The Water Zone

Taking Water to the Xtreme

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)

 

Turfs Up

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)

Challenge Accepted

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)

Protect Our Future, Protect Our Water

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)

Irrigation Assimilation

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)

Cheers to That

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)

Mayday: EPA

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)

Pickett takes the LEED

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)

Saving the World, Drip by Drip

Featured guest Mr. Dov Avital, Director of Research and Business Innovation for the Metzer Group in Israel, joined The Water Zone to share on how the Metzer Group was founded and built an impressive drip irrigation and extrusion equipment manufacturing business. He explained the technical differences of flat vs cylindrical drip emitters that they design, and touched on the need for a decomposing type of drip tubing to help save the world from plastics and various polymers. He also describes the different needs of drip irrigation tubing required in the agricultural market in the Middle East and Asia.

(Podcast recorded on February 27, 2020)

Everyone Likes the Crust!

Featured guest Morgan Page, Ph.D., a Statistical Seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, joins The Water Zone to discuss the differences of forecasting vs. prediction of earthquakes and how they use data to model the quake's magnitude scaling, decay of after shock rates, and location of the event. Page also showed a key relationship between human's potential inducement of earthquakes through activities, such as injecting waste water into the ground during oil production and by building large dams and storing large quantities of water which places a great strain on the earth's crust. 

(Podcast recorded on February 13, 2020)

War and Water Shed

Featured guest Regina Hirsch is Executive Director of the Sierra Watershed Progressive, a consulting and installation-build collaborative focused on sustainable landscape and water remediation. Regina spoke on the various ways to utilize alternate water resources for irrigation purposes. She emphasizes that property owners should treat their site's water like a small water shed, incorporating best management practices. Regina is also the coordinator of the Localizing California Water (LCW) Conference, which connects allies towards the strategic goal of water management throughout California by discussing local water approaches. She describes how the LCW breaks down the barriers to alignment through presentation and workshops to achieve solutions to local and global climate changes by advancing local water policy at an accelerated pace.

(Podcast recorded on February 6, 2020)

I.A., Captain!

John Farner, Director of Government and Public Affairs of the Irrigation Association, joins The Water Zone to discuss the organization’s role in providing technical information on irrigation technologies and training to government committees.  He also spoke about the many and various types of educational courses and materials that are available from the Irrigation Association to both the professional landscaper and DIYer. The Irrigation Association also provides certification classes spanning irrigation auditors, water management specialists, and irrigation system designers just to mention a few.  He stated that there is a desperate need for more people to enter the irrigation/landscaping industry, where there are exceptional opportunities for a long-term and rewarding career. 

(Podcast recorded on January 30, 2020)

Water: Nature's Energy Drink

We spoke with special guest, Katie Patrick, CEO of Hello World Labs, who helps social impact entrepreneurs and sustainability professionals make real and measurable change using data.  She discussed how most impact entrepreneurs make mistakes because they don't know how to harness the motivational drivers that get people to act.  Katie provided examples of various scenarios she has been involved with to help guide water and energy agencies, who seek to make a difference and meet the serious challenges posed by water scarcity and the need for increased energy.

(Podcast recorded on January 23, 2020)

Mojave's Water Hobbies

Special guest Nicholas Schneider, Water Conservation and Forecast Manager for the Mojave Water Agency, joins The Water Zone to share on some of the agency’s conservation projects in 2019 - including taking a 820 KW hydroelectric generator online to bring the agency to virtually a net-neutral status. The agency was also able to secure approx. $500,000 in grants to continue work on the Agency's Regional Recharge & Recovery project.  Mojave Water is also sponsoring the 2020 Water Summit in Victor Valley, where 500 local school children will learn about the water industry and careers in the industry. The Water Agency also works Curiosity Quest on PBS to present a problem-solver segment to highlight STEM projects.

(Podcast recorded on January 16, 2020)

Tank Talk

Adam Tank, Director of Software Solutions for Transcend Water, Inc., joins The Water Zone to share his thoughts on the issue of water over the next 10 years. He touched on topics, such as water utilities starting to market and sell packaged drinking water – in addition to the concern of freshwater scarcity when we have an abundance of saltwater that could meet societal food needs and the technologies that could propel this thought forward. He addressed the advancements in atmospheric water generation, which is gaining lots of new players into this technical arena. 

(Podcast recorded on January 9, 2020)

"Smart Home Unit: recycle greywater!"

Special guest Steve Bilson, CEO of ReWater System, joins The Water Zone to discuss the results of various greywater studies that were conducted throughout the U.S. – in addition to sharing the pros of a home greywater system, as well as the cons of trying to install one after a home is built. He also describes the components that comprise an in-home greywater system, and how each component functions. Steve founded ReWater Systems in 1990, and helped sponsor CA Assembly Bill 3518, which resulted in our nation's first-of-its-kind state greywater irrigation law.

(Podcast recorded on December 12, 2019)

Efficient is Sufficient

Special guests Lisa Maddaus, CFO and Senior Engineer at Maddaus Water Management, and Drew Atwater, Director of Finance at Water Resources of Moulton Niguel Water District, join The Water Zone to discuss what the average person might not know about water. Both guests explain some of the various programs they are working on to help better educate the public on the efficient use of water. Both guests saw toilets, showerheads and outdoor irrigation as three areas of opportunity to increase efficiency. They both commented that the water industry is in dire need of more water specialists and now is a great opportunity for not only environmental and civil engineers, but also for maintenance-skilled people to calibrate back-flow systems, install smart irrigation systems, and staff to control water recycling plants.

(Podcast recorded on November 21, 2019)

If The Pipe Fits

Amanda-Ariana Grabowski from IPS Corp / Weld-On Products joined The Water Zone to help educate listeners on the proper procedure when joining pipes and fittings. She described what specialized tools should be used in the process, such as a deburring tool, a beveling tool and a cable saw to make straight cuts. Grabowski also explained the purpose of proper pipe preparation using specialized cleaners and primers.  Weld-On is the only company who provides free training for pipe and fitting assembly per ASMEB313 certification, which is required for specific installation situations.

(Podcast recorded on November 14, 2019)