By Kris Polly

For an underresourced water utility, even drawing up plans to improve its efficiency and operations can seem like an insuperable task. That’s where. Moonshot Missions comes in. In our cover story this month, Founder and CEO George Hawkins tells us about how the nonprofit organization’s on-staff experts help smaller and underresourced utilities identify opportunities for improvement, find appropriate and sustainable solutions, and execute on projects that will optimize their services.

Next, we speak with Steve Lindsey, the president and chief technology officer of Lontra, which is bringing to market the first new major air compressor technology in more than 85 years. Lontra’s Blade Compressor technology and LP2 Blade Blower device promise major energy savings in the wastewater industry.

Thompson Pump manufactures heavy-duty pumps for water, wastewater, and storm water applications. One growing market is backup pump stations, which can preserve the operations of wastewater plants during hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes, and other disaster events. Municipal Sales Manager Dave Perry tells us more.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a growing water quality concern across the nation and the world. BioLargo, a clean tech innovation company, has created an Aqueous Electrostatic Concentrator that can concentrate PFAS across a small footprint of membrane in a disposable module, promising a low-energy-use and low-waste removal technique.

CERAFILTEC is a global manufacturer of ceramic flat-sheet membranes used in drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, and wastewater polishing applications, including to treat compounds such as PFAS. We interview CERAFILTEC US President Chris Poje about why he believes ceramic flat-sheet membranes will become the industry standard.

Wellntel’s Water Information System combines data from its own sensors and data from practically any other source, historical or real time, to provide water managers insight into rapidly changing groundwater resources. We speak with Cofounder and CEO Marian Singer about this impressive resource.

For 90 years, Carollo Engineers has focused solely on water, and today, the company offers a comprehensive suite of water-related services, including planning, design, construction management, and owner’s advisory services. Carollo recently established two new technical practices: a water resources practice and a resilience and sustainability practice. We speak with the director of each of the new practices about what they can offer to customers.

Taking some time to examine a water system for opportunities for optimization always pays off. Whether by implementing a new piece of equipment, retrofitting an old one, acquiring new monitoring capabilities, or finding ways to be more efficient, iterative improvements help utilities keep their service levels high and their customers happy.

Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He can be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.