Kevin Westerling Articles
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Addressing Water Scarcity Through Innovation
7/22/2022
Conduct a search for “hydropanels” and you’ll find many references to one source — or SOURCE, actually, as this is the company spearheading the revolutionary technology, which uses solar energy to provide a safe and consistent supply of drinking water by drawing water vapor out of the sky.
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Water We Talking About? Smart Irrigation Month
7/18/2022
Among other celebrated fare this month, July is National Blueberry Month, National Peach Month, National Baked Bean Month, National Picnic Month, and National Grilling Month. But none of these acknowledgements could be possible without irrigation, so we here at Water Online find July most notable for being Smart Irrigation Month.
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Water Utilities vs. Climate Change: A Plan For Securing Our Future
7/15/2022
The U.N.’s Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is widely considered to be the world’s foremost authority on what may be humankind’s most existential threat, and this year The Working Group II of the IPCC released its Sixth Assessment Report on the state of the crisis. It reviewed not only the impacts of climate change throughout ecosystems and communities, but also the “capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt.”
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Calling On Utilities To Combat Legionella
5/5/2022
The risk level linked to delivered drinking water from municipal utilities is very small, even if some high-profile examples of failure (see Flint, MI) have degraded public confidence to a degree. Our treatment professionals usually hit their targets, so the onus then shifts to the research and guidance that determines the safe level of various constituents through U.S. EPA protocols. But there is one contaminant that rulemaking hasn’t quite caught up to and which is downright deadly — Legionella pneumophila.
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Reconsidering 'Environmental Racism'
3/23/2022
Water Online recently published an article for Water Innovations on environmental racism — Environmental Racism In America: How It's Affecting Vulnerable Communities — and I paused during the editing process to consider watering down the key phrase to "environmental injustice" before ultimately deciding that I might also be watering down the transgression itself. However, the very consideration made me wonder why I had the instinct to tone it down in the first place.
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100 Days And Many Ways To Cybersecurity
3/10/2022
A Q&A with Riggs Eckelberry, founder and CEO of OriginClear, on the need to improve cybersecurity at water and wastewater utilities, which has elicited action from the Biden administration and everyday operators alike.
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In 2022, Water Quality Gets The Attention It’s Due
1/12/2022
With the funding brought forth by the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed late last year, as well as aggressive policies and regulation to rid water supplies of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and lead, 2022 shapes up as the year we finally address our industry’s most troubling and challenging contamination issues in a meaningful way.
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How Should Infrastructure Funding Be Prioritized?
11/11/2021
With the $1.2-trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill finally passed following lengthy congressional negotiations, U.S. water and wastewater utilities are in line to get help for solving some longstanding issues, from crumbling pipes and outdated treatment plants to modernizing operations for efficiency and resiliency.
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Solving Water Scarcity With Reuse — The Tale Of Tucson
11/1/2021
Two water leaders from Tucson, AZ, reveal how big cities can thrive in the desert, even amid historic drought.
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Powering Up: Perspective On America’s Infrastructure Plan
9/7/2021
Envisioning an America where every community has access to clean water and resources to live a quality life is pretty powerful — and it is enough inspiration to power a transformation that could make America’s future much stronger.