GE Water Helping Municipalities Meet New Guidelines And Regulations

Andrew Sparkes of GE Water sat down with Water Online Radio to discuss how GE is well-suited to upgrade existing infrastructure in a cost-effective manner.

Todd Schnick: We're coming to you live from Dallas, Texas.  This is day three of AWWA Ace 2012 in Water On Line Radio.  I'm your host Todd Snick, joined by my colleague Todd Youngblood.  This next guy is going to be a handful I suspect.

Todd Youngblood: You know I could tell when he was about 25 feet away from the booth.  There was this aura coming down the hallway.  I was hoping he was going to keep walking by but he didn't.

Todd Schnick: Unfortunately, we have got to spend the ten minutes with this guy, and frankly, I can't wait.  I'm looking forward to it.  I want to welcome Andrew Sparkes, who is a U.S. Sales Leader for GE Water and Process Technologies.  Welcome to the show Andrew.

Andrew:  Thanks for having me guys.

Todd Youngblood: It's great to have you.  Before we get into it Andrew, do take a second and tell us a little bit about you and your background.

Andrew:  Sure.  My name again is Andrew Sparkes and I work at GE Water and Process Technologies.  I cover the U.S. for the municipal market and have a sales team of about nine people down here in the U.S.  Exactly nine people in the U.S.

Todd Youngblood: Exactly nine people in the United States.  Gosh, tell us more about the Water and Technology Shop.

Andrew:  GE Water and Process Technologies is a global business and we do more than two billion dollars in revenue every year.  We manufacture and sell water treatment systems.  We have a large portfolio of water treatment systems that we manufacture and sell.  We also have a chemicals business where we provide a chemical service business to industries.

Todd Youngblood: Andrew, the folks running municipalities have all kinds of really ugly hairy issues to deal with.  From the perspective of the guys running the water utilities, what are the biggest issues that they're facing?

Andrew:  Certainly, we see those challenges every day.  Whether it's new nutrient levels that they have to meet from the wastewater discharge standpoint or new guidelines or treatment rules for drinking water, regulations are getting more and more stringent every day.  In addition to that, we all hear the stories of crumbling infrastructure.  Plants are getting older and the reality in today's market is that the funding is harder to find and it's less available, so really municipalities are being squeezed and the challenge is how do they more with less.

Todd Youngblood: How is GE helping deal with those challenges?

Andrew:  Again GE supplies technologies for water treatment, so every day we are inventing and supplying technologies to help municipalities meet those new guidelines and regulations. 

We have technologies that are well suited to upgrading existing infrastructure.  So we work on a daily basis with consultants and municipalities to design and implement upgrades to their plants, so low cost upgrades, rather than building new plants or replacing infrastructure that's still has a viable life.

We're always looking to develop new solutions, new products that require less operating and maintenance costs.  We’re always working with our clients to try and do more with what they have and do it in a cost effective manner.

Todd Schnick: Andrew, given that GE is part of your name, you bring a lot of credibility in terms of technology development, figuring out new applications for technologies.  Water utilities though have a bit of a reputation of being a little reluctant, a little slow to adopt and implement new technologies and applications.  What are you doing to help educate the folks and get them comfortable with making these huge 15, 20-year investments in technologies?

Andrew:  Excellent question.  Certainly come from a background where we innovated and created marketing for new technologies.  GE has pioneered many new technologies that are widespread and are used in the industry throughout the world today. 

Certainly, I’d like to point out the membrane bioreactor marketplace in the wastewater treatment standpoint is a technology that we really pioneered and developed.  Research and development innovation, those are key messages whenever you hear the word GE.

What we do as a business is create new technologies.  We create game-changing technologies that really change the marketplace.  And that's really what we're all about.  It’s bringing power research and development knowledge and expertise to the marketplace to provide solutions to our clients that are sustainable and innovative.

Todd Schnick: Let's shift focus for a second Andrew and let's go to 10,000 feet, look down at the water industry as a whole, what big trends do you see coming down the pike the next three to five years?

Andrew:  On a macro-level, we really are working to adapt to a new reality.  We've got worldwide population increase, we have industrialization in emerging market places, increased energy production, and all these things put a tremendous strain on what is a finite resource, water. 

Water is therefore becoming a scarcer and more valuable commodity and I think by 2025, two-thirds of the world will not have access to fresh clean water.

We talk about worldwide trends.  The reality here is that this is something that is local.  It’s here in the U.S.  We have water shortages and challenges here in North America.  That need, those macro facts are really what's driving the key trend in the water industry today, which is innovation.  How do we change and how do we become better at water treatment, more efficient and more cost effective?

Todd Youngblood: Andrew, we've talked a lot about innovation and technology and complexity and integrating things, let's talk about money for a minute.  None of this comes free.  There's some massive, massive investments.  What kind of things can GE do to help lessen the impact of that financial strain?

Andrew:  As I mentioned before, I think some of the key challenges are exactly that.  It's how do municipalities do more with less?  There's less funds available, tougher regulations, tougher requirements on the municipalities.  They are always being challenged to do more with less. 

We really see the solution to that is through innovation.  We as an equipment supply company have to do better and bring new technologies that can cost effectively meet the needs for our clients.  We need to do that certainly to be successful as a business, is understand the needs of our clients and bring them those solutions. 

Some of the technologies that we provide whether it's our ZeeWeed Membrane Systems, our high recovery EDR Systems, our Membrane BioReactor Systems, our Zero Liquid Discharge Systems, they're all technologies that are future focused in really bringing new technology to treat more and more difficult water and wastewater and less wastes and more cost effectively. 

I think 6% of the fresh water that we take from the environment is being reused here in the U.S. today.  And that's an area where we think there's dramatic improvement to be made.  We need as a society to start looking for new sources of water, reclaimed wastewater we think is really a way of the future. 

Forty-five percent of the water that is taken from the environment is used as industrial water.  People aren't drinking it; it's just used for industrial purposes.  There's no reason why we can't take the technologies that are currently available and facilitate reuse of water, which we think will have a big help in providing a reliable secure source of water for the future.

Bringing those technologies to marketplace that are cost effective that we look at it from a life cycle cost standpoint, so we're looking at the lifetime of technology and systems that we put in and making sure that is the total cost effective solution for our clients.

Todd Schnick: Shoot Andrew, we could talk to you all day.  I'm sad to say we're out of time.  Before I let go how can people get in touch with you, and more importantly where can they get more information on GE Water and Process Technologies?

Andrew:  Well, GE Water and Process Technologies has a website.  You can access that from www.ge.com and you can certainly reach out to me or any of my colleagues at GE.  My email address is andrew.sparkes@ge.com and you can reach our headquarters at 905-465-3030.

Todd Schnick: Outstanding.  Andrew Sparkes, U.S. Sales Leader at GE Water and Process Technologies.  It’s great to have you.  Thanks so much for joining us.

Andrew: I really appreciate the time guys.  Thanks.

Todd Schnick: It was our pleasure.  Okay that wraps this segment up. On behalf of our guest, Andrew Sparkes, my co-host Todd Youngblood, all of us at Water On Line, I'm Todd Schnick.  We'll be right back with our next guest.