Fifty years of federal regulation have made American drinking water safer—but not equally safe. Manny Teodoro, a professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and member of the Water & Health Advisory Council, says decades of data reveal persistent disparities. Small and rural systems, lower-income communities, and communities…
A 3.5 acre lawn at the University of Northern Colorado now offers students more places to gather while using far less drinking water. The Greeley campus replaced much of the lightly used Kentucky bluegrass with water-wise landscaping, efficient irrigation, shaded seating, a hammock garden, and a sidewalk connecting the university…
💧 H2O INTRO 🤝 Meet Yan Zhang, Senior Director of Water Quality and Process at Long Beach Utilities A shortage of treatment plant operators can quickly become a drinking water reliability problem. At one point, Long Beach Utilities had vacancies in more than 30% of its operator positions as retirements,…
Westminster has turned City Hall’s lawn into a highly visible piece of water policy. Outdoor irrigation consumes approximately half of the Colorado city’s water supply annually—and about two-thirds of demand on the highest-use summer days. To reduce that pressure, Westminster removed nonfunctional turf at its City Hall complex and replaced…
Minnesota’s East Metro is removing lead pipes by starting where the risks—and the barriers to replacement—are greatest. Saint Paul Regional Water Services launched Lead Free SPR in 2022 with 26,000 lead service lines across the 14 communities it serves. General Manager Racquel Vaske says the utility expects to have replaced…
Colorado communities adapting to the long-term strain on water supplies in the arid West are turning one of their largest demands—the irrigated landscape—into a source of new supply, with this year’s historically low snowpack adding urgency to the work. The first episode of Resilience in the Rockies travels from the…
Millions of lead pipes can’t be replaced without the cooperation of the people living above them. As water utilities work toward the federal goal of replacing lead service lines by 2037, Roya Alkafaji of the Environmental Defense Fund says community trust is a prerequisite for getting the work done. “Without…
Finding the right customer for a wastewater technology can be harder than developing the technology itself. Martin Strøh, CTO and co-founder of Klarifi, calls his company's approach "Tinder for wastewater"—matching specialized treatment technologies with facilities that have the specific problems they are designed to solve. A company targeting nutrient removal,…
There is no single playbook for replacing America’s estimated four million lead service lines. Mason Hines of RESOLVE says communities face vastly different political, economic, and demographic conditions, which is why the Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative has avoided prescribing exactly how every replacement program should operate. Instead, its approach…
Over a decade after Flint, the effort to remove lead pipes has moved from voluntary action to a national deadline. Roya Alkafaji of the Environmental Defense Fund traces a series of milestones that have transformed lead service line replacement across the U.S.: ➡️ 2016: The Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative…
💧 H2O INTRO 👤 Meet Sean Owens, Treatment Plant Supervisor for Central Arkansas Water Water utilities are preparing for a wave of retirements, but Sean Owens sees another workforce problem developing in the middle: employees aren't always getting the skills and experience they need to become the next generation of…
About 1 in 12 U.S. water systems still fails to meet basic health standards for drinking water. Alan Roberson, former executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators and a member of the Water & Health Advisory Council, says persistent violations expose a fundamental gap in the Safe…
A dozen years after the Flint water crisis galvanized national action on lead pipes, the United States has moved from scattered voluntary replacement efforts to a federal mandate to remove nearly all lead service lines by 2037. Roya Alkafaji of the Environmental Defense Fund and Mason Hines of RESOLVE are…
Sunrise along Falcon Reservoir was a special morning on my recent trip along the Rio Grande. Temperatures were still in the 70s—with 105 coming later that day—and the early light was spreading across the water and mesquite trees. Birds were everywhere, drawn to this huge patch of water in an…
Moving waste is costing billions. Removing the water could change the economics. About $52 billion is spent each year transporting high-strength liquid wastes from food processing, livestock operations, and wastewater treatment. According to Kim Nace of Bright Water Tools, much of that cost comes from hauling water rather than the…
Longmont is turning turf replacement from a guessing game into a data-driven water strategy. Instead of removing random patches of grass, the Colorado city brought departments together to define nonfunctional turf, map where it exists on city property, and decide where replacement would make the biggest difference. The finding was…
💧 H2O INTRO 👤 Meet Neha Ghaisas, Engineer, Green Stormwater and Stream Design Unit, Philadelphia Water Department Philadelphia has more than 160 miles of streams and creeks flowing through the city, feeding the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. Those waterways are becoming a central part of how the city approaches infrastructure…
Water utilities don't just need suppliers anymore. They need problem solvers. Jeff Bridge of Oldcastle Infrastructure says public water systems are being asked to tackle bigger infrastructure challenges without adding staff or growing their budgets. "They're not making money. They're not getting bigger. They're not getting to add a ton…
Predict. Monitor. Plan. Act. Brett Braganz of Oldcastle Infrastructure says those four steps provide a roadmap for using digital tools to manage aging water infrastructure more effectively. Instead of making replacement decisions with limited information, utilities can first predict where failures are most likely and where the consequences would be…
Utilities are data rich but insight poor. Water systems have spent decades collecting information through SCADA controls, geographic information systems, work management platforms, and operating records. But much of that data remains trapped in separate systems that do not easily communicate. Travis Wagner of Trinnex says the immediate challenge is…
The cheapest infrastructure can become the most expensive over time. As water utilities prepare to invest billions in replacing aging infrastructure, Charis Klimas of Oldcastle Infrastructure says many are rethinking how they define value. Rather than focusing primarily on the lowest upfront price, utilities are increasingly weighing resilience and an…
The next breakthrough in water treatment may not come from a new filter. It may come from reengineering the technology inside it. Salt-based softeners, activated carbon filters and membrane systems have served homes and businesses for decades. But they also come with tradeoffs, including wastewater generation, energy use, mineral removal,…
Digital water’s near-term impact may be less about replacing people than strengthening the decisions they already make. Joshua Cantone of SUEZ says digital tools should complement operator experience, engineering judgment, and the systems utilities already use. The goal is assistance—not handing critical decisions over to software. That distinction matters as…
Across Colorado and the West, communities need a mix of grants, utility dollars, rates, rebates, partnerships, and local policy to make conservation work at scale. Denver Water may offer another model. The utility is replacing tens of thousands of lead service lines, including many on private property, at no direct…