Like many large cities, Philadelphia is working to improve the water quality of its urban stream watersheds. In accordance with the Clean Water Act and Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law, the Philadelphia Water Department monitors its urban watersheds to assess their overall chemical and biological health. However, the city found that traditional grab sampling did not sufficiently characterize changes in stream water quality that occur throughout a storm event. Therefore, Philadelphia invested in additional monitoring technology so that it could collect continuous water quality data regardless of the weather conditions.  Read full article (login required) 

Facing new ammonia discharge limits of 3 mg/L and in need of additional capacity, the City of The Colony, Texas, began construction on its wastewater treatment plant in early 2005. The city chose to convert from contact stabilization basins to an integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) system within its existing basin volume. Upon full-scale implementation of the new IFAS basins, the plant saw immediate improvement in treatment performance and was able to comply with ammonia discharge limits for the first time in its history.  Read full article (login required)