The Best Podcasts for Water and Wastewater Professionals

More than one-third of Americans listen to podcasts regularly and the numbers are increasing every year. Audio content builds trust and connection with the audience in an easily-accessible format. Professional podcasts in particular have found a home as "background music" during quiet parts of the work day.

Below you can find a list of podcasts that may be of interest to water and wastewater industry professionals. You can find all of these shows in Apple Podcasts and typically in your favorite alternate podcast app as well.

Water-Focused Podcasts, Recording New Episodes

Tap Talk: The Drinking Water in Rural America Podcast from WaterOperator.org

"Everyone has a role to play in protecting public health. Tap Talk connects professionals across the drinking water community with ideas to extend and enhance our work."

Talking Under Water from One Water Media

"The preeminent podcast for the water industry, including municipal and industrial water and wastewater, residential water treatment, storm water management and erosion control."

waterloop from Travis Loop

This show "features conversations about water in our lives and communities with a focus on solutions for sustainable future."

Words on Water from WEF

"Words On Water features conversations with people who work on water issues and discussions about the opportunities and challenges facing one of Earth’s most precious resources."

The Water Values Podcast from Bluefield Research

"This podcast series explores water issues from a variety of perspectives with the goal of uncovering the true value of water."

Water-Focused Podcasts, Not Currently Recording

Audacious Water from John Sabo

"The podcast that seeks opportunities to create global water abundance and equity for everyone."

Water in Real Life from Rogue Water

"Water in Real Life was created for water professionals who believe that if you desire to build the right relationships with your community then your ability to connect with them through storytelling is essential."

Related Podcasts

The Brookings Cafeteria from The Brookings Institution [Not Currently Recording]

From 2013–2022, the Brookings Cafeteria podcast presented experts, ideas, and solutions across a range of policy topics.

• See also: 17 Rooms, a podcast about actions, insights, and community for the Sustainable Development Goals and the people driving them.

Power Source from Citizens Utility Board [Not Currently Recording]

"Are you really saving money by unplugging your appliances? How do you make the switch to solar? Is your refrigerator running (efficiently?) Power Source answers your burning utility questions, all in 15 minutes or less."

Pumps & Systems Podcast from Pumps & Systems Magazine

"Pumps & Systems is the voice of the international pump and rotating equipment industry. As the leading media brand for pump users worldwide since 1993, it delivers relevant industry news and powerful technical information."

SDG Talks from Kevin Sofen and James Armour

"SDG Talks Podcast highlights Change Makers and their work around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."

Tap Talk Podcast: Season 2 Recap

Launched in spring of 2022, the second season of Tap Talk discussed a wide range of water issues that coalesce at the community level. Our conversations with experts from across the industry focused on the importance of human-centered and practical decision-making as the foundation of real, sustainable progress.

1. TT013 – Water is an Economic Development Problem
2. TT014 – Building Civic Engagement in Rural Water Issues
3. TT015 – Selecting Appropriate Water Treatment and Ethical Providers
4. TT016 – Listening to People and Data
5. TT017 – Creative Collaborations in Water (Part 1)
6. TT018 – Creative Collaborations in Water (Part 2)
7. TT019 – Water and Children’s Health
8. TT020 – Community-centered Infrastructure Planning
9. TT021 – Education and Funding Options for Well Owners
10. TT022 – Best Practices in Webinar Training
11. TT023 – Environmental Justice, Water, and Public Health
12. TT024 – Thinking Differently about Infrastructure

You’re invited to discuss the episode in our LinkedIn Group. If you decide to share on Twitter, please use the hashtag #TapTalkPodcast. And, of course, make sure to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Tap Talk Podcast: Season 1 Recap

With our work here on WaterOperator.org and on our sister program PrivateWellClass.org, our team has a unique national role that weaves in and out of environmental health, water infrastructure, and public policy. While we use our science backgrounds to get the job done well, our purpose is fundamentally about communication. We want to connect people with information and each other.

Tap Talk: The Drinking Water in Rural America Podcast was born from noticing and facilitating these connections over the past decade. The first season was released in Fall 2021 and featured twelve episodes:

1. TT001 – The Drinking Water in Rural America Podcast
2. TT002 – Private Wells vs. Public Water Systems
3. TT003 – Mastering Well Owner Education
4. TT004 – The Problem with Springs
5. TT005 – Controlling Nitrification in Chloraminated Systems
6. TT006 – Protecting Well Users in North Carolina
7. TT007 – Helping the Smallest Water Systems
8. TT008 – Asset Management for Rural America (Part 1)
9. TT009 – Asset Management for Rural America (Part 2)
10. TT010 – Understanding Groundwater Quantity and Quality
11. TT011 – Risk Communication and Perception
12. TT012 – Water Supplies and Renter’s Rights

Outstanding Webinars: Plan, Promote, and Present

The pandemic changed the game for online learning, with webinars becoming a staple for many organizations. At the end of 2020 we shared a webinar on best practices for planning, presenting, and promoting your webinar event. If you are a seasoned trainer, you might glean something new from this presentation. 

For informational purposes only. We are unable to offer certificates for watching a video recording.

How to Find Free Webinars on WaterOperator.org

Our staff at WaterOperator.org work hard to make sure operators can easily find all potential training opportunities for their water or wastewater operator certification using our national training calendar. This calendar currently links to over 11,000 events each year, all of which are pre-approved for operator continuing education credits and many which are free. Whether it’s a training hosted by your primacy agency, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, a subsection of the American Water Works Association, or another local training provider, we strive to list them all.

Given the increased demand for virtual training opportunities, we’ve recently created a tutorial to help you optimize your search for live, online training. We hope that this video will help you to more easily meet the training requirements under your certification.

Please note, that these opportunities all have a time and date associated with their registration. We do not list on-demand training in our calendar. If you require assistance searching for pre-approved, on-demand training opportunities, please email us at info@wateroperator.org.

Advanced Social Media Tips and Tricks for Public Water Systems

In 2020, we partnered with the Illinois Section AWWA to deliver two social media webinars. Both were recorded. (See the 101-level webinar.) The advanced-level webinar helps public water systems take their online presence to the next level, enhancing visibility and trust of your organization. Topics will include content planning, scheduling tools, customer service SOPs, proactive strategies, local collaborations, and more! The value of “personal-professional” social media profiles will also be discussed.

The recording is available for free with registration and is pre-approved in Illinois for 1 training credit hour for operators and engineers.

Social Media 101 for Public Water Systems

In 2020, we partnered with the Illinois Section AWWA to deliver two social media webinars. Both were recorded. (See the advanced-level webinar.) The 101 webinar debunks some of the top social media myths and help public water systems understand the importance of maintaining an active presence. The most popular platforms will be introduced, along with content examples, etiquette and expectations, and best practices for starting (or expanding) your social media activity.

The recording is available for free with registration and is pre-approved in Illinois for 1 training credit hour for operators and engineers.

AWWA & RCAP Release AWIA Small Systems E-Training

The America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) was signed into law in October 2018, requiring drinking water systems serving more than 3,300 people to develop or update risk and resilience assessments (RRA) and emergency response plans (ERP) within the deadlines determined by system size. With this Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed guidance documents to help systems comply with these new requirements. These resources include a qualitative RRA Checklist specifically designed for small systems as well as an ERP template. The purpose of these materials is to help systems achieve the minimum compliance under AWIA Section 2013.

To complement these small system resources, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) have partnered to build a free e-learning program with funding from the U.S. EPA. The on-demand training condenses ANSI/AWWA standards for security, risk management, and resilience as well as the AWWA’s Risk and Resilience Certification Program to help systems comply with AWIA. This new AWIA Small Systems Certificate Program contains four courses:

• Introduction to Resiliency and America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (EL272)
• Operational Measures for Resiliency (EL273)
• How to Develop a Risk and Resilience Assessment (EL274)
• How to Develop a Small System Emergency Response Plan (EL275)
• Bonus: Cybersecurity (Available late 2020)

Each course (See preview 1/2) features a series of video presentations with regular knowledge checks, a course evaluation, and a final assessment. The modules within the course (See preview 2 /2) are easy to follow and offer an excellent overview of AWIA knowledge requirements. At the end of the training, participants will receive a certificate of completion. CEU approval is available depending on your operator certification agency. See AWWA's credit policy.

The training also includes a separate AWWA/RCAP worksheet that can be used in the field to conduct an RRA. While housed under the AWWA’s resources for small systems, free registration is available to both members and non-members of the AWWA. To access the course participants are required to create or use a (free) AWWA account. We’ve highlighted the steps to create an account as well as how to access the courses. Any of the following screenshots can be enlarged by simply clicking on them to open the image in a new tab.

Creating a Free Account:

1. At the top right-hand corner of the AWWA website is a link that says Login. Click this link to create a free account.
2. Turn your attention toward the 'Create New Account' section of the new webpage. Read the Privacy Policy and select ‘I Agree – Create Account’.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Enter your email address in the next page.
   Note: During this step the AWWA will check to see if you’ve already created an existing account with this email. If your account already exists and you’ve forgotten your password, you can perform a password reset.
4. To continue creating a new account you will want to fill out each field to the best of your abilities. For the address type, you can select Home, Delivery, or Office/USmail.
   If you choose to use your utility address, keep the address type as office/USmail. Enter every field and select ‘Find Company’.
   1. If your utility is already in the database, select the utility name and then Continue.
   2. If your utility is not listed in the results, you will have to manually enter your address by selecting ‘None of the Above’ and Continue.
5. More fields will appear after entering the address. Entering a phone number is optional, but you will have to choose a secure password. Be sure it is something you will remember or keep it written in a safe place.
6. Check the agreement box to agree to the Consent Capture statement. This statement grants AWWA permission to collect and store your personal information to maintain your account. Your page should now look close to this:
   
   
   
   
   
7. Select Next.
8. Now your account is active! You can tell that you’re logged in because your name will appear at the very top, right-hand corner of any AWWA webpage.

Accessing the Courses:

1. Information about the AWIA Small Systems Certificate e-training can be found at the Small Systems webpage. To find this page using the AWWA navigation bar, hover over ‘Professional Development’ and select ‘Small Systems’. Lots of great small system training and resources can be found here!
   
   
   
   
   
2. From this page, scroll down to ‘Safe Drinking Water Act Compliance Training’ heading. Select the tab ‘AWIA Small Systems Certificate Program’. This tab includes the redemption code ‘SMSYS20’ that will be required in the following steps to provide account access to the courses.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Now make sure you’re logged into the AWWA site and select your name in the top, right-hand corner of the webpage. If your name does not appear in the top navigation then you are not logged in.
4. A page called ‘My Account’ should be loaded. Now select ‘My Courses’ in the left-hand menu. This will bring you to the AWWA eLearning platform. You might want to bookmark this link for easy course access in the future!
   
   
   
   
   
5. In this page under 'Small System Course Access', enter the code ‘SMSYS20’ and select Redeem.
6. Now all free courses available to small systems will be placed in your enrollments. A temporary menu will pop up where you can look through these courses.
   If you close this menu you will be returned to the eLearning home page. By scrolling down you can find the same small system enrollments. These enrollments include the individual courses that make up each small system certificate program. Since this list is not sorted by certificate program, you’ll want to search for each course by the names listed at the beginning of this blog. Start with EL272 and work toward EL275.
   
   
   
   
   

Returning to the Course:

1. Sign in to the AWWA site with your existing account by selecting ‘Login’ in the top, right-hand corner of any AWWA webpage. The username is your email.
2. Once logged in, select your name in the top, right-hand corner of the page where it used to say Login.
3. A webpage called ‘My Account’ should be loaded. Now select ‘My Courses’ in the left-hand menu. This will bring you to the AWWA eLearning platform. You might want to bookmark this link for quicker access next time.
4. Scroll down on the e-learning homepage to access your courses.

We recommend systems check out both the EPA tools as well as the new e-training to decide what worksheets and strategies are best for your utility. Remember that RCAP’s technical assistance providers are available throughout the country to help you achieve AWIA compliance, work through these courses, and even facilitate tabletop exercises for emergency preparedness. For a deeper understanding of AWIA compliance and these small system resources, operators can view the June 10, 2020 webinar recording: Small Systems Guidance for America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018.

The Best YouTube Channels for Water & Wastewater Operators

Whether it’s to troubleshoot a treatment process, practice for a certification exam, or update your facility’s standard operating procedures, working as a small system water or wastewater operator means that you’re always learning something new to get the job done. Our mission at WaterOperator.org is to make sure you can easily find the best resources to manage and maintain your utility and reliably serve your community. A great way to bolster your knowledge at your own convenience is through training videos and webinar recordings. In this week’s blog post, we’d like to highlight our favorite YouTube channels so you can reference them when you need to develop a new skill, practice for a certification exam, or simply learn more about how to manage your system.

Certification:

American Water College
The American Water College features a variety of water and wastewater training videos that teach operators about operator math, treatment processes, operation and maintenance best practices, and utility management.

CAwastewater
This YouTube channel includes several wastewater math training videos for Grade 1 to Grade 5 operators of California.

Wastewater Dan
The training videos by Wastewater Dan teach operators how to calculate anything from annual energy costs to chemical oxygen demand (COD).

TheWaterSifu
Training videos on TheWaterSifu demonstrate water treatment math, laboratory techniques, and skills useful for the water treatment or distribution exam.

Treatment, Operations, and Maintenance:

Aquafix, Inc
The Aquafix YouTube channel hosts webinar recordings on wastewater treatment and process control. Please note that some of these videos may include promotions for Aquafix products.

Lagoons Do It Better
Wastewater operators can find webinar recordings on lagoon treatment and troubleshooting. The channel also features interviews with industry professionals. Please note that some of these videos may include promotional material for industry products.

R.C. Worst & Co., Inc.
On this YouTube channel, operators can learn about the selection and maintenance of valves, joints, switches, pumps, motors, and tanks involved in onsite wastewater treatment systems, packaged pumping systems, drinking water wells, and water treatment. Please note that some of these videos may include promotional material for industry products.

RCAP (Try their Vimeo and their YouTube channels.)
Both RCAP’s Vimeo and Youtube channels feature training videos and webinar recordings pertaining to water and wastewater treatment, operations and maintenance, monitoring, and utility management.

Wastewater Operations Channel
On this YouTube channel, Wastewater Operator Jon Kercher uploads educational videos filmed during the workday at his wastewater treatment facility. Videos range from troubleshooting treatment processes to learning about biosolids.

The Water Research Foundation
The Water Research Foundation includes webinar recordings of utility case studies, water research, and innovative technology.

Waterworks Training
Operators can watch brief training videos that demonstrate the installation and use of pipe fittings, restrainers, saddles, and couplings.

Utility Management:

Environmental Finance Center at UNC-Chapel Hill
This YouTube channel includes training videos and webinar recordings to teach systems how to improve their financial, technical, and managerial practices.

Smart Management for Small Water Systems
Small systems can use these webinar recordings to improve or develop asset management plans, start a capital improvement project, or better understand utility finances.

WaterOperator.org also maintains a YouTube channel of our own so you can find previously recorded webinars, interviews, and playlists that highlight our favorite videos. Check out the playlist Free Webinars for Water/ Wastewater Utilities to find other useful webinar recordings by organizations like the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

An EPA Guide for Climate Resiliency Planning

Many utilities are developing plans to increase short-term and long-term climate resiliency in response to extreme weather events, changing water availability, or the risk and resiliency assessment requirements set forth in the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (AWIA). To assist in the early developmental stages of resiliency planning, the EPA's CRWU program designed the Resilient Strategies Guide for Water Utilities. This online application prompts utilities with a series of questions about their system and its resiliency concerns to provide recommend strategies that will decrease vulnerability. This web application was updated in August 2019 to allow utilities to specify their system size and find funding sources for the projects they want to pursue.

Both water and wastewater systems can use the tool. The foundation of the guide is built using the CRWU Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change and a funding list maintained by the Water Finance Clearinghouse. Completing the guide takes roughly 20 minutes. After answering a series of questions that identify your system type, size, location, assets, preferred resiliency strategies, and funding interests, the application will produce a report that can be used as a starting point to develop a more complex plan.

Once the guide is launched, you will start by answering questions about your facility and its resiliency priorities. The priorities indicate the concerns that your system wants to address. You can filter the list of priorities in the left hand menu to narrow your focus to topics such as drought preparation, flood protection, energy efficiency, etc. The ‘More Info’ button will elaborate on any option you're considering. Once you’ve selected your priorities, you’ll indicate what assets are present within your system. From there you can select your preferred planning strategies that have been suggested based on your previous answers. Filter the strategies with the left hand menu to narrow down your options by cost or category. For example, if you want to exclude strategies that require new construction, you could check the ‘repair & retrofit’ category instead. The last section recommends potential funding sources that might assist with the strategies you've selected earlier.

The strategies and funding sources will be used to generate the final report. Continue to the end and select ‘Generate Report’. This report will include a detailed summary of your answers, contact information for any funding sources you've selected, and case studies relevant to your utility. To save a copy of the report you will have to copy and paste the results into a Word document. If you have a CREAT account, you can select ‘Export CREAT File’ to download a file that can be imported into your CREAT account’s existing analysis. CREAT (Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool) is a more in-depth risk assessment and planning tool that can be used once you've done your initial research. You can preview the CREAT tool framework with their guide here.