Category: Blog

Introduction In municipal water and wastewater treatment, the centrifugal pump is the workhorse of the hydraulic process. However, industry data suggests that nearly 40% of rotating equipment failures can be traced back to errors committed during installation and initial startup. For consulting engineers and plant superintendents, the phase between physical installation and operational turnover is […]

Activated Carbon Filtration: Removing Contaminants from Water Article Overview Article Type: Informational Primary Goal: Provide municipal engineers, wastewater treatment operators, plant designers, and equipment manufacturers with a technical, implementation-focused guide to activated carbon filtration covering mechanisms, contaminant scope, design calculations, operational practices, monitoring, regeneration and disposal options, vendor selection, and real-world performance data so they […]

Introduction In the complex hydraulics of a modern wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), the peristaltic pump—often referred to as a hose pump or tube pump—occupies a critical niche that centrifugal technologies cannot fill. While engineers are intimately familiar with pump curves for water transfer, the specification of positive displacement equipment for abrasive sludge or off-gassing chemicals […]

Introduction The degradation of municipal infrastructure is rarely the result of sudden catastrophic force; rather, it is the slow, relentless electrochemical and biological breakdown of assets. For water and wastewater engineers, the total annual direct cost of corrosion is estimated in the billions, yet it remains one of the most frequently underestimated factors in plant […]

Introduction to Equipment Diagnostics in Water Utilities A staggering 50% of maintenance costs in municipal water and wastewater utilities are often attributed to “reactive” work—fixing assets after they have already failed. While run-to-failure remains a valid strategy for non-critical lightbulbs, it is a catastrophic financial and operational strategy for raw sewage pumps, finished water centrifuges, […]

Ion Exchange Water Softening: How to Remove Hard Water Minerals Article Overview Article Type: How-To Guide Primary Goal: Give municipal and industrial wastewater professionals a detailed, engineer-grade guide to design, specify, operate, and troubleshoot ion exchange water softening systems that remove calcium and magnesium, including resin selection, regeneration chemistry, brine management, monitoring and a worked […]

Introduction One of the costliest errors in municipal wastewater design is the mismatch between pump metallurgy and fluid characteristics. Engineers often default to 316 Stainless Steel for its “universal” corrosion resistance, only to witness premature failure due to abrasive scour in grit-heavy sludge applications. Conversely, specifying standard Grey Cast Iron for septic receiving stations can […]

INTRODUCTION Dewatering pumps are frequently the “set it and forget it” workhorses of municipal wastewater bypass operations, mining sites, and heavy construction projects. Unfortunately, this mindset often persists until a critical failure results in a flooded excavation, a permit violation for sanitary sewer overflow, or catastrophic downtime. A common misconception among junior engineers is that […]

Stormwater Treatment Systems: Managing Runoff Effectively Article Overview Article Type: Informational Primary Goal: Provide municipal engineers, wastewater operators, plant design engineers, and equipment manufacturers with a comprehensive, technically rigorous guide to selecting, designing, operating, and evaluating stormwater treatment systems so they can meet regulatory requirements, reduce pollutant loads, and improve resilience to changing rainfall patterns. […]

INTRODUCTION One of the most persistent and costly misconceptions in municipal and industrial water treatment is viewing a wet well merely as a concrete holding tank. In reality, the wet well is a complex hydraulic structure that dictates the reliability of the pumping equipment. A startling number of premature pump failures—often attributed to “defective manufacturing”—are […]