WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES, INSIGHTS, AND ANALYSIS
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Microplastics: Small Particles, Bigger Questions
New research suggests that microplastics can generate reactive chemicals in water, offering a possible explanation for their effects on living things.
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Tackling Lake Erie's Algal Blooms Requires Targeted Conservation Strategies Algal blooms in Lake Erie remind us how closely food production and clean water are connected. Many of these nutrients come from nearby farms, and the challenge is keeping them out of waterways.
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After The Fire: What The 2026 Wildfires And El Niño Could Mean For U.S. Lakes And Reservoirs In 2027 In July, smoke from Canadian wildfires spread across the upper Midwest and Northeast. Now a strengthening El Niño is set to influence the coming winter. Both events matter to lake and reservoir managers because their effects on water quality will continue to emerge long after the skies clear or the El Niño passes.
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Minneapolis Flexes Its Mussels For Source Water Monitoring Solution
Protecting municipal drinking water requires rapid visibility into changing surface source conditions. Discover how combining biological indicators with continuous inline spectrometry delivers real-time contamination alerts, preventing costly treatment plant shutdowns and safeguarding consumer health.
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DEXSORB® Treatment At Groundwater Pump Station
Discover how upgrading existing filter infrastructure with advanced adsorbent media provided over 600 days of continuous PFAS removal, treating millions of gallons of contaminated groundwater to achieve strict drinking water compliance.
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DEXSORB® Treatment Of Surface Water For Gravity System
Discover how a dual-vessel lead-lag media system achieved continuous non-detect levels for target legacy contaminants, treating over 250,000 gallons of surface water to support regulatory compliance and municipal drinking water goals.
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Pretreatment Systems Enable Complete And More Economical PFAS Solutions For operators looking to optimize their PFAS removal systems, controlling the presence of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) offers an approach to minimizing operational costs due to granular activated carbon (GAC) reactivation and ion exchange media change-out.
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What Utilities Don't Know About GAC Reuse For PFAS For utilities building PFAS treatment systems, thermal reactivation of spent granular activated carbon (GAC) may sound like the obvious answer. However, service provider availability and location, specific media acceptance criteria including quantity thresholds, restrictions on GAC type and condition, and regulatory uncertainty can all determine whether reuse is a viable option.
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The Cost Of Waiting: Utilities Face A Narrowing PFAS Compliance Window For years, the water industry's PFAS conversation centered on monitoring, testing, and regulatory anticipation. Today, that phase is largely over.
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PFAS Funding Is Flowing — But Does The Water Sector Have Enough People To Deliver It? For several years, the PFAS conversation has centered on treatment options, testing, and funding. Those factors still matter, but they are no longer the primary constraint. Most utilities already understand the treatment routes available to them; the real challenge now is moving from technical possibility to operational performance, and that depends entirely on people.
VIEWS ON THE LATEST REGS
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For years, the water industry's PFAS conversation centered on monitoring, testing, and regulatory anticipation. Today, that phase is largely over.
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The U.S. EPA is testing a new procedural strategy to remove four PFAS drinking‑water limits from ongoing litigation, asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate those limits on the grounds that the EPA itself committed a procedural misstep when issuing the 2024 PFAS rule.
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Despite renewed public concern over fluoride and cognition, the National Toxicology Program’s findings focus on high‑fluoride groundwater conditions — not the controlled levels used in U.S. drinking water systems. Understanding that distinction is critical for utilities navigating policy questions and community expectations.
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In this Q&A, Dr. Elke Süss of Metrohm addresses the urgent need for haloacetic acid testing in response to “one of the most significant updates to EU drinking water monitoring in recent years.”
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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.
MORE WATER INDUSTRY FEATURES
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How one utility turned a backlog they didn't create into a program they're proud of.
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As regulatory standards for PFAS become more stringent, specialized ion exchange resins provide a more efficient, high-capacity alternative to traditional carbon media, ultimately lowering long-term operational costs and improving overall system throughput and performance.
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UV AOP performance verification requires a robust test matrix covering design, operating, and control conditions. This process includes on-site execution, sample analysis, and troubleshooting to achieve successful regulatory approval.
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This article will explore five common misconceptions about GAC and IX technologies for PFAS removal, helping utilities choose effective, site-specific treatment strategies for contaminated drinking water.
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Relying on assumptions when designing water treatment systems creates unnecessary financial and operational risks. Adopting predictive modeling and data-driven testing provides the precise, actionable insights required to optimize performance, manage costs, and ensure compliance.
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Widespread industry retirements and staffing shortages threaten operational continuity. Adopting low-maintenance, self-calibrating monitoring technology reduces reliance on specialized manual upkeep while establishing automated digital historical records that protect critical operational knowledge through workforce transitions.
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Taking a proactive approach to compliance can help minimize regulatory risks, avoid submission delays, and ensure continued market access.
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Filtration removes contaminants to ensure safety and is essential in various applications, from lab-scale tasks to GMP production. Explore how its simplicity and reliability make it indispensable.
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Unifying fragmented industrial control platforms streamlines operational oversight across municipal water networks. Standardized graphic displays and redundant architectures cut hardware overhead, simplify compliance reporting, and ensure continuous visibility during critical process shifts.
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Chemical interferences during water testing can hide critical corrosion issues and fuel bacterial growth. Understanding colorimetric chemistry helps operators accurately identify testing anomalies, correct pH conditions, and protect cooling systems from bio-fouling.
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Ozone system performance hinges on reactor design, not generator size. Efficient mass transfer, hydraulic integrity, and contact time ensure consistent oxidation, reduced energy use, and reliable treatment results.
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Drought conditions force utilities to seek new water sources, yet reducing non-revenue water offers an immediate supply boost. Eliminating sample waste and targeting line flushing recovers fully treated water without expensive capital projects.
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Nitrosamines are a serious risk in drug products, driven by the presence of secondary amines, conducive conditions, and nitrosating agents. Understanding these factors is key to risk mitigation and patient safety.
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Explore a validated LC-MS/MS method for precise Semaglutide quantification in plasma, which features enhanced sensitivity, peak definition, and reproducibility using innovative technologies.
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Learn how to separate molecules strictly by size, effectively remove salts, and select the correct pore specifications for a gentle, non-destructive purification workflow.
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The City of Hot Springs, Arkansas knows the challenges of dealing with aging infrastructure well. The city’s 143-year-old system covers 923 miles of water mains in rocky terrain, making it difficult to detect leaks. That is why the utility’s water department decided to act.
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Understanding covalent warhead kinetics is key to reducing safety risks early in discovery. Learn about a new approach to GSH‑based measurements that offers clearer predictors of toxicity.
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Managing persistent water contaminants requires shifting from temporary removal to complete lifecycle destruction. Sustainable remediation strategies target upstream industrial discharge and concentrate waste streams to permanently safeguard drinking water sources from re-contamination.