing basis, for every qualifying product shipped.
Eileen O’Neill, Executive Director of the Water Environment Federation (WEF), joined Water Talk from WEFTEC — the world's largest annual water quality event — to discuss WEF initiatives, the state of the water/wastewater industry, and challenges and opportunities for the future.
Observations from a conversation with Water Environment Federation (WEF) President Jenny Hartfelder
Traditionally (and unfortunately), contact between water providers and their customers has been mostly negative. Utilities might only share news on rate hikes, health advisories, service or traffic disruptions, etc., and typically only hear from customers who have a complaint. However, there are utilities with great reputations and relationships in the communities they serve; and the key to their success, besides providing excellent service, is a focus on positive communication.
There is a lot of talk in the water sector about the "value of water". We want the public to understand it — and pay for water's full cost, including collection, treatment, and delivery — but how many utilities really know the value of their own product? Would you ever think about branding it? Louisville Water Company did.
Inflow and infiltration (I&I) are ongoing concerns for many wastewater utilities. Even with diligent maintenance of infrastructure, there are limits to what can be controlled. One example of that is leakage in the lateral service lines connecting the sewer utility’s main to sewer customer buildings. Here is how one municipality took advantage of federal and local funding to encourage nearly 2,500 customers to upgrade deficient connections in their lateral service lines — to the tune of more than $4 million.
The city of Buhl, Idaho, obtains all of its drinking water from groundwater sources through multiple wells. Prior to 2009, the city did not treat the groundwater but only added chlorine in the form of bulk 12.5% sodium hypochlorite to provide a disinfectant residual. A combination of factors including: changes in EPA and state DEQ regulatory requirements, growth of the residential population and growth of the industrial food processing customers forced the City to build a new water treatment plant to provide filtration to address the naturally occurring arsenic present in the groundwater.
The City of Paramount conducted a pilot study for arsenic, manganese and iron treatment system at their Well 15 site. The onsite pilot test was designed to demonstrate the performance of the Loprest Water Treatment Company treatment process proposed for the new treatment plant.
The use of chlorine to treat and disinfect drinking water and wastewater has been in practice for decades, with the earliest recorded attempt dating all the way back to 1893. Since then, it has come a long way.
A couple of weeks ago, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt called PFAS groundwater contamination “a national priority” and pledged action at an EPA national PFAS leadership summit.
Maintaining the water distribution system is critical to ensure customers receive the best water quality. An important maintenance task is to ensure water movement through the system. Dead-end mains, typically in cul-de-sacs, at the end of rural streets, or even in a looped line, are known problem areas for water stagnation, resulting in quality complaints. Residential neighborhoods under construction and large underpopulated developments often have slow-moving or stagnant drinking water.
As water utilities migrate toward remote system monitoring and real-time control, the risks associated with cybersecurity tick upward as well. While the rewards of digitalization offer real promise, the associated complexity and security concerns pose corresponding risks. That is why it is important to have an overall risk-management process for the organizational level, the business process level, and for the information system and data levels as well.
Accurately measuring flow is critical for water utility operations. Also, regulatory agencies mandate flow monitoring and require annual calibration of meters. But even a meter in perfect condition and properly calibrated can read inaccurately. Flow disturbances are a common cause of accuracy and repeatability errors.
Pharmaceutical water is key to the production of pharmaceutical drug products, and there have been a number of technological advancements in high-purity pharmaceutical-grade water.
When you think about areas of the world where people have limited access to clean water, I’m guessing hot, sunny, arid climates come to mind. In an interesting twist, a couple of innovations are using those exact conditions to create potable water.
You may have read recently that Orange County Water District (OCWD) and Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) set a Guinness World Record for the most wastewater recycled to drinking water in 24 hours. The record attempt kicked off on February 15th 2018 to mark the 10th anniversary since the districts’ Groundwater Replenishment System was launched and culminated with more than 100 million gallons per day (MGD) being produced.
Pneumatic conveying is an effective form of moving dry materials in food manufacturing. However, the long lengths of conveying pipe present challenges in terms of addressing cleanliness and sanitation.
Discover the steps you can take to improve the quality of your chromatography sample prior to performing your column separation, to ensure optimal isolation of your target protein.
Water utility managers have a lot of responsibilities, not the least of which is to keep up with the latest in the industry—contaminants, regulations, technology, and trends. And perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are on the horizon as contaminants that may affect the public health. Water Online spoke with Calgon Carbon about these important emerging contaminants and how best to remove them.
The Al Hosn Shah Gas Processing Plant in Abu Dhabi is a natural gas processing plant that purifies gases by removing certain contaminants in a sweetening process. The gas pipelines and other infrastructures that process sour gases need to be continuously monitored for leaks as the contaminant gases are often dangerous for human exposure. This case study explores the innovative combination of UAV and FLIR optical gas imaging technologies as an efficient way of monitoring vast gas fields from the air.
This guide will help lab managers understand risks and best practices as they develop training for CO2 incubator users and establish a preventive maintenance program and setup criteria.
In the Semiconductor industry, raw water is treated in two steps; the first treatment is used to produce “make-up water” and the second phase involves turning make-up water into ultrapure water. This ultrapure water is then used for the final rinsing of fabricated wafers.
It may not be immediately apparent just how crucial bubbles are to oil and gas operations. They play a critical role in a process known as dissolved gas flotation (DGF), which is imperative for removing contaminants. And not all bubbles are created the same.
Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recorded the largest hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico since monitoring began 32 years ago. Hypoxic waters, often referred to as dead zones, have dissolved oxygen concentrations of less than 2-3 ppm. They are caused by eutrophication or excess nutrients that promote algal growth in water bodies. As algae decompose, they consume oxygen creating dead zones.
UV treatment has only recently become widely adopted in the water and wastewater treatment industries but the benefits of sun exposure for water purification have been acknowledged for thousands of years.
