The Water Zone

Featured guest was Mr. Ghassan Korban, Executive Director of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board.  Korban provides a history and current status of the organization and addresses how they are building resilience in the face of a changing climate into their working operations.  He describes the repetitive flooding conditions of the city, the broken water and sewerage pipelines, and the antiquated 100 year old pumping systems, and what actions they are taking to help meet the demanding conditions.

(Podcast recorded on October 1, 2020)

Featured guest Elliot Grossbard from the Global Water Solutions Connect organization joins The Water Zone to address outside the box technologies that could couple water and energy together to solve significant water issues. Elliot also discusses how atmospheric water harvesting systems could be utilized to help reduce forest fires caused by high voltage electrical tower sparking.

(Podcast recorded on September 17, 2020)

Featured guest Jim Kauth, President of Aquatrac, Inc., located in Arizona, describes many stories of both HOAs and commercial property owners that have experienced extremely high water bills.  Aquatrac provides both irrigation, horticulture and arborist consultation to help develop a proper water management solution for property owners.  As a certified water manager, Jim also explains about various city’s rules pertaining to irrigation, turf and available rebates for utilizing EPA WaterSense-certified products.

(Podcast recorded on September 10, 2020)

Featured guest was Lou Desmond, President of Desmond and Louis with offices in California and Washington. Lou discusses the serious flooding that Washington experiences and how mitigation by lawmakers is not resolving the issue.  He states that many legislators want to take property from homeowners utilizing emanate domain practices and obtain those properties with little payments to the property owners. He shares how more water storage facilities need to be built in the state.

(Podcast recorded on August 13, 2020)

Featured guest Trace Blackmore, President of Blackmore Enterprises, a company that specializes in water treatment systems, joins The Water Zone. Trace discusses how he got started in the industry, entered into a leadership role, and launched the podcast "Scaling Up H2O" which provides specialized webinars and training about water treatment technologies and operation. His company helps hospital and commercial clients design, install and manage on-site water treatment operations. Trace also addresses the deadly Legionella problems found in many water cooling towers and how to remedy the situation.

(Podcast recorded on August 6, 2020)

Featured guests were Luigi Romolo, Minnesota State Climatologist, and Ken Blumenfeld, Senior Climatologist of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, State Climatology Office, join The Water Zone to describe how they track changes in their state's weather with their own various data management tools, which provides climate services to the people of Minnesota. They offered a scientific view of what’s next for the climate of their state.

(Podcast recorded on July 16, 2020)

Featured guest Brent Mecham of the Irrigation Association (IA) was just honored for his lifetime contributions to the irrigation industry.  Brent joins The Water Zone to discuss how he got interested in irrigation and his progression from student to landscape designer, to landscape contractor, to water management, and to his most recent position with the IA.

(Podcast recorded on July 9, 2020)

Hosts Rob Starr and Chris Davey of The Water Zone discuss the technology of center pivots that are utilized in farming, as well as drip irrigation systems and how they help greatly to reduce water usage. They further spoke about the thought process needed in building a backyard vegetable garden and what decisions need to be addressed before the physical work gets started.

(Podcast recorded on June 18, 2020)

Featured guests Jim Lauria, VP of Sales and Marketing for Mazzei Injector Company, and Adam Tank, Director of Software Solutions at Transcend Water, join The Water Zone to discuss their new podcast about all things water. They believe that education about water and technology is an extremely important subject which must be shared with everyone.  They share their passionate advocation for water and vision with a broad view of the water industry.  They further discuss how they help water agencies and water-related companies promote their personal water stories through various media.

(Podcast recorded on June 11, 2020)

Hosts Rob Starr and Chris Davey of The Water Zone explore the scenario of utility companies leasing smart irrigation systems and low-voltage lighting products to their customers. This conveys how consumers and commercial users can obtain these important water and electrical solutions for low payments, and even qualify to receive rebates for leasing these products. They spoke about a company, called Liberty Utilities, who have operations in 14 states across the U.S. and launched such a program.

(Podcast recorded on June 4, 2020)

Special guests on The Water Zone were Tiffany Baca, Public Affairs Manager for Municipal Water District of Orange County, CA, and Sherri Gully, winner of The Water Zone's Xtreme Water Makeover Contest. Tiffany discussed her organization’s role in helping to promote the contest to their member water agencies. Sherri explained how she learned about the contest and how excited she was to have won.  She shared how she could not believe the makeover transitioned her yard.

(Podcast recorded on May 21, 2020)

Featured guest on The Water Zone was Darren Gruner, CEO of Turfs Up Radio. Darren discusses how he entered the landscape industry 30 years ago, and now shares his industry knowledge and experiences – in addition to those of other notable professionals to help educate those in the landscape, irrigation and design industry.  

(Podcast recorded on May 14, 2020)

Featured guest Reese Tisdale, CEO of Bluefield Research, an independent advisory firm that helps utilities and companies address the various challenges of water. Tisdale discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the water industry, and projects that the current pandemic will affect the affordability of water. Further, Tisdale described how the utility companies are rushing to prioritize their resilience, leading up to the latest water industry's investment into digital technologies to help them better manage their overall processing operations.

(Podcast recorded on May 7, 2020)

Featured guest Jay Famiglietti, Executive Director of the Global Institute for Water Security, joins The Water Zone to discuss his "Map of the Future of Water" and how water security is at greater risk than we may think. He projects that the hardships, damage and loss of life caused by increased flooding and drought can be expected to continue.  Jay noted that technical innovations alone will not meet the coming global water challenges, but requires people to understand and implement intelligent water management practices and procedures.

(Podcast recorded on April 23, 2020)

Special guest Mike Temple, Director of Training for the Irrigation Association, joins The Water Zone to discuss how now is a great opportunity for people in the landscaping, irrigation and agricultural segments to obtain more technical education and get certified in various disciplines. Temple discussed areas like Certified Irrigation Landscape Auditor, Certified Irrigation Technician, Certified Irrigation Designer and Certified Landscape Water Manager. More information in webinars and educational books available from the Irrigation Association.

(Podcast recorded on April 16, 2020)

Featured guests Chris Hedges and author Seth Siegel join The Water Zone to discuss his new book, Troubled Water: What's Wrong with What We Drink. Seth discusses how America's water in big cities, as well as in rural locations, came to be at risk. He describes how this situation came about, how the contaminated water throughout America can affect all of us, and what can be done to help remedy this crucial situation.

(Podcast recorded on April 9, 2020)

Featured guests Bill and Rosemarie Alley join The Water Zone to discuss their new book, "The War on the EPA - America's Endangered Environmental Protections". The Alley’s share how the war on the EPA is a war on science, the environment and public health. They explain how the book examines the daunting hurdles facing EPA in its critical roles regarding drinking water, air and water pollution, climate change and toxic chemicals. Both Bill and Rosemarie delve into the science, politics and human dimension of these and other problems, and how today's war on science is undermining the scientific foundation upon which the agency's legitimacy rests and why a strong EPA is more important than ever before.

(Podcast recorded on March 5, 2020)

Featured guest Kyle Pickett, Co-Founder and CEO of Urban Fabrick, a consultancy group that provides technical training and design for sustainable construction projects, joined The Water Zone to discuss water reuse as a design opportunity for new construction projects that want to achieve new sustainability levels. Pickett states that it is estimated the world needs $22 trillion dollars in water investments to ensure adequate water supplies in the years ahead.  He also describes one of his firm's most famous LEED Platinum projects, Building 181 located in San Francisco, and detailed how they helped the developer achieve a notable and sustainable facility.

(Podcast recorded on March 12, 2020)