Water utilities may never escape the need to triage infrastructure, but better data, design, and monitoring can reduce the constant churn of reactive responses. In this episode, Jeff Bridge, Charis Klimas, and Brett Braganz of Oldcastle Infrastructure examine how utilities can move upstream of failure by choosing materials for the…
The next era of drinking-water protection may depend on deciding which risks deserve attention first. Chad Seidel of Corona Environmental Consulting and the Water & Health Advisory Council says the Safe Drinking Water Act was built around identifying contaminants, setting standards, and enforcing them—a framework that produced major public-health gains…
💧 H2O INTRO 👤 Meet Jackie McCloud, former Environmental Sustainability Division Manager for the City of Watsonville, California For some families, the biggest barrier to safe drinking water isn't contamination. It's affordability. Jackie McCloud worked to better understand and address water affordability in Watsonville, where low-income households continue to struggle…
American manufacturing can be a laboratory for water innovation when the people hearing field problems, designing improvements, building components, and testing equipment work under one roof. A visit to Blue-White Industries in Huntington Beach, California, offers a close look at that model. The company manufactures chemical metering pumps, flow meters,…
AI adoption in water may be accelerating first at the kitchen table—not inside the treatment plant. Joshua Cantone of SUEZ says everyday use of tools such as ChatGPT or Claude is changing how utility workers view digital technology. Familiarity outside the workplace can make operators more willing to consider data-driven…
Control of the U.S.-Mexico border limits access to the Rio Grande River and deters people from recreation along the water. A trail in Roma, Texas leads past old picnic tables in an overgrown area, a dirt road built by Border Control, and a fence prohibiting river access. On the Mexico…
Water utilities are facing a knowledge drain that no hiring campaign can fully replace. As veteran operators retire, decades of experience with pumps, filters, treatment processes, and emergency response can leave with them. Travis Wagner of Trinnex says artificial intelligence could help preserve part of that institutional knowledge—but not by…
Digital systems, increasingly strengthened by artificial intelligence, are helping water utilities move from reacting to failures toward anticipating where infrastructure problems are most likely to occur. Joshua Cantone of SUEZ explains how that shift is changing decisions about pipes, pumps, wells, treatment plants, and long-term capital investment. Many utilities already…
Water risk can build miles upstream before it reaches an intake. A plant may depend on canals, rivers or reservoirs that pass through agricultural, industrial and urban areas. When conditions change across that watershed, the effects can cascade into treatment operations—driving up costs and creating new reliability and compliance risks.…
EPA is not abandoning federal PFAS regulation, but it is redrawing part of the compliance map. Amanda Canida of Black & Veatch explains that the agency has proposed rescinding the regulatory determinations, maximum contaminant levels, and health-based goals for PFHxS, PFNA, GenX, and the PFAS Hazard Index. EPA would then…
It’s a beautiful international view from the bluff in Roma, Texas. Down below is the Rio Grande River and across the water is Ciudad Miguel Alemán. Just downriver is a bridge with vehicles and pedestrians crossing between the two countries. In this spot, on a day like this, you almost…
A municipal greenhouse near Denver is becoming part of Westminster’s water conservation strategy. At the Briggs Greenhouse Center, the city grows thousands of plants selected for Colorado’s dry climate, including native and climate-adapted species that require far less water than conventional lawns and ornamental landscapes. Many of the plants come…
Water utilities are rich in data but often struggle to turn decades of information into decisions that improve daily operations. Travis Wagner, vice president of digital solutions at Trinnex, explains how utilities can connect fragmented information, preserve workforce knowledge, and introduce artificial intelligence without sacrificing accuracy or security. Most utilities…
This is the Rio Grande at Anzalduas Park in Texas. I’m standing in the United States, and across the water is Mexico. It’s striking how this narrow stretch of river forms the border between two countries. It’s a beautiful and peaceful spot, with people fishing along the U.S. shore and…
💧 H2O INTRO 👤 Meet Jorge Luis Flores, Assistant General Manager at the City of Eagle Pass Water Works System Along the Texas-Mexico border, some families still live without the basic water infrastructure most Americans rarely have to think about. Jorge Luis Flores grew up in Eagle Pass, Texas, and…
PFAS treatment is no longer a distant planning exercise for many water utilities—it is becoming a capital project with a federal deadline attached. Amanda Canida of Black & Veatch says data from the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule indicates that about 10% of public water systems may be affected by…
I recently tagged along with Floyd Rivera for his shift as a wastewater operator at Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Los Angeles. This was to film an episode of a new series Day In The Life: Water Workers. Floyd is part of the team of operators that monitor and adjust…
PFAS regulation now has more moving parts, deadlines, and compliance pathways than ever, but the bottom-line advice for water utilities is simple: keep moving. In this episode, Amanda Canida of Black & Veatch explains how utilities can navigate the regulatory complexity while advancing the treatment projects needed to meet federal…
Developing a promising water technology is only half the challenge. Getting it into the market is often the harder part. That's the focus of BREW, The Water Council's post-accelerator for growth-stage water technology companies. Katie Kollhoff Mouat explains how the program helps innovators move from proven technology to commercial success.…
Some of the biggest innovations in water projects happen before construction even begins. As treatment plants become more complex, utilities are moving away from the traditional "design first, bid later" approach. Instead, they're bringing owners, engineers, and contractors together at the very start of a project to evaluate options, weigh…
💧 H2O INTRO 👤 Meet Lily Lopez, External Affairs & Sustainability Director at Walnut Valley Water District When devastating wildfires swept through Southern California, Lily Lopez saw more than a disaster response. She saw a communications challenge that every water utility should be preparing for. As a regional network of…
America's water treatment plants are entering a new era. For decades, utilities relied on the familiar sequence of coagulation, flocculation, and sedimentation to produce safe drinking water. Those processes remain essential—but today's challenges are demanding much more. Jaime Safulko of PCL Construction says utilities are rapidly investing in advanced treatment…
The California coast has been hiding one of America's strangest infrastructure projects in plain sight. From the shoreline in Long Beach, these palm tree-lined islands look like luxury resorts. They're actually active offshore oil facilities built atop the Wilmington Oil Field—one of the largest oil fields ever discovered in the…
