How Should Water Plants Instrument for PFAS When Regulations Keep Changing? Guidance from Shanghai ChiMay Introduction Water treatment plant operators face an unusually challenging environment when it comes to PFAS compliance. The rules governing PFAS in drinking water have changed repeatedly in a few short years, and the trajectory of future regulation remains uncertain. In…
From Forever Chemicals to Real-Time Detection: How Sensor Tech Is Outpacing PFAS Regulation with Shanghai ChiMay Introduction PFAS earned the nickname forever chemicals because the carbon-fluorine bond that defines these compounds is one of the strongest chemical bonds in organic chemistry. These substances persist in the environment for decades, accumulate in living organisms, and resist…
7 PFAS Compliance Gaps That Inline Sensor Networks from Shanghai ChiMay Help Utilities Close Introduction PFAS compliance is not simply a matter of installing treatment equipment and checking boxes on a monitoring schedule. Water utilities face multiple gaps in their compliance programs, from insufficient monitoring frequency to poor treatment process visibility to inadequate data integration….
The Economics of Intake Depth Selection Most drinking water reservoirs are equipped with multi-level intakes—typically 3–5 intake bells at different depths, allowing operators to select the source depth for raw water pumping. Despite the significant water quality variation across depths, many utilities operate their intakes at a fixed depth year-round, missing the opportunity to draw…
The Non-Point-Source Challenge for Reservoir Protection Point-source pollution — discharge pipes, wastewater plants — is comparatively easy to locate, monitor and regulate. Non-point-source (NPS) pollution arrives diffusely: fertilizer washing off fields during rain, livestock waste seeping through soil into groundwater, atmospheric nitrogen deposition settling across the watershed. The scale of the problem is why every…
Understanding Thermal Stratification and Its Impact on Water Quality Most drinking water reservoirs in temperate and tropical climates undergo seasonal thermal stratification—a process in which solar heating creates distinct temperature layers in the water column. The warm, less-dense epilimnion floats atop the cold, denser hypolimnion, separated by the metalimnion (thermocline), where temperature changes by 1–2°C…