Technology used for water applications is really flowing these days in Fort Collins.

Water-philes met this month to hear the latest at a gathering of the Colorado Water Innovation Cluster at the Rocky Mountain Innosphere. The cluster was created to spur collaboration among water companies and drive development of new technologies to address water challenges.

OptiEnz Sensors’ Ken Reardon, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at CSU, is doing his part.

Reardon, chief technology officer at OptiEnz, said the company has developed water-monitoring devices that can continuously measure chemicals in water. The Innosphere recently took the start-up in as a client.

The size of a penny, an OptiEnz sensor can measure small concentrations of organic compounds in water quickly and efficiently.

The technology has applications in everything from the oil and natural-gas industry to food and beverage businesses.

Conventional methods in water monitoring typically require doing so from one location. The sample must then be sent to a lab, and its chemical composition can change during the process.

“Sometimes you don’t get critical information,