WATER INNOVATIONS CURRENT ISSUE
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Billions have been approved, but millions remain idle. The EPA's new report on earmarks sheds light on the logjam.
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The technology landscape for municipal water and wastewater treatment spans everything from inline water quality monitoring to industrial waste reuse program integration. Each category brings measurable operational benefits and real implementation hurdles. Here’s what operators need to know.
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When decision-makers assess the best ways to deal with high-strength nitrogen loads in their wastewater treatment plants, an important thing for them to remember is that biological treatment methods alone typically cannot handle all of a facility’s nutrient load. Instead, they should consider how a combination of physical-chemical extraction methods can provide an extremely reliable, small footprint method for handling above-average loads.
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There is a noticeable shift in how monitoring data is being treated across the water sector. It is no longer something that sits quietly in the background of operations, collected for compliance, and reviewed periodically. It is being examined more closely, and more often, by a wider set of stakeholders.
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Getting a second opinion is a time-tested piece of wisdom. During a recent project for a municipal water supply utility, we found that this advice also applies to modeling the effects storms have on the municipality’s reservoirs and dams, and the potential flooding impacts downstream of the dams.
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Expectations for transparency and reliability in water-metering infrastructure have risen. As a result, a fundamental question is emerging across the industry: if modern ultrasonic meters are already smart, why are we still adding intelligence outside the meter?
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Treatment plants most often deploy carbon in two forms: granular activated carbon (GAC) and powdered activated carbon (PAC). While GAC is widely used for steady-state, long-term contaminant control, PAC offers an alternative, versatile, rapid-response approach. In these six scenarios, PAC is the ideal solution.
WASTEWATER
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Eradicating High-Strength Nitrogen Loads Without Expanding Your Aeration Basins5/1/2026When decision-makers assess the best ways to deal with high-strength nitrogen loads in their wastewater treatment plants, an important thing for them to remember is that biological treatment methods alone typically cannot handle all of a facility’s nutrient load. Instead, they should consider how a combination of physical-chemical extraction methods can provide an extremely reliable, small footprint method for handling above-average loads.
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Optimising Coagulation And Flocculation Systems In Surface Water Facilities3/23/2026
Coagulation and flocculation remain essential but increasingly sensitive processes, requiring flexible design and real-time optimisation to maintain performance across widening source water variability.
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Sustainable Wastewater Solutions For Today's Challenges3/13/2026
Traditional gravity sewers rely on large-diameter mains, deep trenches, and often multiple lift stations — elements that carry significant capital and restoration costs, particularly in rural or rugged terrain. To improve cost efficiency and sustainability, many municipalities are adopting decentralized collection systems such as Septic Tank Effluent Pump (STEP) systems, Septic Tank Effluent Gravity (STEG) systems, and liquid-only sewers.
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Rethinking Aeration: Demand-Based DO Control And Energy Optimization3/13/2026
Aeration control strategies often remain conservative and static. Blowers operate continuously, oxygen levels are maintained near maximum, and airflow rates are rarely adjusted in response to real-time biological demand. The result is widespread over-aeration — a condition that does not improve treatment performance but significantly increases operating costs.
UTILITY MANAGEMENT
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Paradise Regained: How Digital Twins Saved A Bahamian Resort's Water Supply5/8/2026
Island utilities face unique resource constraints and infrastructure risks. Implementing digital twins provides the real-time visibility needed to reduce water loss, simulate emergency scenarios, and optimize system performance to ensure long-term operational resilience.
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Water Utilities Need Better AI5/4/2026
Open intelligence breaks down data silos, allowing water utilities to integrate disparate systems into a transparent, unified framework. This approach combines human expertise with verifiable AI to improve network resilience and operational decision-making.
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Emerging Technologies In Municipal Water Treatment: Trends And Challenges For Utility Operators5/1/2026
The technology landscape for municipal water and wastewater treatment spans everything from inline water quality monitoring to industrial waste reuse program integration. Each category brings measurable operational benefits and real implementation hurdles. Here’s what operators need to know.
INFRASTRUCTURE
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Aftermarket Services5/8/2026
Protecting wastewater infrastructure means matching service strategies to real operational demands. See what a structured maintenance approach can do for equipment longevity.
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Paradise Regained: How Digital Twins Saved A Bahamian Resort's Water Supply5/8/2026
Island utilities face unique resource constraints and infrastructure risks. Implementing digital twins provides the real-time visibility needed to reduce water loss, simulate emergency scenarios, and optimize system performance to ensure long-term operational resilience.
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Smarter Pipeline Condition Assessment Starts With The Right Technology5/6/2026
Advanced pipeline assessment technologies help utilities detect defects, locate leaks, and prioritize repairs—enabling smarter capital planning, reduced failures, and more resilient water infrastructure management.
SOURCE WATER
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Filtration Media For Municipal, Industrial, And Landscape Water Treatment: Legacy And Novel Technologies3/13/2026
The growing demand for water across a variety of sectors combined with the increasingly understood complexity of emerging contaminants is creating a dynamic marketplace for filtration media. The goal of selecting the right filtration media is not to meet minimum standards but to achieve the right balance of performance, durability, and operational simplicity to ensure long-term compliance and cost-effective operation.
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What Is Bathymetric Modeling? And How Can It Protect Ecosystems While Saving Resources?1/14/2026
Bathymetric modeling maps underwater terrain. It also helps guide planning, prevent hazards, and build climate-resilient infrastructure.
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Common Misconceptions Are Keeping Lakes "Sick"9/5/2025
Long-held misconceptions about lake management fuel the intensity and recurrence of harmful algal blooms.
DRINKING WATER
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Powdered Activated Carbon: A Flexible Tool For Targeted Treatment Challenges5/1/2026Treatment plants most often deploy carbon in two forms: granular activated carbon (GAC) and powdered activated carbon (PAC). While GAC is widely used for steady-state, long-term contaminant control, PAC offers an alternative, versatile, rapid-response approach. In these six scenarios, PAC is the ideal solution.
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Surface Water vs. Groundwater: Strategic Infrastructure Tradeoffs For Growing Communities3/23/2026
What's really at stake when choosing between surface water and groundwater? The answer shapes water security for decades.
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Optimising Coagulation And Flocculation Systems In Surface Water Facilities3/23/2026
Coagulation and flocculation remain essential but increasingly sensitive processes, requiring flexible design and real-time optimisation to maintain performance across widening source water variability.
FUNDING AND REVENUE
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Do Water Meters Still Need External Transmitters?5/1/2026
Expectations for transparency and reliability in water-metering infrastructure have risen. As a result, a fundamental question is emerging across the industry: if modern ultrasonic meters are already smart, why are we still adding intelligence outside the meter?
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Public-Private Water Partnerships: Proactive Strategies For Industrial Water Challenges10/30/2025One of the most pressing challenges facing utilities today is how to effectively respond to surging industrial demands while managing costs and maintaining established levels of service to existing customers. Thanks to new funding sources and drivers such as AI, the landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. Industries such as data centers and semiconductors are consuming massive volumes of water to support cooling and manufacturing — and creating equally daunting challenges on the wastewater front.
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How To Set Realistic Targets To Reduce Non-Revenue Water5/2/2025
Data-gathering is key to goal-setting, and is achievable in 5 steps.
MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL
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How Satellite IoT Can Enhance Remote Water System Monitoring5/1/2026
There is a noticeable shift in how monitoring data is being treated across the water sector. It is no longer something that sits quietly in the background of operations, collected for compliance, and reviewed periodically. It is being examined more closely, and more often, by a wider set of stakeholders.
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Keeping Water Safe In A Connected World3/13/2026
Water utilities were never designed to sit on the front line of geopolitics or organized cybercrime.
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Why Haven't Field Tests For Lead In Water Gone Mainstream?1/15/2026Given the maturation of sensor technology, the scientific and operational hurdles to portable lead analysis are somewhat surprising — but surmountable.
REUSE
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How Santa Monica Became A Sustainable Water Leader7/3/2025Lessons in urban water management through water conservation, capture, and reuse.
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How Water Reuse Projects Are Addressing Water Scarcity In The West — And Beyond3/6/2025As water scarcity becomes a stark reality around the globe, more municipalities, water utilities, and industrial enterprises are exploring water reuse projects and adopting regulations to support them. Fundamentally, water reuse can help drought-proof regions and diversify water supply portfolios with recycled water.
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How Capturing Rain Can Contribute To Environmental Safety1/7/2025There are many ways to capture stormwater — whether as a homeowner, business, or municipality — and even more benefits.
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Pioneering Recycling Program Quenches California's Thirst For Agricultural Water10/31/2024With its innovative Harvest Water program, the Sacramento Area Sewer District supports Central Valley growers, thereby supporting the nation.
FROM THE EDITOR
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Water Infrastructure Has A New Bottleneck — And It's Not Money5/1/2026Billions have been approved, but millions remain idle. The EPA's new report on earmarks sheds light on the logjam.
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When Drinking Water Raises Bigger Questions About Brain Health And Environmental Risk3/13/2026
A new study linking certain groundwater sources to higher Parkinson’s risk underscores a broader question for the water sector: how environmental exposures in drinking water may influence long-term health.
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Down And Dirty With Digital: How AI Enhances Water Infrastructure Fieldwork1/14/2026
Fieldwork is at the heart of infrastructure expansion and rehabilitation, as utilities, engineers, and contractors collaborate to build the systems and structures that treat and move water. The opportunity is great, but so are the challenges. Which is why new, digitally-enhanced tools are needed.
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When Chemistry Meets Water Innovation10/30/2025
Nobel-winning molecular materials are poised to reinvent purification, desalination, and reuse.
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Securing Smart Water9/5/2025
The digital transformation of utilities is necessary and inevitable but also innately vulnerable to bad actors. It's time to discuss prioritizing cybersecurity.