Hot Topics in Water & Piping Infrastructure: Top Articles of 2025

This year, the world of water systems and piping infrastructure saw innovations in cross-connection control to piping schematics, new challenges, and trends in everything from compliance requirements to best practices. This year, the HydroCorp team continued to publish articles each week spanning a variety of topics—all to provide valuable information to professionals who need it. Let’s recap some of the articles you found most insightful. 

General Education

Let’s kick it off with a review of HydroCorp’s top articles covering general education topics. These apply across industries and provide critical definitions, processes, and concepts regarding best practices for safety, compliance, and efficiency.

1. High or Low? Understanding Facility Degrees of Hazard
   How we define and identify service connections and points of use matter. Public water systems need to understand degrees of hazard to determine survey frequency and ensure proper backflow prevention at each site. Facility managers and maintenance personnel must also operate with a clear understanding of hazard levels to properly maintain their system and protect staff and customers.
2. A Quick Guide to Backflow Prevention, Cross-Connection Control, & Water Safety
   Sometimes, we have to get back to the basics. Definitions and best practices help guide both proactive and corrective action—hopefully to avoid and prevent contamination events and resulting emergencies altogether.
3. The Reoccurring Risk of Unprotected Cross-Connections by Gary McLaren
   Correcting cross-connections isn’t a one-time event. HydroCorp’s experience across public water systems and facilities proves that. “Piping systems are dynamic,” McLaren writes. And, with a changing environment, “cross-connections are often created (or recreated), putting the system at risk.” Cross-connections crop up again and again, and continuous efforts keep those risks at bay.

Public Water Systems

Public water systems face unique challenges of their own. What topics resonated the most this year?

1. Inside the Data: What Cross-Connection Inspections Tell Us
   “In all public water systems, undetected and unprotected cross-connections exist.” What data points do cross-connection control surveys yield, and what has HydroCorp discovered over the course of tens of thousands of surveys? In a review of 2024 survey data, we look at the most common violations and how public water systems can approach this data in their own communities.
2. The Cost of Cross-Connection Control Program Administration
   Administrative staff are often the unsung heroes of cross-connection control programs. From sending postal notifications to scheduling logistics to data review to public educations, the administrative burden of cross-connection control is likely much greater than you would think.
3. The Cost of Neglect: How an Incomplete Cross-Connection Control Program Can Jeopardize Grant Funding for Water Utilities by Paul Patterson
   “What happens when a utility’s cross-connection control program is underdeveloped, poorly enforced, or nonexistent?” Patterson asks. His answer? “It can cost you—big time.” Understanding the mechanisms of obtaining grant funding—and the role of cross-connection control—can make a big budget difference.

Honorable Mention: Cross-Connection Compliance in Sanitary Surveys: Key Insights from the EPA Sanitary Survey Field Reference Guide by Gary McLaren

Industrial Facilities

Industrial facilities have a unique perspective on the challenges and best practices around maintaining, managing, and documenting their piping infrastructure—for potable water and beyond.

1. A Case Study in Facility Mapping, Technology, & Sunk Costs
   After seemingly endless back and forth with vendors who require accurate, up-to-date schematics—or significantly upcharge facilities in lieu of that documentation—facility managers arrive at the root cause of their problems. “We throw technology at projects or processes, and that technology can enable businesses to accomplish more with greater efficiency,” Lemon writes. “But technology alone can’t fix current state problems.”
2. Mapping More than Water: Compressed Air Piping Schematics by Glenn Adamus
   Pipes carry more than water. Many facilities rely on compressed air piping systems to conduct operations—and schematics and proper pipe labeling are just as critical in non-water systems. “High levels of energy are needed to effectively run a compressed air system: If you have a leak, you’re losing air and money,” explains Adamus. And without on-site pipe tracing, how can a facility identify and correct leaks?
3. Why, How, & What For? Optimizing for Reliable Pipe Drawings
   Reliable piping schematics deliver ROI. Across teams, from operations to maintenance to planning, piping schematics can drive efficiency only when the documentation is correct and accessible. Creating schematics—and keeping them up to date—is the first step.

Honorable Mention: Navigating Risk: High- vs. Low-Hazard Water Connections in Industrial Facilities by Gary McLaren

Healthcare

Finally, we explored the challenges facing healthcare facilities’ piping infrastructure, including the most common issues facing hospitals and key trends that reveal the industry’s priorities, needs, and trajectory.

1. Insights on Piping Schematics from the Joint Commission Guide for Hospitals by Gary McLaren
   The updated Joint Commission Survey Activity Guide, released in 2024, places greater emphasis on developing and referencing accurate piping schematics. McLaren writes, “The Joint Commission guide underscores the importance of medical gas and vacuum system inspection, testing, and documentation in compliance with relevant standards.” With patient safety at the forefront, following the Joint Commission’s recommendations does more than help maintain compliance.
2. Legionella Contamination & Control in Healthcare Facilities
   Healthcare facilities face elevated levels of risk when it comes to Legionella contamination. Because of patient vulnerability, hospitals and other healthcare facilities must take extra precautions to prevent Legionella proliferation within their piping systems.
3. Water, Pipes, & Emergency Planning: How Healthcare Facilities Can Be Prepared
   Developing an emergency water supply plan (EWSP) is a complex process that, first and foremost, requires accurate knowledge of a facility’s piping systems. Up-to-date schematics following a comprehensive survey allow facilities to look at water use, essential operations, alternative supplies, and areas for conservation more effectively.

Honorable Mention: Why Must Hospitals Prioritize Routine Cross-Connection Control Surveys? by Paul Patterson

HydroCorp serves 600+ water systems with water and piping infrastructure solutions, from cross-connection control to piping schematics to meter replacement. With over 40 years of experience conducting surveys, drafting schematics, and managing programs, educating municipal and business leaders on safe piping systems is a priority for our team. 

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