Articles by: Contributing Author

By Andy Kricun Economically distressed communities face many challenges, especially — and most obviously — the challenges of lack of funding and lack of resources. In addition, their funding and resource deficits can also lead to an additional challenge – being unable to share inRead More

By John Ryan In its 2020 annual report, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program describes itself as a “government bank with unique flexibilities.” Can those flexibilities be useful for Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs)Read More

By Greg Baird In the 1998 blockbuster movie, “Armageddon,” when two advanced space shuttles slingshot around the moon at 22,500 miles per hours to land on the global killer asteroid, the pilots see the asteroids debris field and using the FOD (foreign object debris) radar,Read More

By Vince McCaffrey Mike Strader is the construction and maintenance supervisor for the City of Greensboro, North Carolina (population roughly 295,000). The city’s water infrastructure is made up of 1,500 miles of public water mains with 33,000 valves and 15,000 hydrants. Most of the pipes areRead More

By John Ryan The 2020 Annual Report of the EPA’s WIFIA loan program is a good read, and not just because it’s short and largely graphical. It’s a series of positive snapshots, including impressive aggregate stats, highlights from closed loans and summaries of new features.Read More

Internal Change Agents Give Northern Territory the Edge on Insightful Water Data By Nicole Nally Australia’s Northern Territory has around 250,000 people in two very distinct climate zones – the tropical climate in the North and the desert in the central region. Uluru is one ofRead More

By Sol Jacobs Battery-powered remote wireless sensors are at the heart of modern water infrastructure. Within industrialized nations, wireless monitoring systems are essential to numerous applications, including smart AMR/AMI metering, leak detection solutions, pipeline and tank level monitoring and valve actuation, just to name aRead More

By Barry Hales & Howard Hodder When it comes to saving water and making better use of it, is there really anything to debate? Water is critical. It is beyond important; we can’t survive without it. In America alone, more than 6 billion gallons ofRead More

By Dan Pinney There’s an elephant in the room, one that staff probably feels the urge to bring up in every planning meeting: how can water utilities plan for the future when the present is also uncertain? It’s clear that COVID-19 will have a long-termRead More

By Ann Bui, Mike Orth & Bruce Allender The U.S. water industry has worked hard in recent years to remind people that potable water is not free. Procuring, treating, and distributing water is costly, and utilities need to cover their costs to make sure customers have safe drinkingRead More