By Kris Polly
In our cover story this month, we speak with Andrea Doyle, the director of Washington State’s Office of Chehalis Basin. The office runs the Chehalis Basin Strategy, which has brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to undertake projects to tackle two of the basin’s biggest challenges: the periodic catastrophic flooding of settled areas and the loss of habitat for salmon and other aquatic species.
We also speak with professionals from two agencies that were recently honored by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA). Jim Lochhead, the CEO and manager of Denver Water, tells us about the conservation achievements, energy innovations, and long-term planning that have made his agency a two-time winner of AMWA’s Sustainable Water Utility Management Award. And Glenn Page, who recently stepped down as general manager of Georgia’s Cobb County–Marietta Water Authority, tells us about how his agency earned AMWA’s Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance.
Tech company Subeca has developed a total water management platform for water utilities that goes beyond the capabilities of a conventional advanced metering infrastructure solution. Chief Strategy Officer Hank McCarrick tells us about Subeca’s system, and how rather than just gathering data, it allows utilities and individual customers to control shutoff valves, home irrigation systems, and other devices.
Finally, we update readers on new steps relating to testing environmental media for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In September 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, published a draft of Method 1633, the first EPA-validated laboratory analytical method to test for PFAS.
Across entire river basins, in major metropolitan areas, and in individual homes, water professionals are helping improve efficiency, prevent disaster, and strengthen ecosystems. I hope their stories this month are an inspiration to you in your work.
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.