What to Do if Your Pipes Freeze This Winter: 4 Tips
During the winter months, pipes become more prone to freezing and sometimes even bursting. This can be a...
Aquifer Storage and Recovery: What It Is, How It Works
What is an aquifer? An aquifer is an empty space or layer underground that collects groundwater from rain,...
Does Brush Control Help Water Management? 3 Reasons It Could.
Brush control is the process of curating plants to create a specific type of environment. That includes removing...
How Desalination Works in a Water Treatment Plant
Desalination is the process of removing salt and other minerals from water, which includes municipal wastewater, some types...
3 Types of Water Treatment Chemicals You Should Be Aware of
Water treatment plants use a variety of chemicals to clean different types of water. That includes wastewater, groundwater...
The 2 Main Types of Dredgers
Dredgers are used to remove unwanted debris or sediment from bodies of water. The type of dredger that...
Top 3 Benefits of Dredging
Dredging is an underwater excavation process. Essentially it is clearing out any debris or sediment in waterways and...
4 Benefits of a Water Meter
A water meter is a useful tool that helps you keep track of how much water is being...
S9 E10 Smells Like Money
Video interview discussing the benefits of a virtual community for utilities.
What to Do if Your Water Tests Positive for Lead
If you have run the tests and find out that there is lead in your water, try not...
How You Can Detect Lead in Water
Lead is one of the deadliest substances that can be found in water. Odorless, tasteless and invisible, it...
Top 3 Benefits of Taking Cold Showers
We all enjoy a nice, hot shower in the morning, especially in the winter time. But, while a...
How to Prepare For a Flood Before it Happens.
A flood can happen without warning anywhere at any time. However, some of us live in areas that...
What is a Flash Flood and What Causes it?
A flash flood is a flood that happens quickly and without warning. It occurs when there is a...
4 Major Benefits of a Watershed
If you know what a watershed is, you’re probably aware how essential they are in keeping water sources...
5 Water Related Diseases You Should Be on The Look-Out For
Water-borne illness is more common in the United States than people think. Even water sources in urban cities...
WATERSHEDS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHY WE NEED THEM
What they are A watershed is a channel or ‘between-point’ that takes rain and snow from an area...
4 Natural and Human Causes for Drought
Droughts are one of the most dangerous types of natural disasters. What constitutes a drought varies from place...
4 things you need to know about drilling a water well
Well drilling is a process that not only provides ground water, but other natural resources like gas and...
4 PROS AND CONS TO BANNING BOTTLED WATER
There is a growing movement to get rid of plastic bottled water. Despite that, there are still others...
How Much Water Should You Drink Daily?
We’ve all heard the rule about drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day. But is that really healthy...
Fluoride In Drinking Water: The Pros And Cons
For many years there has been a debate about whether or not chemical fluoride should be added to...
Is Tap Water Better Than Bottled Water?
Some studies show that people prefer bottled water over tap water. That is because in many places bottled...
Health Benefits of Drinking Different Types of Water
Despite the various health benefits of drinking water, many people find it a challenge and struggle with dehydration....
Advancements In Energy Production Through Water-Splitting
Hydrogen (H2) has been named a promising, environmentally friendly substitute for fossil fuels. However, the demand for hydrogen...
How to Clean Your Water in an Emergency: 3 Steps
Are you prepared to filter, treat, and sanitize your water in the event of a disaster? Stormwater runoff...
The Pros and Cons of Using Chlorine for Wastewater Treatment
There are many different chemicals and methods used in wastewater treatment processes. Each step of the process requires...
Do You Have a Septic System?
A septic system is an underground wastewater treatment system used by individual homeowners, as opposed to a centralized...
Water Is Energy – By Jim Lauria
More than 2,000 years ago, Greek and Roman engineers harnessed the power of water to drive grain mills,...
WHAT ARE HABS?
The mismanagement of wastewater or unsafe wastewater treatment isn’t the only threat to our water — some threats...
A WORLD FIRST: INNOVATION CONSULTANCY ISLE’S TRIAL RESERVOIR AIMS TO SAVE THE EQUIVALENT OF 30,000 PEOPLE’S WORTH OF CARBON EMISSIONS PER YEAR
The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges of our time and requires urgent, global attention. So...
DIGITAL SYSTEMS AND AI IN THE WATER/WASTEWATER UTILITY INDUSTRY
31% of the world’s population are said to be without “water-stress,” meaning a sufficient amount of clean, usable...
5 Basic Tips on Plumbing
Here are a few plumbing basics that every homeowner should know: Know Your Main Plumbing Areas & Water...
5 Easy Ways to Conserve Water at Home
1. Full loads only Whether it’s doing the laundry or putting dishes in the dishwasher, try to only...
The Different Types of Wastewater Treatment
SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS (STP) A sewage treatment plant is the type of plant that you would find in...
Prevent Pipe Freeze This Winter
It’s that time of year, where the temperature falls rapidly and the snow follows close behind! If you’re...
ACCESS TO SAFE WATER TREATMENT & MANAGEMENT
Unsafe drinking water is a worldwide problem. According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), one out...
WHY FILTERED WATER IS EASY ON THE MIND, POCKET, & PLANET
Despite the EPA’s stringent drinking water regulations, millions of Americans still experience Water related illnesses each year. How...
COVID & THE WATER-DEBT CRISIS
Did you know that nationally 35% of adults report difficulty paying for normal household expenses? The unexpected change...
The War on Flushable Wipes
Wet wipes are marketed as flushable, but are they really? As it turns out, no! Despite marketing that...
Book Summary – Title: Developing Effective Standard Operating Procedures for Water Utilities – By Kenneth C. Morgan, P.E.
Many water utilities struggle to consistently provide effective services to their customers. Based on aging infrastructure, increased regulations,...
WATER CONSUMPTION AND COVID 19
With the world shutting down for the majority of 2020, it is interesting to look at the patterns...
WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE LEAD IN YOUR WATER
Most people know that having lead in your water is dangerous. However, what does that actually mean? According...
Biden Urged to Back ‘Bold, Reparative’ Water Justice Bill
President Joe Biden is being called on to back newly reintroduced legislation that seeks to remedy the nation’s...
New Law Provides Funding For U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Water Infrastructure Financing Program
A years-old U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program that could fund dam, levee or multi-purpose projects to improve...
Morocco Builds Largest Seawater Desalination Plant in Africa
Morocco announced the launch of construction in Casablanca on the largest seawater desalination plant in Africa. Minister of...
Handwashing Can’t Stop – Millions of Lives are at Stake
Global Handwashing Day might seem a bit niche as international days go; you’d certainly be forgiven for never...
After Nearly Running Out of Water in 2018, Cape Town Dams Are Now Overflowing
Cape Town’s reservoirs have topped 100% for the first time in six years, a magnificent change in the...
Water Insecurity Is the Greatest Threat to Sustaining Global Food Production
Food production is the largest global consumer of freshwater worldwide, accounting for about 70 percent of all water...
Virus spread feared where water is scarce around the world
Some 3 billion people, from indigenous communities in Brazil to war-shattered villages in northern Yemen, have nowhere to...
Five Lessons for the Future of Water
Although it is difficult today to divert attention from the dramatic situation we live in, it is even...
Remote Island Off East Timor Turns Sunlight, Air Into Drinking Water
Villagers on a tiny island off the coast of East Timor who have long struggled with water shortages...
Africa’s Water Sector Grapples with Funding Shortage
Water utilities and users across Africa are being forced into the innovation lane at a time when water...
How Climate Change Impacts Our Water
Climate change impacts the world’s water in complex ways. Consider a water cycle diagram, like the one below;...
Innovation in the Water Industry is Too Slow
Our water infrastructure is aging. What collects, treats and distributes our important water supply is deteriorating faster than...
America’s Looming Water Affordability Crisis
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that America’s water/wastewater infrastructure needs $1.3 trillion dollars of investment over...
New Jersey To Get Water Infrastructure Upgrades
While California has funded its own water infrastructure upgrades, New Jersey has been awarded 84.5 million dollars by...
Curriculum Resources About Water for K-12 Teachers
The Jersey Water Works Community Engagement Committee worked with a New Jersey Future intern to compile educational resources...
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Will Improve Water Infrastructure Management
IIoT stands for “the Industrial Internet of Things†and refers to the devices and technology necessary to transmit...
Californians to Vote on Massive Funding for Water Infrastructure
This November of 2018 Proposition 3 will be voted on. It will provide over 9 billion dollars to...
California’s New Water Conservation Laws
While the 5-year drought may have been declared over, California is still cracking down on water usage. New...
Climate Change is A Water Issue
Climate change, also referred to as Global Warming by many activist groups, is certainly creating a less predictable...
Largest Public Tender Database for Water Utilities Now Available on The Water Network’s Business Exchange
Zurich Switzerland – AquaSPE AG from Zurich Switzerland and H2bid of San Diego announced today their collaboration to...
Can the Water Industry Avoid an Affordability Crisis?
It is no secret that rates for water and wastewater utilities are rising significantly across the country. As...
The Fragmented Water Industry is Going the Way of the Typewriter
Community systems in the water utility industry are the most familiar, and most fragmented portion of our overall...
Dredging in NYC Coastal Waterways Results in a State Park
The idea of dredging is not a new one, but the results of those efforts to recycle what...
Wastewater Treatment Reaches Energy Net Zero in Oregon
Imagine a wastewater treatment plant that consumes more waste than it does energy and leaves an excess that...
Liquid Chlorine Bids and Other Chemical Bids
H2bid provides users with many types of Liquid Chlorine Bids and other Chemical Bids. This will be explained...
Creating Water Power From An “Artificial Leafâ€
The idea of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen has been around for some time. Often dismissed as...
Drinking Water – A Survey
EPA’s fifth Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment shows that $384 billion in improvements are needed for...
The Growing Use of Composite Materials in the Desalination Process
The vast majority of the Earth’s surface is covered by saltwater and people living on the remaining land...
Climate Changes
The continental United States experienced an extremely mild, warm 2011-12 winter season and while that may sound like...
Water At Camp Lejeune
Americans think of the dedicated men and women of the United States Marine Corps as protectors of the...
Water in Space
At H2Bid, we enjoy telling our readers about new challenges in water management, innovative technologies that could address the planet’s water needs and issues that relate to wastewater management. To start 2012, however, we’d like to expose our readers to a new topic - water in space. The search for water on Mars has been in the news a great deal in the pat few years with NASA’s twin rovers looking for evidence of ancient lakes and oceans on the red planet. In the context of Mars, finding water is critical to understanding if life could have once existed on Mars. Mars is only one facet in the broader search for water in space, however.
Oregon Moving to Implement New Water Pollution Standards
The State of Oregon recently established the strictest guidelines for water pollution in the United States. The revised standards are aimed to protect people who consume fish as a large portion of their diet. Oregon’s Native American population is partly behind the push to decrease tolerance for contaminants in water; most tribes in the area have a long tradition of fishing that predates the settling of the area by Europeans.
Using Gravity To Redefine Hydrology
Water planners and managers do their best to plan for water usage patterns but there are often many assumptions that have to factor into those plans. Specifically, how will private wells be used, and how will farmers use natural water sources such as streams and rivers adjacent to their land? How robust is the aquifer? What is the recharge rate of that aquifer relative to rainfall patterns? A poor assumption relating to any of these questions can unhinge a well-crafted plan. Now, planners may have a new tool for evaluating water sustainability – satellite imagery.
MoMo Project
Water management is a tough business, even in regions where water is abundant. Imagine having the responsibility for managing water resources in a mostly-rural nation where rain is unpredictable and temperatures range from up to 30 °C in the summer and -40 °C in the winter. Couple that with a geography that features mountains over 3,000m in height and a desert that is among the driest and harshest on Earth and one can begin to understand the challenge that faces the water managers in Mongolia, a landlocked, central-Asian nation of nearly 3 million people.
Salt Contamination in Camden, Ohio – What Happened?
In the first article covering the water contamination in Camden, Ohio, H2Bid provided an overview of the problem...
Lessons From Camden Ohio’s Water Emergency
Most residents of the United States take their overall water security as a given; certainly, some in the desert southwest worry that they will need to make choices between which fields to water and which to abandon but very few worry about where they will get their fresh drinking water. Imagine if that changed. For the residents of one small town in western Ohio, it did change; their town’s water supply became so fouled that it was impossible to supply the residents with drinking water and emergency measures had to be put in place. In this, the first of a three part series, H2Bid will examine this catastrophe and its impact on the town of Camden, Ohio.
Is Chloramine a Better Disinfectant for Water Systems?
Water disinfection is critical to supplying clean, safe drinking water; many technologies and chemistries exist to aid water system managers in the task of supplying clean water. Ultraviolet disinfection, ozonation, and filtration are often employed. Additionally, chlorine is widely used; well known for its ability to disinfect water, chlorine was perhaps the most common means of water purification in the last century. One group of chemicals that is gaining in popularity are chloramines; chloramines are a potential alternative to chlorination that have been in use for decades, but some have questioned their use.
Practices & Techniques for Watershed Protection
In a recent H2Bid article, Rivers Under Stress, it was noted that watershed protection and management was critical in reducing river stress and cultivating more sustainable freshwater resources. In a follow-up to that October, 2010, article, today’s piece will shed light on current practices and techniques for watershed protection.
When discussing watershed protection many ideas are voiced, but one theme which runs throughout virtually all conversations is coordination. Without coordinated, organized efforts, the successful practices tend to be localized and have little if any impact in the larger freshwater system. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are charged at the national level with watershed protection; the US EPA works with the Department of the Interior and numerous state and local agencies to implement a coordinated day-to-day watershed management approach in the United States and the NRCS plans and maintains the long term vision for US watersheds.
Innovative Solutions For Sewer Sludge
Every day, millions of gallons of sewer grease are processed in the United States, alone. This mixture of fatty solids from restaurants, home kitchens and other sources poses a double threat to the wastewater industry. The sewer grease, or sludge, is energy intensive and thus costly to process and it is also corrosive and can damage the sewer infrastructure including sewer pipes and fittings. New technology has the potential to turn this nuisance into a benefit for the industry, however. By looking at sewer grease as a potential energy source, wastewater treatment facilities may be able to offset not only the cost of treating the sludge, they may also be able to reduce their overall operating costs in the process.
Rivers Under Stress
Rivers, one of the greatest sources of freshwater on the planet may be in peril according to a new study recently published in the journal Nature. The study found, among other things, that rivers worldwide are experiencing similar stresses and are being degraded. Rivers most removed from human populations – in the arctic and the tropics – appear to be in the best state.
The symptoms of this degradation are almost as complex as the causes. Agricultural intensification, industrial development and river habitat modification were noted in the majority of the world’s watersheds. No longer limited to the developed world, the damage appears far-flung and crosses many economic and cultural boundaries.
The symptoms of this degradation are almost as complex as the causes. Agricultural intensification, industrial development and river habitat modification were noted in the majority of the world’s watersheds. No longer limited to the developed world, the damage appears far-flung and crosses many economic and cultural boundaries.
Introducing “Water Hourâ€
A movement may have started on June 11th, this year. The first ever “Water Hour†was celebrated that...
How Water Utilites Can Save Money with Demand Response
Demand Response is often discussed in the electrical power generation community; recently, though, it is being discussed in...
Challenge Of Delivering Safe Drinking Water To The Developing World
Addressing the challenge of delivering safe drinking water to the developing world would be a major step forward in reducing the incidence of disease and increasing life span. In recent years, a growing number of innovative solutions have been fielded in an attempt to directly solve this problem; in fact H2Bid has featured many of these solutions as a part of this regular column. The devices range from mechanical to chemical in design with the common thread being the inventors striving to keep their solutions simple and easy to operate. Joining these solutions is perhaps the simplest yet: SODIS or Solar Water Disinfection.
Presumed effects of global warming on Water Sustainability
In July, 2010, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report summarizing the presumed effects of global warming on water sustainability in the United States. NRDC worked with Tetra Tech, a consulting engineering firm specializing in waterways, water/wastewater management and environmental services.
Together, the NRDC and Tetra Tech analyzed current water usage and population trends then coupled that data with models of global warming that predict climate shifts for the United States. What they found may be cause for concern; over 1,100 counties in the United States may be at risk of water under-supply or sustainability by 2050.
Conserving Water with Flushless Urinals
Several months back, H2Bid featured a story about the invention and early application of so called “flushless†urinals. These urinals use a combination of hydrostatic pressure and eco-friendly chemistry to create a liquid barrier through which waste can move but sewer vapors cannot escape. After being invented, the early adopters of this technology were mostly novelty users and hard-core environmentalists; now, it seems, many other major consumers of water are finding value in these waterless marvels.
Preserving Groundwater by artificially recharging Aquifers
With every steady rain, a cycle begins which helps to recharge and replenish most aquifers of the world....
The Benefits Of Rediscovering Buried Waterways
If you live in an urban area, chances are that you pass over hidden waterways every day on...