The 117th Congress has approved more funding for physical infrastructure and clean energy than any other session of in America's history. You have probably seen headlines news stories with this fact splashed across major newspapers following the passage Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) Inflation Reduction (IRA), but you might not be as familiar strides made toward mitigating drought We...

Trophic assessments of 10 publicly-owned northeastern Ohio lakes including Aquilla, Baldwin, Findley, Hinckley, Hodgson (Muddy), Spencer, Lower Shaker, Upper Shaker, Virginia Kendall, and Wallace indicated that all were highly eutrophic. Criteria for these assessments were based on a Trophic State Index developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that incorporated epilimnetic levels o...

In March 2020 I reviewed the proposed Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) revisions by stating that it is “critical to water community's ongoing efforts protect consumers from risk of lead in drinking water. The revised rule an important step there are several opportunities make better.” On Jan. 15, 2021, US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published final LCR. Yes, Biden administration delayed e...

2016 © American Water Works Association JOURNAL AWWA OCTOBER 2016 | 108:10 Microfiltration (MF) membranes are low-pressure membranes that generally have pore sizes in the range of 1 to 0.1 μm. They can effectively reject bacteria, protozoa, and colloidal particles by size exclusion. The physical rejection of viruses and the dissolved fraction of natural organic matter (NOM) by MF (0.1 μm nomina...

AWWA's Water 2050 initiative seeks to chart the future of water by focusing on five key drivers: sustainability, technology, economics, governance, and social demographic issues. The goal is that each driver, making connections between them, taking intentional action now, result will be better for generations. While drivers integral water's future, technology could have greatest effect. It adva...

Governance is not an easy topic to talk about in the water utility world. The mere mention of word governance evokes strong reactions related best and worst aspects utilities regulatory systems that oversee them. America's approximately 50,000 community are regulated under Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), providing a common framework for many treatment quality—this despite differences pertaining...

From David LaFrance, CEO, AWWA: Over the past year, The Last Drop has focused on AWWA's Water 2050 initiative. A critical part is hearing from water's current young professionals (YPs), as their future. This column second of five Takeovers by YPs. In this “Takeover,” Chelsea Boozer and Elizabeth Heiles discuss a project they are co-leading to develop sustainability matrix for drinking water uti...

The truck idled in the street as we walked up steps to house's porch. I wore a company baseball cap and field shirt, along with requisite jeans. suppose looked part, but quickly would learn that was out of my element. knocked on door took step back wait for someone answer. No sooner had feet come rest front than partner shoved me; he pushed hard, knocking me awkwardly side “What for?” snapped. ...

The adsorptive capacity of powdered activated carbon (PAC) is related to the size of the target adsorbate compared with the quantity of pores with sufficient pore diameter into which the adsorbate may diffuse (i.e., the effective internal surface area). The adsorptive capacity of PACs are commonly characterized using aqueous-phase indices such as iodine (I2), methylene blue (MB), p-nitrophenol ...

Climate change was the top environmental focus during Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, so it is reasonable to assume that where his administration's efforts will be focused initially. In fact, at time of this writing, lead candidates for heading up US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) all work in positions champion ambitious climate policies. However, with coal-state senators Shelley M...