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waterloop

Travis Loop

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for sustainability and equity in water. Hosted by journalist Travis Loop, the podcast features stories from across the U.S. about water infrastructure, conservation, innovation, technology, policy, PFAS, climate resilience, and more.

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34 episodes
Avg 27 min
English

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July 6 · 32 min
A Common Framework For Corporate Water Reporting
Water has become one of the biggest blind spots in corporate sustainability reporting, with companies measuring and disclosing water use in vastly different ways. In this episode, Lauren Enright of SCS Global Services and Alexis Morgan of World Wildlife Fund discuss the effort to create Water Scopes 1, 2, and 3—a new framework designed to bring consistency, transparency, and accountability to how organizations understand and report water impacts across their operations, energy use, and supply chains. They explain why water is fundamentally different from carbon, why supply chains often account for the vast majority of a company\'s water footprint, and how growing scrutiny of data centers, manufacturing, agriculture, and other industries is exposing the need for a common language around water stewardship. The conversation explores the role of investors, communities, NGOs, and regulators in driving better water accountability, as well as how the framework could influence future reporting standards and disclosure requirements. Looking ahead, Enright and Morgan envision a future where companies have a clearer understanding of their water risks and dependencies—and where better information leads to better decisions for watersheds, communities, and businesses alike. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
June 21 · 21 min
The Water Reality In Data Center Alley
Loudoun County, Virginia is known as Data Center Alley, the longtime epicenter of the data center industry and home to one of the world's largest concentrations of digital infrastructure. As communities across the country debate the impact of data centers on water resources, Loudoun Water offers a rare look at what happens when a utility has decades of experience planning for and serving the industry. The episode features conversations with utility leaders Brian Carnes, Alton Echols, and Mark Peterson, who discuss water impacts, management processes, and advice for other systems. Despite the presence of more than 200 data centers, the utility says the sector currently accounts for about 15% of its total water use, supported by significant treatment capacity and a growing reclaimed water program. Today, roughly 40 data centers are cooled with highly treated reclaimed water instead of drinking water, using about 700 million gallons annually. The approach helps reduce nutrient loads to the Chesapeake Bay while providing data centers with a lower-cost and more resilient water supply. Loudoun Water says growth-related infrastructure is paid for by new customers, while detailed monitoring helps the utility understand water demand, wastewater flows, and operational impacts. At the same time, utility leaders emphasize that Loudoun's experience is not necessarily transferable elsewhere. Its extensive infrastructure, reclaimed water network, available supplies, and long history with the data center industry make it a unique case study as utilities nationwide navigate the rapid growth of AI and digital infrastructure. This episode is sponsored by SewerAI. From inspection to rehabilitation, SewerAI provides the tools you need to manage your entire sewer infrastructure. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
June 15 · 31 min
The Water Cost Of The Cloud: Amazon Discusses Data Centers
The impact of data centers is currently one of the most discussed issues in water. In this episode, Will Hewes, Water Sustainability Lead for Amazon, shares how one of the world's largest data center operators is managing water use, responding to growing public scrutiny, and working to reduce its impact on local water resources. Hewes discusses Amazon's newly released water report, which details company-wide water use, reports a 52% improvement in water efficiency over four years, and shows progress toward its goal of becoming water positive by 2030, with the company now 75% of the way there. He explains Amazon's investments in recycled water infrastructure, including a plan to expand the use of reclaimed water from 26 facilities to 130, supported by more than $1 billion in infrastructure funding. The discussion also explores water replenishment projects ranging from leak reduction in Mexico City's water system to affordable housing water-efficiency programs in Northern Virginia. Hewes shares how local water assessments, utility partnerships, and watershed-specific strategies shape decisions about data center development and operations. It's a detailed look at how one of the world's largest technology companies is approaching the challenge of balancing digital growth with long-term water stewardship. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainabiity.
June 8 · 17 min
A $2 Trillion Wake-Up Call For Drinking Water
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 Mike Grimm of West Slope Water District, Heather Collins of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Janet Clements of One Water Econ, John Mastracchio of Raftelis, and Adam Carpenter of AWWA. The report identifies a structural shift in water sector costs, with utilities now navigating compounding pressures from PFAS and lead regulations, climate resilience, cybersecurity, and increasingly scarce water sources—not just aging pipes. Without new investment strategies, the average household water bill could more than double by 2050, potentially pushing over 53 million households into financial stress. Federal funding for water infrastructure lags far behind other sectors like transportation, covering just 3.9 percent of public spending—a disparity the guests argue must change. Solutions discussed include expanding federal and state partnerships, consolidating fragmented small utilities to capture economies of scale, and developing dedicated affordability assistance programs to protect vulnerable households. Read the report. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
June 3 · 23 min
D.C.'s Rivers Go Real-Time With Sensor Network
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 of Anacostia Riverkeeper, Olympic rower Aquil Abdullah, and Lynn Coffey of Living Classrooms discuss how technology, recreation, education, and environmental restoration are converging around these waterways. They discuss how Xylem’s monitoring equipment and the public dashboard are providing communities with information on water temperature, bacteria, chloride, turbidity, algae, and more — helping paddlers, anglers, educators, scientists, and residents better understand their local waterways. The episode also examines how nonprofits, watershed groups, and community organizations are partnering with Xylem and the Reservoir Center to expand access to water quality information and create a long-term record of environmental change in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. From rowing on the Potomac to teaching students on Kingman Island, the discussion centers on a powerful idea: healthier rivers depend on informed communities, collaborative partnerships, and better tools to understand the water flowing through our cities. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
May 26 · 16 min
America's Drinking Water Pipes Built in Alabama Foundry | How Water Works
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 recycled scrap metal to critical underground infrastructure. The episode follows the intense process of melting old cars, appliances, and industrial metal into pipe engineered to last for generations and withstand earthquakes, floods, and decades of pressure underground. It also explores overlooked sustainability stories inside heavy industry, including industrial water reuse systems, emissions reductions through electric induction furnaces, and how more than 90% recycled material becomes essential infrastructure. Along the way, Mason explains the chemistry, testing, coatings, and cement linings that help ensure drinking water remains safe and reliable as it moves through these systems. From molten iron hotter than lava to finished pipe headed everywhere from Manhattan to small-town America, the story pulls back the curtain on one of the most important — and invisible — parts of how water works. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions.
May 18 · 24 min
Inside the Immune System of Water Infrastructure
Water utilities are quietly strengthening the “immune system” of our water infrastructure, using compliance programs and technology to prevent pollution, protect drinking water, and reduce sewer overflows before they happen. In this episode, Mick O’Dwyer of SwiftComply shares how his journey from wastewater engineer in Dublin to tech founder led to building software that modernizes programs for backflow, pretreatment, and FOG (fats, oils, and grease). He explains how outdated, paper-heavy systems—once generating hundreds of thousands of documents—are being replaced with digital workflows that free up inspectors to focus on real environmental outcomes. The conversation highlights how improving compliance isn’t about enforcement alone, but about making it easier for businesses that want to do the right thing through better communication and smarter systems. Utilities are already seeing results: higher inspection rates, fewer sewer overflows, and stronger protection of infrastructure and waterways. With aging infrastructure, workforce turnover, and new regulatory pressures mounting, O’Dwyer points to a future where data and AI enable predictive compliance—identifying risks before failures occur. The goal: less reactive firefighting, more proactive protection of communities and the environment. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
April 28 · 47 min
A Roadmap to Bring Water to 2 Million Americans by 2040
More than 2 million people in the United States live without running water or a working toilet—and the true number could be far higher. It’s a crisis hidden in plain sight, affecting communities from tribal lands and rural Appalachia to border colonias and even neighborhoods just beyond city infrastructure. In this episode, Kabir Thatte of the Vessel Collective announces a new national roadmap aimed at closing that gap. Thatte outlines the scale of the issue—families hauling water, unreliable or unaffordable service for tens of millions more, and billions in economic losses tied to inaction. He also explains why the gap has persisted: limited public awareness, fragmented government investment, and a lack of coordinated support for communities trying to build and maintain water systems. Thatte says the roadmap sets a clear target: universal access to water and sanitation in the U.S. by 2040. It organizes more than 50 strategies into three pillars—visibility, government commitment, and capacity—focused on building public awareness, aligning federal and state action, expanding funding, and strengthening workforce and technical support. The roadmap is being released as the Vessel Collective convenes water organizations in Washington, D.C., aiming to energize the sector and urge decision makers to accelerate action on water for all. The conversation also details how progress will be tracked, from near-term coordination and policy movement to long-term systems change, with a central question guiding the effort: are fewer Americans living without water each year? Read the roadmap waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
April 27 · 17 min
Nanobubbles Are Transforming How Water Works
Nanobubbles—microscopic pockets of gas invisible to the human eye—are emerging as a powerful tool to improve water treatment and management. In this episode of How Water Works, Travis Loop visits Moleaer Inc. in Los Angeles to break down how nanobubbles work and why they’re gaining traction across industries. Thousands of times smaller than a grain of salt, nanobubbles don’t rise and burst like ordinary bubbles—they remain suspended for months, increasing dissolved oxygen and enhancing biological activity in water. Inside the lab, experiments show how these charged particles scatter light, stabilize gases, and attract contaminants—helping water become clearer and cleaner. The impact is already showing up in the field. ➡️ Through collaborations with Xylem, U.S. wastewater utilities are reducing ammonia and cutting aeration energy. ➡️ In South America, greenhouses are lowering chemical use while increasing yields. ➡️ Nordic aquaculture operations are improving fish survival. ➡️ In California\'s Lake Elsinore, the technology has helped control harmful algal blooms, reopening the lake for recreation and driving renewed economic activity. Still early in its adoption, nanobubble technology is moving quickly from experimentation to real-world deployment—offering a lower-energy, lower-chemical approach to treating and managing water. Watch the episode on YouTube waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
April 20 · 1 hr 4 min
The Next 50 Years Of Safe Drinking Water
A group of top water experts is challenging one of the core assumptions behind U.S. drinking water policy—that chasing ever-smaller traces of contaminants is the best way to protect public health—and instead calling for a fundamental shift toward fixing pipes, strengthening systems, and prioritizing the risks that actually matter most. In this episode, members of the Water Health Advisory Council lay out a bold path forward through their new book Safe Drinking Water Act: The Next Fifty Years. The group—bringing decades of experience across policy, science, and utility leadership—argues the next era must shift from a “regulatory treadmill” to prioritizing real-world risks like failing pipes, workforce gaps, and system resilience. Their Madison Declaration calls for science-based risk prioritization, stronger governance, and treating safe water as a human right, with equity at the center of decision-making. The conversation highlights how public trust is eroding—not because water is less safe, but because communication tools like consumer confidence reports often confuse rather than inform. It also makes the case for major structural changes, including utility consolidation to improve performance, smarter investment in infrastructure over ever-lower contaminant thresholds, and aligning funding with actual public health outcomes. At its core, the message is clear: the next 50 years of drinking water policy won’t be solved by chemistry alone—it will require rethinking how systems are governed, funded, and trusted by the public. Learn more about the book. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
March 30 · 25 min
Where Rivers Meet The Ocean: Why America's Estuaries Matter
Estuaries—places where rivers meet the ocean—are some of the most important ecosystems in the United States, supporting coastal economies, protecting communities, and serving as nurseries for much of the nation’s seafood. In this episode from the Reservoir Center in Washington, D.C., Daniel Hayden, CEO of Restore America\'s Estuaries, explains why these places—from Chesapeake Bay to Puget Sound – are essential to nature, the economy, and people. Hayden highlights collaborative restoration efforts across the country, including eelgrass recovery in Morro Bay, oyster shell recycling programs in Gulf Coast communities, and wetland restoration projects led by tribal partners along Long Island Sound. The conversation also explores how restoring abandoned cranberry bogs in New England is reconnecting wetlands to nearby estuaries and bringing native ecosystems back to life. Along the way, Hayden explains how partnerships with federal agencies, nonprofits, and local communities are driving long-term progress—showing that with sustained investment and collaboration, damaged waterways can recover and once-polluted urban rivers can become vibrant places for people and wildlife again. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring sustainability in water.
March 24 · 39 min
A New Strategy: Water Is National Security
Water is emerging as a defining factor in U.S. economic growth and national security—from where data centers and energy projects can scale to how communities absorb the rising costs of floods, droughts, and insurance risk. In response, a new Aspen National Water Strategy has been released, laying out a plan to rethink how the country manages water. This episode is a conversation with the co-leads for developing the strategy, Martin Doyle of Duke University and Newsha Ajami of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Their central argument is a shift in framing: water is not just an environmental or local utility issue—it’s a core economic input and a strategic asset. The discussion explores how that plays out today, from AI and energy demands tied to water availability to insurers effectively redrawing the map of risk across the country. It also gets into what’s holding the system back, including fragmented governance, outdated infrastructure models, and policies that don’t align with how water actually moves through watersheds. The strategy outlines priorities including governing for outcomes instead of process, investing in rural landscapes that underpin national water supply, and expanding infrastructure to include natural systems, data, and people. Doyle and Ajami also highlight the need to remove barriers to adopting solutions that already exist, and to rethink financing and business models so innovation can scale. It’s a clear-eyed look at how water is shaping the economy and risk landscape today—and what it will take to treat it as the national priority it has become. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
March 9 · 30 min
Download From Davos: How Global CEOs Are Confronting Water Risk
A download from Davos reveals how water is rising on the global agenda — with business leaders, governments, and NGOs increasingly recognizing it as a critical climate and economic risk. In this episode, Jason Morrison, president of the Pacific Institute, shares insights from the World Economic Forum gathering this past January, where conversations about water resilience are reaching CEOs, prime ministers, and top decision-makers. He explains how initiatives like the CEO Water Mandate and the Water Resilience Coalition are mobilizing major corporations to tackle water challenges collectively across stressed basins worldwide. The discussion highlights real-world efforts underway in places like California and the Mississippi River basin, where companies are investing in projects such as groundwater recharge, watershed restoration, and improved water efficiency. Morrison also describes how new data tools, satellite monitoring, and collaborative basin-scale strategies are helping track measurable progress. The key takeaway from Davos: the water sector doesn’t need more pledges — it needs execution, scaling proven solutions that can deliver meaningful impact on the ground. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.
February 23 · 34 min
Navigating Water’s New Era: Technology, Talent & Transformation
The water sector is in the middle of a major transition, as decades-old challenges collide with powerful new technologies, workforce shifts, and rising public expectations. In this episode, Ralph Exton, Executive Director of the Water Environment Federation, unpacks how a nearly century-old organization is working to steer global water strategy. He breaks down WEF’s three-pillar roadmap—building water communities, advancing workforce development, and leading circularity. The conversation from the Reservoir Center in Washington, D.C. also dives into the water–AI nexus, from the growing pressure data centers place on stressed watersheds to the launch of a new Center of Excellence designed to cut through misinformation and align utilities, regulators, and hyperscalers. Ralph discusses the move toward a circular water economy, including the recovery of resources from wastewater. The discussion closes with a look at workforce development, from managing a wave of retirements across the industry to training the next generation. waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.

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