Water Environment Federation

Not what we want here, right? Well, thankfully, from what I've seen so far, that is none of the big data center players' attitude.

See? Amazon helped found the Water AI Nexus Center of Excellence alongside the Water Environment Federation and all the principles I just postulated are written black and white in the center's report on data center water use.

It calls for additional benefits, for relevance to the affected water system and for results that can be checked.

So my take on the Orange County project is that funding leak detection and the associated repairs is exactly the kind of spending we should all want to see more of, and beyond the million gallons or cubic meters that are planned to be saved, what matters is to measure the demand that's introduced on the system by Amazon's data centers in the watershed.

So a smaller footprint per AI inference is useful, but the data center company's promise has to keep up with the total, regardless of that total.

Now, I brushed over a dimension here so far which is that we rapidly accepted as normal that a company would be paying for benefits outside its fence and just 5 years ago stating that out loud would have seen everybody rolling their eyes and calling me crazy.

Like, why would a private company minding its business inside its fences do whatever at scale for the community it lives in? Is it that accepted today? Did it become the norm that fast? Well, I asked Ralph Exton, the executive director of the Water Environment Federation, for his insight here.

How can it be a

Today we'll be learning about the State Water Reuse Regulatory Guide.

It is a sector-wide project led by the Water Reuse Association, managed by consultants Brown and Caldwell and Hazen and Sawyer, and supported with funding and guidance from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the American Water Works Association, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the Water Environment Federation.

We're talking with Bruno Pigott.

Bruno is the executive director of the Water Reuse Association and served as the acting assistant administrator for the Office of Water at the EPA in 2024.

To add to that, Smart Surfaces also funded two other projects, one where we created a micro forest using native trees on the property of the New Orleans Delta Foundation.

And then along with the monies that smart surfaces provided, we were able to leverage some additional funding from the Water Environment Federation to create a bioswale and rain garden at St. Mary's Academy High School.

And so those three projects became the impetus to start having conversations both at high schools and with businesses to start looking at their resiliency plans for their businesses.

When we think of resiliency and strategic adaptations to reduce vulnerabilities and risk, we only think about the household.

Welcome to Challenge Accepted, the OC Forum presented by the Water Environment Federation's Words on Water podcast, where we dive deep into the world's premier water showdown, the legendary Operations Challenge from the Water Environment Federation.

Get ready for the skills, the competition, and the ultimate showcase of wastewater excellence.

If you're watching us on YouTube, please hit that like and subscribe button or follow the Water Environment Federation on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

And of course, if you're listening in podcast form, please rate and review.

I am your host, Steve Motley, and I'm ecstatic to be joined by my friend, my co-host, the legend himself, Donnie Cagle.

all right well we thank you all for joining us we thank wef and the operations challenge community for all the kind words and support for the podcast this year um and we look forward to the next season of the uh the challenge accepted podcast uh when we we we wrap up WEFTEC with the winners from WEFTEC 2026.

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