Running a water utility today means managing a crisis you can never fully see coming. Heather Collins, Director of Treatment Operations at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and President of the American Water Works Association, knows that pressure firsthand. Water utilities aren't just keeping taps running — they're…
💧 H2O INTRO 👤 Meet Janelle Boelter, Director of Infrastructure Management at the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the Southern Nevada Water Authority The C grade may be the highest the American Society of Civil Engineers has ever given U.S. infrastructure — but for Janelle Boelter, that's not good…
America's drinking water systems are facing a reckoning — and the clock is running out. Mike Grimm, former General Manager of West Slope Water District, says the American Water Works Association's landmark Beyond the Replacement Era report puts hard numbers behind what water leaders have long known: the gap between…
Former Olympian and Washington, D.C. native Aquil Abdullah says one of the most overlooked parts of river restoration is access to trusted information. Through a new initiative led by the Reservoir Center and supported by Xylem, real-time data on water quality, temperature, and other conditions in D.C.'s rivers is being…
Two months into his role leading NOAA, Tim Petty — Assistant Administrator of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy Administrator — brought a rare mix of freshwater credibility and ocean-scale responsibility to the World Water Day stage. His message: the federal government is in the middle of a quantum…
A landmark new report from the American Water Works Association estimates the United States will need between $2.1 and $2.4 trillion in drinking water infrastructure investment over the next 25 years—and the funding gap is widening fast. In this episode, the findings of Beyond The Replacement Era are explained by…
Five sensors. One river. A level of detail the Anacostia has never had before. Trey Sherard of Anacostia Riverkeeper is one of the people who knows this waterway most intimately — and he says the new network of continuous water quality sensors deployed along the Anacostia River represents a genuine…
Fats, oils, and grease don't just clog kitchen drains. They clog cities. When FOG builds up inside a sanitary sewer system, it works like cholesterol in the human body — slowly, silently, until something gives. The result can be a sewer overflow that sends raw sewage into storm drains, rivers,…
Washington, D.C.'s rivers just got a lot more transparent. The Reservoir Center has launched a network of sensors across D.C.'s waterways, measuring water temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, chloride levels in winter, and algal counts in summer — all feeding into a public dashboard available directly from their website. Each buoy…
A basic toilet. A place to wash your hands. Safe access to water. For millions of Americans experiencing homelessness or living in transitional housing, those essentials can be difficult to access. At the Vessel Convening in Washington, D.C., Kory Russell, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon, joined advocates…
The rivers of Washington, D.C. are becoming living laboratories for the future of urban water stewardship, with Xylem and the Reservoir Center helping launch a new real-time water quality monitoring network across the Potomac, Anacostia, and Shenandoah rivers. In this episode, guests Nicole Horvath of the Reservoir Center, Trey Sherard…
A $1.89 monthly fee could save homeowners from a surprise bill measured in the thousands. In Stevens Point, Wisconsin, residents are responsible for the sanitary sewer lateral running from their home to the middle of the street. When those pipes fail, repairs can cost up to $10,000. Joel Lemke, Director…
This is where a water pipe takes shape. Inside the U.S. Pipe foundry in Alabama, molten iron is poured into rapidly spinning molds in a process known as centrifugal casting. In just minutes, the iron forms into ductile iron pipe designed to deliver drinking water to communities across the United…
At the Reservoir Center's World Water Day gathering in Washington, D.C., water leaders from across government, utilities, business, and academia explored a question increasingly shaping national conversations: what will it take to achieve long-term water security in the United States? For Martin Doyle, the answer depends less on inventing new…
Water leaders gathered at the Reservoir Center along the Anacostia River for World Water Day to discuss how water is increasingly shaping conversations around economic growth, AI, infrastructure, agriculture, and resilience. The opening session brought together voices from engineering, policy, technology, infrastructure advocacy, and government as water issues move closer…
Nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the kind of heat required to turn recycled scrap metal into ductile iron pipe carrying drinking water across the United States. In this clip from the U.S. Pipe foundry in Alabama, Jeff Mason explains the chemistry and quality control behind the molten iron process. As…
Old cars. Brake rotors. Rebar. Industrial scrap. Inside the U.S. Pipe foundry in Alabama, all of it can become drinking water infrastructure. Jeff Mason, explains how different grades of recycled metal are blended together before being melted down and transformed into ductile iron pipe. Giant magnets load shredded cars, engine…
When a water crisis hits, the message can matter almost as much as the response itself. At Catalyst 2025 inside Discovery World, crisis communications expert Emira Plowshares put utility leaders through high-pressure simulations designed to mirror the chaos of real emergencies. The goal wasn’t polished PR — it was preparing…
Millions of Americans still live without running water or basic sanitation — a reality advocates on Capitol Hill say the country can no longer ignore. About 100 water access advocates recently fanned out across more than 70 House and Senate offices carrying the National Roadmap to Close the Water Access…
A confusing utility bill can become a crisis fast — especially for customers living on a fixed income. After hearing from a 77-year-old resident who spent weeks trying to resolve a water bill issue and access assistance, Quisha Light began rethinking how utilities interact with the public. At the Portland…
America’s drinking water infrastructure depends on more than 2 million miles of pipe buried beneath streets and communities across the country. In this episode of How Water Works, Jeff Mason leads a tour inside the U.S. Pipe foundry in Alabama to show how ductile iron pipe is manufactured — from…
Water utilities are beginning to move from reacting to failures toward predicting them before they happen. Mick O’Dwyer of SwiftComply says compliance programs have traditionally been reactive — responding after a backflow device fails, a sewer blockage forms, or contamination risks emerge. But with larger datasets and smarter technology, utilities…
Water utilities are starting to break down internal silos as compliance pressures grow more complex. Mick O’Dwyer of SwiftComply says utilities across the U.S. are increasingly consolidating programs like backflow prevention, FOG management, industrial pretreatment, and stormwater compliance into shared compliance offices instead of operating them as separate teams. The…
Water built Winnipeg. Now Winnipeg is racing to adapt to water. At The Forks — where the Red River and Assiniboine River meet — people have gathered for roughly 6,000 years. Indigenous communities, trade routes, commerce, and eventually a major Canadian city all grew around these waterways. But the rivers…