Clean, safe drinking water is often taken for granted. We’re afforded that convenience by a complex maze of pipes, treatment plants, pumps, and storage facilities — much of it built decades ago — is quickly approaching the end of its useful life. A new, U.S. drinking water report says maintaining the infrastructure and meeting a host of other needs will dramatically raise the cost of water service, and those costs will impact household water bills in the years ahead.

From time to time, you may see water flowing freely from a fire hydrant under the watchful supervision of a water utility professional. While it may look like water is being wasted, hydrant flushing is an important way water utilities remove stagnant or potentially contaminated water and clean pipes.

In some communities, potentially harmful nitrates seep into and contaminate water sources. A new treatment system may make treating them cleaner and more efficient.

As the weather gets colder, it is very important to turn off outdoor irrigation systems, drain those pipes and disconnect hoses from spigots to prevent damaging pipes.

We have all experienced the stress and bustle of flying during the holiday seasons, when airports are packed with people and we’re dragging roller bags and lugging gift bags for what feels like miles. In these circumstances, it’s easy to forget a reusable bottle for drinking water, and if you do, you find yourself paying thousands of times more for water in a plastic bottle.

Have you stopped to think about how much water you’re eating throughout the course of the meal? Most of your Thanksgiving buffet has a water footprint.

With the U.S. federal government shutdown that, at the time of this writing, heads toward its fifth week, it’s good to know that our water utilities are operated locally and staffed by people in our communities.

A study found that including coffee and tea in your water consumption is associated with a lower risk of death from nearly all causes. Researchers found that people who had seven or eight drinks per day, combining coffee, tea and plain water, showed a 28% lower risk of death from any cause than those who drank fewer than four drinks a day.

From the local treatment plant to miles of underground pipes to your kitchen faucet, water professionals work around the clock to ensure your drinking water is there when you need it. But we all play a part in keeping our source waters clean before they ever enter a public water system. For the last five years, Source Water Protection Week has provided an opportunity to recognize the importance of caring for our beautiful drinking water sources. If we keep our rivers, lakes and underground wells...

We are all hearing a lot about PFAS, often called “forever chemicals,” in drinking water, and a recent report uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to examine where PFAS are being found, in what amounts, and whether those levels will violate federal standards. What does it all mean?