Articles by: Contributing Author

By Brandon Festa & Jason Hackbarth A wastewater treatment plant has four distinct process environments joined by a common hydraulic path, and the media characteristics shift substantially at each stage. Raw influent arriving at headworks is often thick with grit, rags, and unpredictable debris. ByRead More

By Jarrod Gerbaud Water utilities across the United States are entering a historic period of infrastructure renewal. More than $50 billion in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is helping communities modernize pipes, treatment facilities and distribution systems at an unprecedented pace. MaximizingRead More

By Steve Cooper The Randall Regional Waterline Project will provide a high-capacity potable water transmission line that stretches 72 miles across the prairie in southeastern South Dakota.  The new pipeline will enable the Randall Community Water District (RCWD) in Lake Andes, South Dakota, to supplyRead More

By Hagai Galili The wave of cyberattacks that became public in late July 2026 targeting municipal water systems across 12 states has exposed both a financial and operational risk for water utility leadership. Attackers compromised internet-facing digital controllers (the automated switches that manage physical equipment)Read More

By Erik Larsen Water and wastewater plant operators need to turn large amounts of data into decisions to see what matters and when, without hunting through spreadsheets or navigating between disconnected systems. One of the quickest ways to do this is to use good dashboardsRead More

Population-Band Metrics, Ohio Opportunity and the Next Wave of Water Utility Collaboration By Gregory M. Baird As Ohio’s water community gathers for the One Water Conference and more counties evaluate regional water and sewer feasibility, regionalization is moving from a theoretical governance option to aRead More

By Prinkesh Shah Over the past two years, PFAS regulation has been anything but settled. In 2024, EPA finalized the first national drinking water standards for PFOA, PFOS, and four additional PFAS compounds. In 2026, EPA proposed rescinding the standards for those four additional compoundsRead More

By Nikolay Voutchkov Brine valorization plants are the next step in the evolution of desalination technology, which opens a new horizon for wider use of desalination as a baseline source of drought-proof and environmentally and fiscally sustainable water supply. Over the past decade, the desalinationRead More

By Laura Sproule Water distribution pipelines are underground, under pressure, and largely out of sight, which means deterioration is often undetected until a main breaks, or leaks surface, or water quality is compromised. Water utilities need to make the right capital investment for renewal decisions,Read More

By Ken Sansone & Valentina Marastoni-Bieser Over the past decade, PFAS have reshaped the drinking water regulatory landscape. The Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) revealed PFAS to be widely present in drinking water across the United States, adding to public outcry amid ongoingRead More