Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Capital Projects When it comes to big projects, often part of a municipality's capital improvement plan (CIP), it's the planning part that is too often overlooked, or simply not well executed. This causes a number of problems during implementation — problems that can increase risk, waste time and money, and degrade project outcomes. In this Water Talk interview, James Strayer of Black & Veatch describes the typical problems capital programs...  Continue Reading...

Plastic Piping Systems Adapting To Water Industry Needs There’s a big difference between pipe and a true piping system, according to Brian LaBelle of GF Piping Systems. His insights from this Water Talk interview captured at ACE19 in Denver highlight the advantages of ever-advancing plastic piping capabilities that are helping the water industry engineer and fabricate resilient alternatives to aging infrastructure by using customized polyethylene, polypropylene, and PVDF piping systems.  Continue Reading...

Leveraging Water Data: The Future Is Here! Technology is on pace to reach a milestone of 26 billion devices connected through the Internet of Things (IoT) by the end of 2019. In the water industry, IoT capabilities are enabling utilities to leverage meter reading data collected via secure private cellular networks to satisfy multiple purposes — increasing its value exponentially. In this Water Talk interview, Kristie Anderson from Badger Meter discusses how advances in smart...  Continue Reading...

A More Precise Route For Chemical Feed Metering In water treatment applications with varying flow rates, keeping chemical dosing rates in proportion is critical for minimizing chemical costs while still achieving optimum treatment levels. A new plastic-bodied ultrasound flow meter delivers high precision at extremely low flow rates — down to 0.15 gph (10 ml/minute), about one-third of the 0.50 gph rates offered by most other chemical flow meters.  Continue Reading...

Harnessing Data For Better Maintenance Outcomes Using a calendar to determine when maintenance is needed for pumps, blowers, and other equipment no longer gets the job done. That’s because the ability to harness data to drive condition-based maintenance is now available. Understanding how your assets are performing, versus how they should be performing, is a key step towards predictive analytics. In this Water Talk interview, Manuel Parra, business development director for water and...  Continue Reading...

The Impact Of Company Culture On Your Technology Partner There are a variety of technology vendors serving the water and wastewater industry, and many offer products and prices that are very comparable. Sometimes the differentiator comes down to the service, which is driven by company culture. In this Water Talk interview, Rich Cavagnaro, CEO of AdEdge Water Technologies, and Fariha Hassan, a project manager with AdEdge, discuss the positive ways to impact company culture and how that can go a long...  Continue Reading...

Lowering The Cost Of Leak Detection Aging infrastructure is shaping up to be an enormous burden on municipalities. The next 30 years will require a $1 trillion investment just to keep up with the replacement curve for water distribution pipes. At the same time, leak targeting and physical condition assessment of existing networks is an expensive proposition. In this Water Talk interview, Doug Hatler, chief revenue officer for Fracta, discusses the application of artificial...  Continue Reading...

How Advanced Flow Meters Are Changing The Game For Water Managers Flow meters are not just hardware anymore. Advanced flow meters act as a data collection tool that can gather and relay valuable information for engineers and technicians trying to be more proactive in the operation of their water systems. In this Water Talk interview, Dave Baker, a regional sales manager for McCrometer, discusses advanced flow meter capabilities that are more user friendly as well as the importance of selecting the proper meter ...  Continue Reading...

Easing The Burden On Water Plant Operators The goal of water plant operators is almost universal: to ensure they're providing quality water to customers while detecting leaks, running at optimal energy usage, and maintaining systems. The problem is traditional controls and SCADA systems have gotten so complex they can actually make the job more difficult. In this Water Talk interview, Malcolm Thompson, the chief financial officer of XIO, and Kevin Liscovitz, the chief operating...  Continue Reading...

Solutions To Remote Data Entry In SCADA A watershed isn’t typically tied into a water system’s SCADA system, but students and others observing the health of the resources may have information that can be of great value to plant operators. This is just one example of when there is a need to enter remote manual data into a SCADA system. In this Water Talk interview, Dave Spencer, technical sales with VTScada from Trihedral Engineering, discusses advanced technology that...  Continue Reading...