Mangalsala begins €5.6M water and sewage network rebuild, September 2026
On 14 September 2026, Inbox.lv reported that contractor Tilts has begun a 5.6 million euro reconstruction of the water supply and sewage system in Riga's Mangalsala neighbourhood for utility Rīgas ūdens, funded from the utility's dividend transfers to the municipality. The 24-month, multi-phase project covers nearly 3 km of pressurised sewage, 4.6 km of gravity sewer, three new pumping stations and about 6.8 km of water mains, with completion targeted for autumn 2028. For plant managers and procurement leads, the announcement is a benchmark for trenchless, river-crossing collection projects and signals additional flow being routed to the downstream Rīgas ūdens treatment works.
Nairobi Water announces 26-hour supply shutdown in city zones, September 2026
Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company has announced a 26-hour water supply interruption across large parts of Nairobi beginning 6:00 a.m. on 11 September 2026 and ending 8:00 a.m. on 12 September 2026, according to a report published on 11 September by K24 Digital. The shutdown of the Sasumuma Water Treatment Plant is to allow emergency repair works on the Sasumuma–Kabete pipeline. The affected list covers Westlands, Kileleshwa, Upper Hill, Karen, Langata, the CBD, JKIA and the SGR, Eastlands and the Mathare/Huruma corridor, and includes KNH, the University of Nairobi, Daystar, Coptic and Mathari hospitals. For plant managers and buyers, the event is a reminder that single-source transmission failures translate directly into treated-water shortfalls at the tap.
Laredo warns 'toilet is not a trash can' as wipes clog city plant, August 2026
On 26 August 2026, Laredo, Texas utilities officials warned residents that wipes remain the leading cause of sewer blockages in the city, with crews also pulling socks, toys, shirts and wood fragments from lines and the wastewater treatment plant. Utilities Department Assistant Director Ralph Trevino described the debris crews are removing, and the department's public message was direct: "your toilet is not a trash can." For plant managers and procurement leads, the event is a headworks-level problem — coarse solids and fibrous material that blind fine screens and foul primary treatment — and a reminder that behavioural change at the household can defer or downsize capex on screening and grit handling.
San Diego County approves $1.8M Tijuana sewage plan, Sept 2026
On 2 September 2026, San Diego County supervisors voted to pursue a new sewage treatment system on the US side of the border to capture Tijuana River pollution before it reaches local beaches, including Coronado. The plan, led by Supervisors Aguirre and Lawson-Remer, commits $1.8 million to an 18-month, three-phase study of potential treatment systems. The vote came amid reports of millions of gallons of sewage crossing the border, hydrogen sulfide readings 4,500 times typical urban levels, and free air purifiers offered to affected households. For plant managers and procurement leads, the project signals an emerging US-side municipal treatment programme moving from concept to definition, with biological train selection and disinfection likely to drive the next buying decisions.
Thames Water storm overflows discharge untreated sewage across Oxfordshire, Sept 2026
Thames Water released untreated sewage from storm overflows at three Oxfordshire sites after rainfall on Monday 7 September 2026, with discharges entering the River Evenlode, the River Thame catchment and the Thames at Radcot, as reported by the Bicester Advertiser on 9 September. A separate 45-minute release that day was tracked roughly 80 miles downstream to Kingston-upon-Thames, per the Oxford Mail on 16 September. Thames Water said it will deliver its largest wastewater network upgrade in 150 years over the next five years, covering more treatment capacity, fewer storm discharges and new nutrient reduction schemes, which is the procurement signal for plant managers and buyers.
eThekwini residents press municipality on months-long Merebank sewer failure, September 2026
On 11 September 2026 IOL reported that Merebank residents south of Durban are publicly pressing eThekwini Municipality to fix a months-long raw-sewage spill from a broken 400mm-diameter sewer buried more than 4m under the M4 freeway. The municipality says the line has been repaired and a new manhole is under construction. The story also flags a wider capacity squeeze: an estimated R4.6 billion is needed to bring all eThekwini wastewater works to Green Drop compliance, with only 46% compliance recorded at the end of June 2026 against a 90% target. For operators and buyers, the signal is failure-driven spend on sewer rehabilitation, manhole rebuilds and downstream treatment upgrades.
Delhi court grants Satyendar Jain bail in DJB sewage plant tender case
On 2 September 2026, a Delhi court granted bail to AAP leader and former Delhi water minister Satyendar Jain in an ACB corruption case tied to Delhi Jal Board sewage treatment plant tenders. The case covers three contracts initially valued at ₹1,546 crore, later raised to ₹1,943 crore, including a disputed capacity jump at the Rohini STP from 15 mgd to 30 mgd, adding about ₹123 crore. For plant operators and procurement leads, the takeaway is that tender-stage decisions on capacity, technology and effluent specifications are now being treated as auditable evidence, so bid files and deviation logs need to be locked before issue.
Five of Israel's six desalination plants knocked offline by Mediterranean algae, Sept 2026
On 2 September 2026, microscopic algae in the Mediterranean knocked five of Israel's six desalination plants offline, forcing Mekorot to ration water for agriculture and quadruple reservoir pumping. Israeli environmental experts told The Detroit News that nutrients from untreated Gaza sewage, with all six wastewater plants shut down and UNICEF reporting 70 percent of pumping stations out of service, are likely amplifying the Nile-origin bloom. Daily discharge is estimated at 10.6 million gallons to the sea and 4 million gallons into the ground. For plant managers and buyers, the event is a procurement signal: coastal intakes need algae-resilient pre-treatment, redundant screening and a written emergency-rationing plan tied to reservoir storage.
Waimea WWTP spills 20,000 gallons after Hurricane Lowell, Sept 2026
On the morning of 8 September 2026, an estimated 20,000 US gallons of partially treated wastewater overflowed from the disk filter at the Waimea Wastewater Treatment Plant on Kauaʻi into an adjacent drainage ditch. The county, reported on 9–10 September 2026, attributed the spill to combined Hurricane Lowell rainfall and power outages that drove infiltration and inflow past the plant's tertiary filter capacity. Operators and county crews restored the unit and disinfected the area. For plant managers and procurement leads, the event highlights the need for hydraulic headroom, equalisation, and standby power at small municipal plants exposed to storm surges.
Pueblo, Colorado: 4.25-million-gallon Arkansas River sewage spill exposes notification gaps, Sept 2026
A 4.25-million-gallon raw-sewage release from the City of Pueblo wastewater treatment plant entered the Arkansas River in late August 2026 after a patch on a 40-year-old bypass pipe failed, according to Colorado Public Radio and The Colorado Sun. The utility took about 24 hours to notice the leak and roughly two hours to stop it, and downstream irrigators said the alert was still too slow once the call went out. CDPHE told a public roundtable on 10 September that there is no Colorado E. coli standard for agricultural water use and no numeric definition of "adulterated" for crops. For plant managers and procurement leads, the event points to bypass-line monitoring, alarm setpoints and downstream-notification procedures as design and buying priorities, not afterthoughts.
Sinou launches CO₂-carbonation wastewater system for concrete batching plants in Zhejiang, Sept 2026
On 8 September 2026, Zhejiang Sinou Environmental Protection Equipment Co., Ltd. released details of its fully automated CO₂-carbonation wastewater treatment system for concrete batching plants, with commercial-scale units already in operation. The system targets raw wastewater at pH 12.6 to 12.8 and reports treated pH of 6.9 to 7.3, compliance with JGJ63-2006 and GB/T19923-2005, 80.26% CO₂ utilisation and a reagent cost of 2.0–2.7 CNY per m³. For operators, the relevance is a non-acid route to reclaimed-water reuse and zero-liquid-discharge that replaces mineral-acid dosing and the associated chloride and sulphate loading.
Kunnukuzhy abattoir stays shut as ETP design flaw surfaces, September 2026
A modernised abattoir at Kunnukuzhy in Thiruvananthapuram, built for around Rs 10 crore and designed to handle 50 to 75 animals, remains non-operational after a trial run exposed flaws in its effluent treatment plant, The New Indian Express reported on 5 September 2026. Officials found that blood from meat processing was mixing with discharge water instead of being segregated for treatment, and a full redesign or demolition is considered impractical. The corporation plans to meet the ETP installer and the operating contractor to find a fix that works within the existing structure. The case matters to operators because source-stream segregation in red-meat plants is a contractual performance line, not a process detail.
U.S. wastewater plants could nearly double biogas output, ABC says, September 2026
New American Biogas Council data released 10 September 2026 show that 1,200 U.S. wastewater treatment plants already capture and use biogas from sewage sludge, generating enough electricity equivalent to power about 1.1 million homes a year. The council estimates another 3,800 plants have the flows needed to add capture, which could roughly double the output to power about 1.9 million homes. For plant managers and procurement leads, the figures point to anaerobic digestion, combined-heat-and-power, and renewable natural gas upgrading as the next decision points on the sludge line of any medium-to-large municipal works.
Mound, Minnesota authorizes bidding on $28.4M water treatment plant, Sept 2026
The Mound, Minnesota City Council has authorized bidding for a new municipal water treatment plant, according to a report published 11 September 2026 by hometownsource.com. Estimated at $28.4 million on top of more than $10 million already spent, the project is designed for 1.8 million gallons per day (about 6,813 m³/day) and is funded with roughly $2.05 million federal, $10.3 million from the State of Minnesota, and a low-interest Minnesota Public Facilities Authority loan. A contract award is expected at the 13 October meeting, with construction targeted to start in spring 2027 and complete by fall or winter 2028. For plant managers and municipal buyers, it is a benchmark small-municipal iron-and-manganese greenfield tender with an 18–24 month build window.
Swiss study finds 5 t/yr of microplastics exit WWTPs, atmosphere delivers twice that, Sept 2026
A 12 September 2026 report from Eawag, Empa and Agroscope, funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, gives the first national estimate of microplastic releases from Swiss wastewater treatment plants. Sampling at 51 plants serving 44% of the population scales to 4.7 tonnes per year, about 0.5 grams per inhabitant, while a parallel Empa study puts atmospheric inputs to Swiss waters at roughly 10 tonnes per year. For plant managers and procurement, the study matters because the method tracks microplastics on sewage sludge flocs, putting the audit burden on the secondary and sludge-handling stages of the train rather than the effluent alone.
SLO County weighs five desalination sites in $1.2M feasibility study, Sept 2026
San Luis Obispo County supervisors on 1 September 2026 reviewed a $1.2 million feasibility study for a seawater desalination plant, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported. The study lays out five sites ranging from about $179 million at Cambria to $545 million at Morro Bay, with annual yields of 330 to 7,135 acre-feet. No project will move this year, and no partner agency has volunteered, leaving a 20-year-plus path to operation. For water-treatment buyers, the SLO exercise is a live case study in how intake, RO and outfall choices drive both capex and the multi-decade schedule of a coastal potable reuse plant.
Woonsocket picks Veolia to run sewage plant, vows to close sludge incinerator, Sept 2026
On 14 September 2026, the Woonsocket City Council unanimously approved a six-month, $251,250-per-month operations contract with Veolia North America to run the city's Cumberland Hill Road wastewater plant, with a $270,000 startup fee, replacing Jacobs Engineering. The 15-FTE deal covers both the liquid treatment train and the long-disputed sludge incinerator, which the council and mayor reaffirmed they want to close. A planned sale to the Narragansett Bay Commission collapsed after its proposed Quonset pyrolysis alternative stalled, leaving Veolia as a bridge operator. For plant managers and procurement leads, the reported staffing envelope and transition cost are a usable benchmark for a regional municipal O&M tender that also has to keep an incinerator running while a long-term biosolids route is negotiated.
MP High Court dismisses PIL against Bhopal modern slaughterhouse, Sept 2026
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation that sought the immediate and permanent closure of the new, large-capacity slaughterhouse at Maida Mill Road, Jinsi, Bhopal, in a ruling reported on 8 September 2026. A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal called the petition a misuse of the legal process, noting it was filed three years after the facility was built, licensed and operational and that the same environmental-compliance issues had already been before the National Green Tribunal. Operator counsel told the court about ₹29 crore had been spent on the project. For wastewater buyers and plant managers, the ruling underscores that consent-to-operate and prior NGT closure history, not just ETP design, now sit on the procurement risk file for any new abattoir of similar scale.
Five of Israel's six desalination plants offline after Mediterranean algae bloom, Sept 2026
A report by The Washington Post published 4 September 2026 says five of Israel's six desalination plants went offline in early September 2026 after a Mediterranean microalgae bloom clogged seawater intakes. Haaretz reported on 2 September 2026 that experts tied the bloom to untreated wastewater from Gaza's war-damaged sewage system, and that Mekorot had cut water flows to Gaza, leaving nearly one million Palestinians short of water. For plant managers and procurement leads, the event highlights intake and pretreatment risk on coastal SWRO trains and the value of redundant screening, monitoring and dosing packages.
La Verkin to host $7M purified-wastewater demo facility, Sept 2026
The Washington County Water Conservancy District is building a $7 million Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Facility in La Verkin, Utah, where residents will be able to tour the treatment process and sample potable reuse water. Reported on 15 September, the facility is scheduled to break ground in spring and open in 2028, supporting a wider $250 million Regional Reuse Purification System targeted at more than 24,000 acre-feet per year by 2042. The district does not expect potable reuse water to be delivered to taps until 2040, but reuse programme manager Morgan Drake said the timeline can be pulled forward if growth or drought demand it.
New York environmental groups urge stricter landfill leachate pretreatment rules, Aug 2026
On 15 August 2026, New York River Watch urged the state Department of Environmental Conservation to tighten a proposed rule requiring active landfills to pretreat leachate for PFOA, PFOS and 1,4-dioxane before discharge to municipal sewage plants. The group's report cited more than 500 million gallons of leachate per year sent to publicly owned treatment works from 2019 to 2023, with about one-third discharged to drinking-water source waterways, and flagged that around half of that volume came from landfills run by WM, Waste Connections and Casella. Industry comments submitted by 9 September warned that DEC's 99.9% removal target and projected treatment costs of $3 million to $50 million per facility are unworkable. For plant managers and procurement leads, the rule signals that landfill-side advanced treatment, rather than downstream municipal polishing, will become the default specification in New York.
Algae bloom shuts five Israeli desalination plants, Sept 2026
On 8 September 2026, Israeli outlet Ynet reported a rare Mediterranean algae bloom that forced the temporary shutdown of five of Israel's six major coastal desalination plants, including Ashkelon, Ashdod, Palmachim, Sorek A and Sorek B. Desalination supplies at least 65 percent of Israel's drinking water, so the loss of most of national capacity is operationally severe. Researchers point to roughly 40,000 m³/day of untreated wastewater from Gaza's damaged sewage system, warm sea temperatures and currents as contributing factors, with the bloom organism identified as a cyanobacterium of the genus Synechococcus. For plant managers and procurement leads running coastal SWRO or municipal wastewater plants, the event is a reminder that intake-side water quality, not just membrane selection, drives uptime when nutrient loading and warming seas coincide.
Greece opens Markopoulo sewer-mining plant for irrigation reuse, September 2026
Reported on 7 September 2026, the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company and the National Technical University of Athens have opened a sewer-mining facility in Markopoulo, Greece, that pairs a membrane bioreactor with ultraviolet disinfection, solar power and digital monitoring to produce reclaimed water for irrigating urban green areas. The Markopoulo plant is the most advanced of two pilots; an earlier Metamorfosi unit was identified as the first sewer-mining application in Greece, and the Goudi Park nursery installation met unrestricted irrigation standards. The pilots are demonstrations, not network replacements, and the university's research programme runs through 2028. For treatment-plant operators, the project points to packaged MBR-plus-UV satellite systems as a procurement path for non-potable reuse in water-stressed cities.
Korean team IDs material-specific fouling in semiconductor UF/RO, Sept 2026
On 9 September 2026, the National Research Foundation of Korea announced that a team at Hankyong National University led by Professor Noh Ho-jung has published a side-by-side comparison of organic–inorganic composite fouling on alumina ceramic and PES polymer membranes in real semiconductor wastewater, in the journal Desalination. Both materials were fouled mainly by silica–protein and metal ion–organic complexes, but ceramic flux fell to about one-third of the polymer flux because iron ions adsorb to Al–OH groups on ceramic surfaces and then accumulate humic substances. For plant managers and procurement leads, the work reframes ceramic-versus-polymer selection as a feed-chemistry decision and sharpens the case for tuning front-end iron, silica and organic removal ahead of UF and RO.
Richfield, MN orders $190,000 study of aging 1963 water plant, Aug 2026
Richfield, Minnesota's City Council approved spending nearly $190,000 on an HDR Engineering feasibility study for the city's 1963 water treatment plant, according to a report published 31 August 2026. The study will compare rehabilitation, replacement, status quo and decommissioning, and will model rate impacts and financing before returning to council in March. For plant managers and procurement leads, the decision is a procurement signal: a small Midwestern utility is moving from planning to a formal engineering assessment of an aging conventional lime-softening and filtration train, with a bulk-purchase alternative on the table.
Berkeley Heights Firefighters Contain Peracetic Acid Spill at Township Wastewater Plant, Sept 2026
On 12 September 2026, Berkeley Heights firefighters contained a peracetic acid spill at the township Wastewater Treatment Plant after plant staff began containment before crews arrived, TAPinto reported. Firefighters in self-contained breathing apparatus used absorbent pads, booms and an acid neutralizer recommended by the chemical's manufacturer, with the Union County Hazardous Materials Team and Berkeley Heights Rescue Squad assisting. No injuries were reported. For operators, the takeaway is that disinfection-stage oxidant handling, secondary containment and operator training are the real procurement lines of defence when a peracetic acid dose goes wrong.
Lancaster County sewer plant power restored after storm, Aug 2026
A power failure hit the Lancaster Area Sewer Authority treatment plant on the evening of 20 August 2026, prompting LASA to ask customers in seven Lancaster County municipalities to conserve water until power was restored. The county stressed the notice was not a boil-water advisory, and the conserve-water call was lifted at 9 a.m. on 21 August 2026 after power returned. For plant managers and procurement leads, the event underlines how a single substation trip can force an immediate demand-side cut to protect biological and disinfection stages, and why standby generation sized to the full aeration plus disinfection load is now standard specification language for mid-sized municipal works in storm-exposed regions.
San Diego County launches Tijuana River treatment plant plan, Sept 2026
In a report published 7 September 2026, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors launched a three-phase plan to build a new U.S. treatment plant near the border dedicated to untreated Tijuana River sewage flows, unlocking about $6 million in reserves and directing $1.8 million to an 18-month Phase 1 study. A separate $4 million allocation advances design of a Saturn Boulevard box culvert fix, with construction targeted for 2027, while a November sales-tax measure could underwrite longer-term capital. For plant managers and procurement leads, the event sets the clock on a likely sub-regional tender for advanced primary equipment at the 163 MGD scale cited in the 2021 EPA diversion study, and signals an ongoing $300 million federal upgrade of the existing 50 MGD South Bay plant by December 2027.
Tropical Storm Lala triggers sewage spills and stalls safety tests on Oahu, August 2026
Reporting published 19 August 2026 says Tropical Storm Lala knocked out power on Oahu on 17 August 2026, triggering at least four sewage spills, including two at the Ala Moana Wastewater Pump Station blamed on backup-power failure and a still-unexplained discharge at Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. Hawaii American Water released about 717,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater at Sandy Beach over under three hours. The Department of Health's Clean Water Branch office and laboratories stayed dark into Tuesday, delaying fecal-bacteria testing. For plant managers, the headline is that lift-station backup power, head-of-works generator sizing and on-site lab power are the spec lines that decide whether a storm becomes a spill report.
EGLE sets Oct 21 hearing on OpenAI-Oracle data center's Saline River wastewater permit, Sept 2026
Michigan EGLE has scheduled a virtual public hearing for 6 p.m. on 21 October on a proposed NPDES permit that would let The Barn, a 2.2 million-square-foot OpenAI-Oracle hyperscale data center under construction in Saline Township, discharge treated sanitary wastewater to the Saline River, according to a report published 12 September. Developer Related Digital is proposing an average flow of 15,750 gallons per day (about 60 m³/day) from an estimated 450 on-site employees, with a treatment train of equalization, aerobic trickling filter, sludge holding and UV disinfection. The project is a new-build, small-flow packaged NPDES scheme, so operators scoping a similar surface-water discharge should focus on effluent limits, antidegradation requirements and packaged-train lead times. Written comments are accepted by EGLE through 23 October.
