In this episode of Talking Under Water, co-host Katie Johns spoke with Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, director of Impact Evaluation and Community Science at Groundwork USA, about water's role in climate resilience. Dr. Hoffman spoke about his research with Groundwork USA, including heat and flood data; touches on the importance of community engagement and shares what challengees the industry is facing when it comes to resiliency.

• Cooling urban heat islands with smart stormwater systems
• Resilience isn’t one-size-fits-all: Rethinking resilience for locally impactful solutions
• New report finds water infrastructure investment could add $3.9 trillion to U.S. GDP
• Transforming wastewater into renewable natural gas and advancing the circular water economy
• Groundwork USA

• Intro | 00:08
• Hoffman's climate science background | 01:06
• Overview of Groundwork USA and its mission | 04:09
• NOAA’s Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaigns | 05:06
• Water’s central role in climate resilience | 08:47
• Challenges of addressing climate change |16:42
• How environmental conditions drive disparities in life expectancy across neighborhoods | 19:03
• Defining climate resilience | 21:01
• Closing thoughts | 23:55
• Housekeeping | 25:26

• WWD Q3 Trump Performance Poll
• WaterWorld Subscription
• StormCon Call for Abstracts

Talking Under Water, a production of Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B, is the premier podcast for the water industry, including municipal water and wastewater, residential water treatment, storm water management and erosion control. It is produced in coordination between Wastewater Digest(WWD), WaterWorld and Stormwater Solutions (SWS). The podcast covers topics under the One Water movement including the municipal and industrial water and wastewater, residential, stormwater and erosion control markets. Talking Under Water highlights news, trends, new technologies, industry discussions and interviews with experts across the municipal water industry. New episodes of the podcast are released every other week. Logo Images: Anatoly Tiplyashin / Romolo Tavani / stock.adobe.com.  

Contact the Talking Under Water podcast editors by emailing talkingunderwater@endeavorb2b.com engaging with them on X @TUWpodcast. Join the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #talkingunderwaterpod on social media. 

In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts break down recent news happening in the water industry. First, they covers the impacts of Hurricane Melissa, which made historic landfall in Jamaica on October 28 as a Category 5 hurricane before moving through Cuba and the Bahamas, leaving widespread damage and power outages across the Caribbean. Then, they dive into the Trump administration’s decision to pause more than $11 billion in funding for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. Finally, they details the blockbuster $63 billion all-stock merger between American Water and Essential Utilities—set to create one of the largest regulated water and wastewater providers in the U.S.

• What to know about Hurricane Melissa
• Trump administration pauses $11B in Army Corps water projects amid budget standoff
• Army Corps of Engineers Pausing $11B in Projects, White House Official Says
• How the government shutdown affects water and wastewater utilities
• NJ Governor proposes revisions to data center reporting bill to include water use study
• American Water and Essential Utilities announce merger to form $40B water and wastewater utility

• Cold open and intro | 0:00
• Episode summary | 01:17
• Hurricane Melissa impacts across the Caribbean | 01:33
• Transition to next story |03:39
• Pause in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project funding | 03:50
• New Jersey governor revises data center reporting bill | 07:07
• American Water and Essential Utilities announce $63B merger | 08:01
• Housekeeping and announcements | 11:04

• WEFTEC coverage
• WaterWorld subscriptions
• StormCon call for papers

Talking Under Water is the premier podcast for the water industry, including municipal water and wastewater, residential water treatment, storm water management and erosion control. It is produced in coordination between Wastewater Digest (WWD), WaterWorld and Storm Water Solutions (SWS). The podcast covers topics under the One Water movement including the municipal and industrial water and wastewater, residential, stormwater and erosion control markets. Talking Under Water highlights news, trends, new technologies, industry discussions and interviews with experts across the municipal water industry. New episodes of the podcast are released every other week. Logo Images: Anatoly Tiplyashin / Romolo Tavani / stock.adobe.com.  

Contact the Talking Under Water podcast editors by emailing talkingunderwater@endeavorb2b.com engaging with them on X @TUWpodcast. Join the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #talkingunderwaterpod on social media. 

Editor's note: The episode summary and timestamps were written with the assistance of AI.

In this episode of Talking Under Water, co-Host Katie Johns spoke with Ryan Barton, hydrologist for the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources Water Management Branch, and Jocelyn Lu Morinishi, principal engineer at Brown and Caldwell as both of them have been named the Outstanding Rising One Water Leaders for the 2025 US Water Prize awarded by the US Water alliance. The two share their career paths, what the One Water movement means to them, their career goals and much more.

• US Water Prize
• Navajo Nation Water Rights Commission

• Introduction | 0:00
• Early career journeys | 01:00
• Inspiration and shared roots | 05:45
• Becoming Rising One Water Leaders | 06:45
• Reflections on culture and community | 10:30
• Looking ahead: career goals | 13:10
• Mentorship and stewardship | 18:30
• Water sector challenges and solutions | 19:30
• Closing thoughts and resources | 27:00

• WWD State of the Industry Survey
• Wastewater Digest WEFTEC content
• WaterWorld State of the Industry Survey
• SWS webinar with the Center for Watershed Protection

Talking Under Water is the premier podcast for the water industry, including municipal water and wastewater, residential water treatment, storm water management and erosion control. It is produced in coordination between Wastewater Digest (WWD), WaterWorld and Storm Water Solutions (SWS). The podcast covers topics under the One Water movement including the municipal and industrial water and wastewater, residential, stormwater and erosion control markets. Talking Under Water highlights news, trends, new technologies, industry discussions and interviews with experts across the municipal water industry. New episodes of the podcast are released every other week. Logo Images: Anatoly Tiplyashin / Romolo Tavani / stock.adobe.com.  

Contact the Talking Under Water podcast editors by emailing talkingunderwater@endeavorb2b.com engaging with them on X @TUWpodcast. Join the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #talkingunderwaterpod on social media. 

Editor's note: The timestamps were written with the assistance of AI.