Articles by: Contributing Author

Wireless monitoring systems are becoming essential to numerous applications, including smart metering, leak detection solutions, pipeline and tank level monitoring and valve actuation.

How Battery-Powered Wireless Sensors Help Preserve Water Resources

AMR/AMI, Water Management March 1, 2021 at 9:46 am

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

Best Practices for Water Loss Protection, Mediation & Asset Management

Best Practices for Water Loss Protection, Mediation & Asset Management

Water Loss, Water Management February 22, 2021 at 6:15 am

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

Plan for an Unpredictable 2021: Three Certainties Utilities Can Count On

Plan for an Unpredictable 2021: Three Certainties Utilities Can Count On

AMR/AMI, Technology Perspectives, Water Management February 15, 2021 at 10:36 am

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

The Conundrum of Water Affordability: What’s at Stake?

The Conundrum of Water Affordability: What’s at Stake?

Rates & Affordability, Water Finance February 8, 2021 at 10:01 am

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

AMWA: Final Lead and Copper Rule Contains Big Changes

AMWA: Final Lead and Copper Rule Contains Big Changes

By Diane VanDe Hei After years of development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its long-awaited revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) in the Federal Register on Jan. 15, 2021, beginning the ticking of two simultaneous clocks: 60 days until the newRead More

The Greatest Water Transfer in History

The Greatest Water Transfer in History

Water Management December 21, 2020 at 8:00 am

By Michael Warady Our country is currently in the midst of the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind – not in 10 or 20 years – but today. Much has been written about the Silver Tsunami, roughly defined as the wave ofRead More

The Data Core: How Utilities Can Optimize Operations by Concentrating Data

The Data Core: How Utilities Can Optimize Operations by Concentrating Data

Water Management December 18, 2020 at 3:43 pm

By Gary Wong Water and wastewater utilities have often been viewed as lagging other sectors when it comes to maximizing the use of data within their organizations. That is not to say that the sector lacks data: SCADA systems collect and store data at intervalsRead More

Activity 540 SBM provides CRS credit for inspections of storage basins. Credit: LAN.

Integrating Asset Management and the Community Rating System

Water Management December 18, 2020 at 2:07 pm

By Tak Makino Asset Management Infrastructure asset management is gaining widespread acceptance as a best management practice. Simply put, infrastructure asset management is the set of practices that balance the costs of operations and maintenance of public infrastructure with desired levels of service and a tolerableRead More

How Will Water Affordability be Defined for the Next 20 Years?

How Will Water Affordability be Defined for the Next 20 Years?

Rates & Affordability, Water Finance December 9, 2020 at 8:00 am

The EPA has a chance to listen and implement water industry leaders’ recommendations on affordability using new data, methods, metrics and digital technologies. Here’s a review of submitted comments to the EPA on its proposed affordability guidance updates.  By Greg Baird In the United States,Read More

Gaining Visibility with AMI: Texas Utility Tackles Smart Metering Project

Gaining Visibility with AMI: Texas Utility Tackles Smart Metering Project

AMR/AMI, Water Management November 30, 2020 at 10:19 am

By Zeb Wright Like many municipalities and utilities around the county, Faulkey Gully Municipal Utility District (MUD) knew they had an aging infrastructure that needed to be addressed. The utility, which serves a rapidly developing suburb northwest of Houston, knew that the meter system was nearingRead More