It isn’t necessary to explain that customers expect safe, reliable, and affordable water, that distribution systems are a critical link in providing service, that buried and aging infrastructure is a challenge to manage, and that many utilities in the US struggle due to lack of enough funding. These issues are reviewed continually by the water industry to assess what should be done.
with advances in SCADA and digital twins, we are doing a much better job collecting data on pump performance. But what is the best metric for judging pump efficiency?
Just as there are classics in literature like Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, there are classic works in water and wastewater.
There is no doubt about it, the world is going digital, and the water industry is going along with it. I’m on board with the trend as it is generally making our lives a little better.
I explained that a single hydrant flow test was pretty useless for evaluating system capacity or model calibration.
When I started in the water profession many years ago, there was a clear distinction between the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Water Pollution Control Federation (WPCF), now known as the Water Environment Federation (WEF). AWWA dealt with drinking water while WPCF handled wastewater.
It’s difficult to pick up an engineering magazine or journal without seeing an article about how artificial intelligence (AI) is going to solve all of our problems. While these tools are indeed powerful and useful, are they really the panacea that they are sold as?
Isolation valves are essential components of water distribution systems. Without them, repairing a pipe break or performing other maintenance would require shutting down the entire water distribution system or resorting to some heroic work on pressurized pipes.
Everyone wants to reduce water loss. No one likes to see water running over the ground. But people who understand the water industry know that reducing water loss to zero just isn’t economical. Spending $10,000 to save $50 worth of water may not be good management. It depends on the value of water which is not necessarily the price customers pay for water.