WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS
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Opinion: Why PFAS Policymakers Should Read Past The Abstract
When it comes to drinking water, sound public policy requires sound scientific research. Publication in a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal helps establish legitimacy for scientific claims in public discourse. But science is a social process, scientific standards of evidence vary across disciplines, and peer review does not guarantee validity. For readers who stop at the abstract, these distinctions can be easy to miss.
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Planting The Seeds Of Inspiration: Eelgrass Restoration
Restoring eelgrass beds is critical because they provide habitat for many kinds of marine life, improve water quality by filtering out pollution, and the plant’s root system stabilizes the sediment on the seafloor, protecting shorelines from erosion.
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PFAS Are Turning Up In The Great Lakes, Putting Water Supplies At Risk — Here's How They Get There No matter where you live in the U.S., you have likely seen headlines about PFAS being detected in everything from drinking water to fish to milk to human bodies. Now, PFAS are posing a threat to the Great Lakes, one of America’s most vital water resources.
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Why Too Much Phosphorus In America's Farmland Is Polluting The Country's Water When people think about agricultural pollution, they often picture what is easy to see: fertilizer spreaders crossing fields or muddy runoff after a heavy storm. However, a much more significant threat is quietly and invisibly building in the ground.
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Water In 2026: The Nexus Of Policy, Technology, And Resilience As water systems become more circular and complex, understanding and managing the subsurface — the hidden half of the water cycle — is becoming a critical enabler of resilience. This article explores the key trends shaping this new reality, from tackling “forever chemicals” to the water strategies redefining heavy industry.
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PFAS In Pregnant Women's Drinking Water Puts Their Babies At Higher Risk, Study Finds
When pregnant women drink water that comes from wells downstream of sites contaminated with PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” the risks to their babies’ health substantially increase, a new study found. These risks include the chance of low birth weight, preterm birth, and infant mortality.
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PFAS Settlements: Debunking The Myths And Revealing What's Really At Stake For Water Utilities Misinformation and confusion could prevent some utilities from benefitting from the aqueous film-forming foam multidistrict litigation (AFFF MDL) settlements. Here are five common myths about the AFFF MDL PFAS settlements and how public water systems can make the most of this unprecedented funding opportunity.
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When Chemistry Meets Water Innovation
Nobel-winning molecular materials are poised to reinvent purification, desalination, and reuse.
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Solving The World's Microplastics Problem: 4 Solutions Cities And States Are Trying After Global Treaty Talks Collapsed
Microplastics seem to be everywhere — in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. Countries have tried for the past few years to write a global plastics treaty that might reduce human exposure, but the latest negotiations collapsed in August 2025. While U.S. and global solutions seem far off, policies to limit harm from microplastics are gaining traction at the state and local levels.
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AEC System Proven Effective For Chloride Removal
In two bench-scale tests, a new technology effectively removed up to 99% of chlorides and 97% of total dissolved solids in a single pass. This solution offers a commercially viable alternative to traditional treatment methods.
VIEWS ON THE LATEST REGS
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With the U.S. EPA's PFAS rules now in place, utilities are finding themselves with a growing number of questions regarding how to treat these chemicals, the potential costs, and much more. For answers, Water Online's chief editor, Kevin Westerling, hosted an Ask Me Anything session featuring Ken Sansone, Senior Partner at SL Environmental Law Group; Kyle Thompson, National PFAS Lead at Carollo Engineers; and Lauren Weinrich, Principal Scientist at American Water.
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A Q&A to explain and resolve issues confronting water suppliers as they endeavor to comply with the monitoring requirements of federal PFAS regulations.
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Assessing what lies ahead in the 10-year race to go lead-free, otherwise known as the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI).
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Many water systems are still tackling the challenge of identifying and compliantly managing galvanized and galvanized-requiring-replacement (GRR) service lines.
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In the most recent edition of Water Innovations, there is not a single article focused on PFAS. That wouldn't be exceptional if not for the fact that discussion around per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances has so thoroughly dominated the water space lately. And yet, I penned this as an intro to the edition — just "a tiny bit of PFAS" content — because a small portion of PFAS is of the utmost importance in terms of treatment, policy, and cost.
MORE WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES
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Explore how embedding inclusion early in clinical development enhances enrollment, strengthens data integrity, and improves outcomes, especially in oncology and rare disease trials.
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Advances in peptide drug delivery have opened new opportunities for peptide drug products, with non-parenteral routes of administration — such as oral and nasal — now feasible.
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Multi-well inserts allowing for a two-chamber system that can expose cell cultures from above and below provide greater versatility and expand research options compared to standard cell culture plates.
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Explore strategies to maximize drug product recovery during sterile filtration, minimize hold-up volume, and reduce dilution after PUPSIT to ensure higher yield, improved efficiency, and less waste.
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Humidity is a critical yet often overlooked factor in cell culture. Learn how it impacts cell viability and discover practical strategies to maintain optimal conditions for reliable results.
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Discover how science-based bio-decontamination strategies effectively eliminate invisible pathogens and rapidly restore facilities to operational safety following major infrastructure disruptions.
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Recent federal PFAS regulations will overwhelm consulting engineers, water and wastewater utilities, and equipment manufacturers as thousands of utilities work to comply. Generative design can enable these parties to meet the workload demand and deadlines.
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Perfluoro compounds (PFCs), which are suspected carcinogens, are a growing concern for communities and a challenge that many water utilities need to address. When the Stratmoor Hills Water District detected PFCs in a seasonal well, the utility partnered with Evoqua, a Xylem company, to find a cost-effective solution.
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As water scarcity and energy costs rise, new ultrafiltration membrane technologies deliver higher flux, longer lifespan, and reduced fouling—turning water treatment from a compliance task into an efficiency opportunity.
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Amid scrutiny of the financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research, new federal rules aim to improve transparency and preserve the integrity of publicly funded research.
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This case study demonstrates the effectiveness of a new technology for removing PFAS from well water to below the EPA’s detection limits.
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When developing combination products or evaluating primary packaging for drug products one must evaluate the performance of the devices and the packaging to ensure that they are fit-for-purpose.
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A proper test kit management program is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a compliance necessity. Without a structured system, you risk inspector drift, failed audits, and errors in batch release.
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Sterilization validation is vital in pharma and medical device manufacturing to ensure product safety and regulatory compliance. Explore essential principles, best practices, and frameworks for effective implementation.
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AWWA C800, Underground Service Line Valves and Fittings, was built around the use of one brass alloy, C83600, also known as leaded red brass, favored for its manufacturability and low cost. Over the last two decades, the waterworks industry has transitioned to brass alloys that meet the definition of lead-free for most surfaces contacting potable water.
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Explore how efficient powder-liquid mixing and sterile filtration preserve media integrity and support reproducibility in biopharmaceutical workflows, with promising scalability for larger-volume applications.
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This article will tackle the true meaning of water loss in terms of real loss, using scenarios and industry technologies to help us discover real loss.
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Product Carbon Footprints reveal true lifecycle emissions, enabling collaboration, innovation, and informed decisions. Learn why moving from estimates to evidence is essential for reducing Scope 3 impact.