American Water Works Association

And that's because there was a lot of thoughtful planning.

In fact, American Water Works Association recognized us for the hard work that we've done on a national level.

So a lot of great work went together for that.

So the way water gets from the river or the aquifer to your tap is a lot of work between our water treatment plants, our water treatment staff, and then ultimately the infrastructure underground.

That is not usual.

That's disruptive to the normal model.

And so I mentioned earlier, American Water Works Association has really championed that.

And that's something that as we continue to grow and move out into our 2050 plan, as we continue to do that, we can improve.

Yeah, safety fair.

And so we challenged our rapid tapping team that had just won the AWWA National Championship to see who could do what faster.

And we basically, you know, we ran the collections event and they did the rapid tapping.

And if you're familiar with those events, you would say, oh, the rapid tapping team is going to smoke you.

I would say probably a better metric is analyzing that cost per square foot per year of effective service life and factoring in those consequences of failure.

You know, that really pulls in a lot of those asset management concepts, you know, that AWWA, WEF, and other organizations really promote.

And I would say AMP definitely speaks into as well.

But just for example, looking at spending an additional $2 to $4 per square foot on the front end can really look rather daunting when you're trying to justify that constrained capital budget.

So I would say over the next five years, we're going to see more data-driven material selection, you know, being able to pull in historical inspection data, lab testing, and then even looking at predictive analytics to help make better decisions.

And when you look at it from the application standpoint, you walk the floor of the AMP conference and just look at all the different digital tools that are out there now for inspectors, for applicators, and everybody in our industry.

And then you go to these big watersheds, you know, AWWA, ACE and WEFTEC and with SCADA systems and just all the data that are available for asset owners as well.

Now, I would say.

forecast trying to forecast needs and be like do we need to build a system that can support a 10 year over year population growth Is that too much? Those all become calculations and risk.

I do want to spend a little bit of time really kind of just talking about the past year, what it was like as the As the president of the AWWA, the American Water Works Association, we'd love to hear a little bit of like what you enjoyed about that experience and also just like walk our audience through how the American Water Works Association works and how there's that difference between elected roles and permanent staff.

Sure, sure.

So the American Water Works Association is a very large water association, and we pride ourselves on the education and standards that we bring to the water sector.

They are developing new technologies and ways of analytical methods and so forth.

So there's a lot of things that go hand in hand with that.

And there's what's interesting in, you know, I've been active with AWWA literally since I'm going to date myself decades, going back to when I first had the jobs in water and seeing the publications that went around and seeing my coworkers being featured, writing articles or giving ideas.

and talking about the work they were doing.

We're stealing share from ductile iron for sure.

You know, I saw an exhibit at the latest AWWA show from one of our competitors where they They showed pipe burning in a simulated burn scenario, and their argument was polyethylene combusts, and so does PVC in that manner.

And therefore, their pipe is superior.

How do you argue that? What do you say to that? What are your impressions of that argument?

So great story.

So why, Dave, is leak-free so important to Lava Vista? You don't hear that from municipalities.

You hear them arguing why their water loss rate is acceptable and why it's within the AWWA recommendations.

Why for you guys was leak-free a big deal?

from three inch to say eight inch.

And then, um, AWWA heard about, uh, this technology that we're using, which is different than what other people use.

Um, and they said, would that work on a ductile ion and cast ion water mains? And we said, well, theoretically it should, but we've never tried it.

So they sponsored us through CH2M Hill, who was, um, engineering consultant that they hired to, look for technologies to inspect pipelines in the water industry.

I mean, that makes sense to me.

Relationships.

So you said, you know, AWWA got the call, you know, you've been in the oil and gas industry for a while.

What do you say to those who have hit the conference circuit? You know, they know a ton of people in the industry.

I would say probably a better metric is analyzing that cost per square foot per year of effective service life and factoring in those consequences of failure.

You know, that really pulls in a lot of those asset management concepts, you know, that AWWA, WEF, and other organizations really promote.

And I would say AMP definitely speaks into as well.

But just for example, looking at spending an additional $2 to $4 per square foot on the front end can really look rather daunting when you're trying to justify that constrained capital budget.

So I would say over the next five years, we're going to see more data-driven material selection, you know, being able to pull in historical inspection data, lab testing, and then even looking at predictive analytics to help make better decisions.

And when you look at it from the application standpoint, you walk the floor of the AMP conference and just look at all the different digital tools that are out there now for inspectors, for applicators, and everybody in our industry.

And then you go to these big watersheds, you know, AWWA, ACE and WEFTEC and with SCADA systems and just all the data that are available for asset owners as well.

Now, I would say.

Yeah, their budgets have been increasing.

Like Phyllis had mentioned, you know, Water ISAC and AWWA and CISA, you know, have been a force for good in these organizations to notify them that they have to take action in these areas.

So budgets have been increasing, but I think the basis for the increase has been primarily the ransomware and traditional zero-day threats.

It hasn't been AI.