Talking Under Water

For 15 years, Dean Amhaus has led The Water Council in Milwaukee as CEO and president, but just earlier this year he announced his retirement. In this episode, co-Host Bob Crossen speaks with Amhaus about his career, how far the water industry has come, and where it's headed. Over his tenure, Amhaus has witnessed trends and shifts in businesses, and advancements in technology while helping The Water Council become a destination for...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts discuss recent industry news, including President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, which amounts to $4.2 billion in a total funding reduction across the entire agency in 2026 compared to 2025 for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Additionally, the hosts discuss recent U.S. Geological Survey grants to 12 state agencies to support landslide risk reduction and ha...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, Co-host Mandy Crispin speaks with Frederick Johnson, cybersecurity practice lead at Stantec. Johnson helps utilities, government agencies, and private sector clients prepare for technological challenges. The cyber-attack on Wichita, Kansas, was about a year ago, and the cybersecurity issue in Arkansas City, Kansas, was about six months ago. Considering these events, the interview sheds light ...

While many big utilities have largely implemented and installed advanced metering infrastructure for their distribution systems, medium and small systems are still making their way into that digital future.

The technology of today offers a lot of benefits for utilities as well as their customers. Custom alerts for when a leak is detected so a costly water bill can be avoided. Data on water usage througho...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts discuss recent industry news, including construction and discharge updates at the international boundary; the completion of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) work in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, the EPA announcing a public hearing for an updated draft of the MS4 general permit in Massachusetts, what to expect for PFAS regulations under the new a...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts dive into the results from the American Society of Civil Engineers 2025 Infrastructure Report Card. Overall, the country received a “C,” which is its highest grade ever. The hosts zoom in on the drinking water, stormwater and wastewater grades, all of which received the same grades as 2021, and discuss the overlap in goals from ASCE on raising the grades in the future, including ass...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, Karen Dettmer, Americas director of Water Resources for Ramboll, discusses water industry trends, her former work with both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the public sector in Milwaukee, where she was the first woman public works commissioner. Dettmer also discusses her work with policy, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

• Dropping By #87: What the Bip...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, Co-host Mandy Crispin chats with Kaitlin Spiridellis, a Vanderbilt University Michael B. Keegan traveling fellow. Spiridellis has worked for over three years within Vanderbilt’s Drinking Water Justice Lab and focuses on the disparities in how people experience drinking water in different communities.  In the summer of 2024, she began touring various continents to gain a better understanding o...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts summarize several actions of President Trump during his first month after reassuming the presidency and what those might mean for the industry, and they touch on the nomination of Jessica Kramer to the office of water at EPA as its assistant administrator. Finally, the episode ends with an update on the California Wildfires. 

• EPA places DEI and Environmental Justic...

In April of 2022, Maine banned land application of biosolids due to concerns of PFAS. It has become a point of contention in the state, causing wastewater systems to scramble for alternatives with much of it going over the border to Canadian landfills as Maine landfills refuse to accept the waste or run into capacity issues. 

Nearly two years later, U.S. EPA released a long-awaited risk assessment of two PFAS chemicals — PFOA and P...

In this episode of Talking Under Water the hosts discuss recent industry news including the nomination hearing for Lee Zeldin, whom President Trump is seeking to lead the U.S. EPA; the California wildfires, including the Palisades and Eaton fires along with others that began between January 22 and January 23; and the release of EPA’s risk assessment of PFAS in sewage sludge. This draft risk assessment, which is now available for pu...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, Co-host Bob Crossen talks with John Newsome, administrator for the Division of Water for the City of Columbus, Ohio and president of the newly founded Ohio WateReuse Association Chapter, discuss all things related to water reuse. 

Various states, including California, Texas, Florida and Arizona are all in various stages of water reuse regulatory developments, and here, Newsome discusses how O...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts discuss the state of the industry surveys from each water brand — Stormwater Solutions, Wastewater Digest and WaterWorld — with some data points. The hosts provide some analysis of the results, including what some of the biggest challenges and trends are moving into 2025.  

• The Pulse of Water: State of the Industry Insights with Bentley 
• GHD study examines path t...

In this episode, Co-host Bob Crossen talks with Gregg Herrin, the vice president of Water in Bentley Systems’ Industry Solutions Group. The two dive into the results from the state of the industry surveys that  WaterWorld, Wastewater Digest and Stormwater Solutions conducted. These surveys occur each year and provide a glimpse at the water market – age and experience of water professionals, how budgets are shifting and where compan...

In this sponsored episode of Talking Under Water, Co-host Mandy Crispin speaks with Patty Lee, global product manager for microbiology at Cytiva, about the importance of water quality. Lee talks about membrane filter technique, microbiological testing and the dangers of water born pathogens. 

• Visit Cytiva's website
• Second U.S. EPA mobile water laboratory deployed to North Carolina following Hurricane Helene impacts
• ...

In this week’s episode, we are sharing part two of the panel between Endeavor Business Media’s Infrastructure and Energy Groups. Editors from Data Center Frontier, Cabling Installation & Maintenance, ISE;  Lightwave; and Microgrid Knowledge, gathered to discuss the latest trends and funding impacts in their sectors. The first half of this panel was published in the November 8 episode of Talking Under Water. 

Explo...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, Co-host Bob Crossen speaks with Cecilia Correia, senior water solutions manager for Bentley Systems, about smart water. Correia speaks on how smart systems help us manage water, where we’re going with it and how we got here in the first place. 

• Building Climate-Resilient Cities Through Smart Stormwater and Flood Management   
• Three ways to assess your smart utility readiness...

In this week's episode of Talking Under Water, we are sharing part one of a panel featuring infrastructure and energy editorial leads at Endeavor Business Media. This panel, EBM's Data Center, Communications, and Power Infrastructure Confluence Forum, is a shared discussion on important topics, such as funding and regulations, and how those are affecting various infrastructure brands. The brands that participated in this panel incl...

In this episode of Talking Under Water, we are continuing our annual tradition started last year of asking our colleagues within Endeavor Business Media about the importance of water for their industries and what a day without water would look like in their market. This year, we are featuring the Robert Schoenberger Manufacturing group editorial director; Matthew Vincent, editor-in-chief of Data Center Fronteer; Christina Wichmann,...