By Kris Polly

In our cover story this month, we interview United States Senator Shelley Moore Capito about her September tour of Northwest Pipe’s factory in Parkersburg, West Virginia—a key facility for steel water pipe and an excellent example of domestic manufacturing. We also hear Senator Capito’s thoughts on a wide variety of waterrelated issues.

As of January 2027, water utilities across the nation must comply with new standards for their U.S. Environmental Protection Agency–required Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs). Most significantly, larger drinking water suppliers will need to publish two CCRs a year rather than the one heretofore required. What new efforts will this entail? We interview representatives of four utilities to find out.

Global Environmental Solutions, based in New Hampshire, manufactures plastic balls used to cover water bodies to reduce erosion, algae growth, and unwanted bird traffic. In our interview, Chief Revenue Officer Rocco Petrilli tells us more about the product and its applications.

Utilities use acoustic sensors, satellite imagery, and more to identify the locations of underground pipe leaks, but another solution may be closer to home. Thanks to their ability to smell chlorine at low concentrations, dogs can be trained to reliably locate leaks, helping utilities efficiently deploy equipment. To learn more, we interview Lolita Shaffer, the founder and CEO of the newly formed K9 Water Leak Detection University, and Robin Greubel, the CEO and president of K9Sensus Foundation.

Finally, we speak with David Park, the director of product management at environmental technology company Arq, which produces a wide range of powdered and granular activated carbon and colloidal carbon products. Among other things, Mr. Park describes the powdered activated carbon products that Arq has designed specifically to temporarily address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, while utilities identify longer-term solutions.

From steel pipe to powdered carbon to plastic ball water covers, U.S. manufacturers are creating solutions to water managers’ problems. Moreover, water utilities continue to increase their sophistication by upping the tempo and innovation of their public communications. This issue of Municipal Water Leader highlights the solutions being discovered and deployed around our nation.

Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He can be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.