Behind the scenes of our cities, water professionals are solving high-stakes problems every day—and at WEFTEC’s Operations Challenge, they put those skills to the ultimate test. Often called the Super Bowl of Sewage, this high-energy competition brings together utility teams from across North America to tackle real-world scenarios drawn straight…
Public-private partnerships are emerging as one of the most effective ways to expand water reuse without burdening local communities — and a project in California’s East Bay shows how it can work. By investing $55 million in recycled water infrastructure, Chevron was able to meet its operational needs while avoiding…
What if saving water at an industrial scale didn’t mean sacrificing growth — but actually made it possible? In Arizona, Intel’s water reuse system is proving just how far existing technology can go. By rethinking how water is treated and reused on site, the company is recovering 98% of its…
A proposed 30% federal tax incentive could dramatically accelerate water reuse across the U.S. As industrial water demand rises and communities face growing water stress, this policy proposal aims to lower the financial barrier for businesses to invest in advanced water reuse systems. By pairing proven technologies with a strong…
Climate action sometimes starts in your own neighborhood. In a virtual course co-taught by Kari Fulton and Janelle Burr at Howard University, high school students at Title I schools across the country—from Flint to Los Angeles—are digging into what environmental justice means where they live. Using mapping tools, students are…
What is water made of? We took that question to the street. For this episode of Water Street Questions, we asked a simple one outside the Reservoir Center: What is water made of? After a few laughs, a little hesitation, and one very confident (but incorrect) “phosphate,” the answers rolled…
Explosive growth in data centers, semiconductors, and power generation is driving unprecedented industrial water demand, pushing reuse from niche to necessity across the U.S. In this episode, Bruno Pigott of the WateReuse Association, Courtney Tripp of Grundfos, and Jim Oliver of Black & Veatch unpack their joint report, Accelerating Industrial…
Across Maryland’s Eastern Shore, more than 550 concentrated animal feeding operations produce over 300 million chickens each year—and with them, massive waste streams. According to modeling, these facilities emit 30 to 40 million pounds of ammonia annually, much of it vented into the air, where it later settles into rivers…
Across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, agriculture plays a critical role in both food production and water quality. When manure and fertilizer are carefully managed, they support healthy soils and crops. But when they’re oversupplied—or when permits and oversight fall short—excess nutrients can move off fields and into nearby streams, making…
The warning signs didn’t come from inside the plant—they came from the water itself. Routine monitoring by Blue Water Baltimore detected high bacteria levels outside the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant, signaling that something was going wrong deep inside the system, says Alice Volpitta, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper. It turns out there…
Beneath city streets and behind concrete walls, some of the Chesapeake Bay’s most important environmental work happens every day. Wastewater treatment plants across the region discharge into rivers that flow to the Bay—carrying nitrogen and phosphorus that, if not properly treated, can quickly undo decades of restoration progress. The good…
Muddy runoff construction from a single subdivision smothered one of the Chesapeake Bay’s vital nurseries—turning crystal-clear waters into a hazy graveyard for underwater grasses that shelter crabs and fish. Over the past four years, more than 200 failed state inspections at Ridgely’s Reserve have allowed relentless sediment to cloud the…
Rain doesn’t always look like pollution—but with every storm comes a hidden threat. As forests and fields are replaced by roads, rooftops, and parking lots, rainwater that once soaked into the ground now rushes across hard surfaces, carrying dirt, oil, nutrients, and other contaminants straight into local streams and rivers…
What happens when laws designed to protect water fail — and what legal action does it take to set things right? For decades, the health of the Chesapeake Bay has struggled because of three major pollution sources: stormwater, wastewater, and agriculture. These pressures send nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment into streams…
When pollution controls fall short, rivers pay the price. Across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, stormwater runoff, deteriorating wastewater infrastructure, and industrial agriculture continue to send nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment into local waterways—despite years of restoration progress. Riverkeepers across Maryland explain how these failures show up: sediment smothering habitat in the…
What happens when laws designed to protect water fail — and what legal action does it take to set things right? For decades, the health of the Chesapeake Bay has struggled because of three major pollution sources: stormwater, wastewater, and agriculture. These pressures send nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment into streams…
Green infrastructure has undergone a dramatic evolution in just two decades, shifting from sprawling retention ponds and grassy swales to compact, high-performance systems that fit seamlessly into dense urban sites. Christian Hennessy of Oldcastle Infrastructure highlights how precast manufacturing has driven this modernization, delivering simple, structurally sound solutions with smaller…
Rigorous field testing is unlocking the true power of green infrastructure, delivering hard data on how effectively systems clean real-world stormwater. Christian Hennessy of Oldcastle Infrastructure explains that by capturing grab samples of influent and effluent, these tests precisely measure removal of total suspended solids, phosphorus, nitrogen, and metals—providing the…
What if the real game-changer in green infrastructure isn't adding more plants, but engineering the soil itself to become a pollutant-trapping powerhouse? Christian Hennessy of Oldcastle Infrastructure says the science of media development—fine-tuning soil matrices, depths, and materials—has been key to evolving from basic solutions to modern systems that deliver…
As new contaminants like PFAS demand complex treatment, many utilities face a hard reality: innovative solutions often stall at the regulatory desk. That bottleneck — not a lack of technology — is what Anthony DeRosa is working to fix. As Executive Director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators,…
Green infrastructure is reshaping how communities manage stormwater by blending natural processes with modern engineering to improve water quality, reduce flooding, and fit into increasingly dense urban spaces. In this episode, Christian Hennessy of Oldcastle Infrastructure breaks down what makes a system truly “green,” from mimicking pre-development hydrology to using…
The water sector can’t fully serve communities if it doesn’t reflect them — and for too long, people of color have been underrepresented across the industry. That lack of representation creates trust gaps, reinforces barriers, and signals to many young professionals that they don’t belong. That’s the challenge Patricia Lindsay-Harvey,…
Clean water in national parks isn’t protected by accident — it’s defended by policy and by confronting the pressures outside park boundaries. Ed Stierli of the National Parks Conservation Association says that safeguarding these waters means not only upholding strong laws like the Clean Water Act, but also tackling the…
America’s national parks don’t just protect landscapes — they safeguard some of the most important waters in the country, from the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay to the Colorado River, the Everglades, and even 10% of the nation’s coastline. These places give millions of people a chance to fish,…