Usalco Acquired SENTRY Water Monitoring Technology
The supplier has integrated bio-electrode sensor systems into its Decision Blue platform to enhance wastewater data.
Updated on Oct. 5, 2026 in Environmental
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Usalco has acquired SENTRY Water Monitoring, a firm that develops bio-electrode sensors for wastewater treatment. The integration adds continuous microbial activity data to Usalco's Decision Blue intelligence platform.
Why it matters
The acquisition enables Usalco to merge specialized sensor hardware with its AI-driven treatment software. By improving data reliability, the company aims to reduce the time required to detect toxic events in plant operations.
SENTRY sensors measure biochemical oxygen demand, biodegradable chemical oxygen demand, and volatile fatty acids using signals derived from microbial activity. This data is integrated into SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems, which are control architectures used for industrial process management.
The players
Usalco
A supplier of water treatment chemicals that maintains a portfolio of digital intelligence tools.
SENTRY Water Monitoring
A developer of bio-electrode sensor technology designed to monitor microbial activity in industrial wastewater plants.
Decision Blue
A treatment intelligence platform operated by Usalco that integrates sensor data to monitor water treatment performance.
Patrick Kiely
The vice president of technology and strategic growth at Usalco.
Chris Miller
The vice president of digital innovation at Decision Blue.
The details
SENTRY technology utilizes bio-electrodes that capture continuous biological signals to monitor wastewater health in real time. These sensors provide automated data streams that Usalco intends to feed into Decision Blue, its digital intelligence platform. By connecting these hardware signals directly into plant systems, operators can automate responses to changes in microbial metabolic activity, replacing slower, manual sampling methods.
Timeline
Usalco announced the acquisition of SENTRY Water Monitoring on October 5, 2026.
The Tech Race
This acquisition represents a consolidation of sensor hardware and software analytics within the water utility market. It mirrors a wider industry trend where treatment suppliers are racing to integrate granular biological data into AI platforms to maintain a competitive advantage in predictive process control.
Wastewater plant operators using the Decision Blue platform will gain access to the SENTRY sensor integration for monitoring microbial health. Implementation timelines for current platform users have not been announced.
The takeaway
This integration moves wastewater management toward higher-frequency, automated biological monitoring. Watch for updates from the Decision Blue platform regarding how this microbial data set impacts predictive treatment accuracy in future software releases.
Further reading
Learn more about the latest innovations in monitoring infrastructure in our Environmental section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Smart Water Magazine.
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