Water is the environmental issue Americans care about most, so why does it still struggle to break through the news cycle?

In this episode of the Make Water Work / Catalyst Collab, Isaac Pellerin and Chelsea Boozer (Executive Director, Rogue Water Lab) sit down with Sarah Bucci, Director of Strategic Communications at The Water Hub, to unpack why water coverage gets stuck in silos, jargon, and crisis-only headlines, and what it actually takes to tell a story that sticks.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why public apathy isn't the problem, water consistently polls as the environmental issue people care about most

• How siloed categories (drinking water, stormwater, wastewater) disconnect from how people actually experience water

• Findings from the Water Hub's 2025 media scan, including a 25% drop in climate-change mentions in water supply coverage

• Why trust and relationships are a core communications function, not a soft add-on

• Behind the scenes of the Water Hub's Water Infrastructure campaign, illustrations, animation, and influencer partnerships that turned funding announcements into a bigger story

• Why data center water use is opening unexpected doors for public conversation

• A first-hand account of Catalyst 2025 in Milwaukee, and what's ahead for Catalyst San Diego, August 31–September 3, 2026

If you work in water communications, utility affairs, or public engagement, this conversation will change how you think about the stories you're not telling yet.

Connect with Sarah Bucci: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-bucci-15146820/

Learn more about the Water Hub: waterhub.org

Learn more about Catalyst 2026: catalysth2o.org

Like, subscribe, and drop a comment: what's your water story?

#MakeWaterWork #WaterCommunications #Catalyst2026 #WaterHub #PublicTrust #WaterIndustry #StrategicCommunications

Most water networks feel like a tight-knit community. The data says otherwise.

In this episode of the Make Water Work Catalyst Collab, host Isaac Pellerin sits down with George Schuler — co-founder of Connecting for Change, systems strategist, and Catalyst 2026 guide — to explore what's actually happening inside the water sector's most critical relationships, networks, and institutions. George has spent nearly three decades mapping how influence, trust, and coordination move through complex systems. What he's found should change how every water professional thinks about collaboration.

In this episode:

• Why the formal structure and the lived structure of most water organizations have quietly drifted apart — and what that gap costs us

• How George built a board game with The Nature Conservancy to force the conversations that data alone could never start

• What a network analysis of the 2023 UN Water Conference revealed about how fragile the global water network actually is

• The institutional incentives that quietly prevent nonprofits, utilities, and funders from truly collaborating — even when they want to

• Why "relational infrastructure" is the missing investment in the water sector

• The Delaware River Basin story: what happens when the people who hold the trust relationships retire

• How Gmail's early growth is a blueprint for building bridges in the water movement

Attend Catalyst 2026 — San Diego, August 31–September 3

Reserve your seat at catalysth2o.org

George is one of the guides at Catalyst, the immersive experience for water communicators hosted by Rogue Water Lab.

Connect with George Schuler:

Website: georgeschuler.me

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/georgeschuler

Connect with Make Water Work:

Subscribe, leave a review, and follow along for new episodes in the Catalyst Collab series every week leading up to the conference.

#MakeWaterWork #CatalystCollab #WaterSector #WaterCommunication #NetworkAnalysis #PublicTrust #Catalyst2026 #WaterLeadership #ConnectingForChange #WaterInfrastructure #SystemsThinking

In this episode of the Make Water Work & Catalyst Collab, Isaac sits down with Lily Lopez, Director of External Affairs and Sustainability at Walnut Valley Water District and founder of Latinas in Water, a growing professional community built to connect and empower Latina women across the water sector. Lily is also a co-host of Catalyst 2026, where Walnut Valley Water District joins as a presenting partner.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Lily went from a PR firm in downtown LA to a director-level role in water — without the traditional background

• Why curiosity is the one quality that separates communicators who thrive in the water sector

• The founding story of Latinas in Water — what gap she noticed, and why she built it with longevity in mind

• What Catalyst has meant to Lily's career, her team, and the communicators she brings with her each year

• How the 2026 theme of "showing up" connects to the larger challenge of earning a seat at the executive table

• What Lily hopes every attendee walks away from Catalyst 2026 feeling

Catalyst 2026 takes place August 31–September 3 in San Diego at the Westgate Hotel. Learn more and reserve your spot at catalysth2o.org.

🔗 Connect with Lily Lopez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-lopez-h2o/

🔗 Learn more about Catalyst 2026: catalysth2o.org

#MakeWaterWork #CatalystCollab #WaterIndustry #WaterCommunications #LatinaLeadership #WaterSector

Most water conferences are built to inform. Catalyst was built to make you feel something.

In this first episode of the Catalyst Collab, a new mini-series exploring what makes water communication work, host Isaac Pellerin sits down with Chelsea Boozer (Executive Director, Rogue Water Lab) and Greg Wukasch (External Affairs Manager, San Antonio Water System) to unpack the experience design behind Catalyst, the immersive event reshaping how the water sector approaches public trust.

In this episode, we cover:

What Catalyst actually is, and why "content and context" matters as much as the material itself

The four pillars of public trust: transparency, relationships, showing up, and earning advocates

• Why strategic communication deserves to be treated as an asset, just like a pump or lift station

• The "soul moment" of Catalyst, and why vulnerability is part of the curriculum

• What to expect at Catalyst San Diego, August 31–September 3, 2026

• Why sponsors and attendees alike walk away calling it a movement, not a conference

If you work in water communications, government affairs, or utility leadership, this conversation will change how you think about your next event, and maybe your next community meeting too.

👍 Like this episode if it gave you a new way to think about communication as a craft

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode of Make Water Work

💬 Drop a comment: what's one moment where a communication strategy built (or broke) trust with your community?

Learn more about Catalyst and register: https://catalysth2o.org

Connect with our guests:

Chelsea Boozer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-boozer/

Greg Wukasch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-wukasch-b9739623/

Connect with Isaac Pellerin and 120Water: https://www.linkedin.com/company/120water

#MakeWaterWork #WaterIndustry #WaterCommunications #PublicTrust #Catalyst #WaterUtilities #120Water #WaterLeadership

The water sector is one of the most operationally resilient industries on the planet.

Systems delivering clean water 24/7 under aging infrastructure, workforce shortages, and increasing regulatory pressure — and for the most part, they work.

So why doesn't anyone know that?

Travis Kennedy has had a front-row seat to this industry for over 20 years — not as an operator or regulator, but as Chief Industry Officer, Water & Environmental Markets @ WATER ONLINE, the water and wastewater industry's go-to digital media platform reaching more than one million unique visitors annually. He's interviewed hundreds of engineers, operators, regulators, and solution providers. In this conversation, Isaac flips the mic.

What we cover:

• How Travis found his way into water in 2003 — and why he's never left

• What Water Online was talking about in 1995 vs. today (and what's actually changed)

• Why AI won't replace the field workforce — and the auto mechanic analogy that explains it perfectly

• The three-stage buyer's journey that every water solution provider needs to understand

• Why "doing the work well" is no longer enough on its own — and what has to come with it

• Communication, trust, and why those two things are the foundation of everything in this market

Connect with Travis:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-k-0424768/

Water Online: wateronline.com

The Water Online Show: wateronline.com/solution/water-talk-a-water-online-podcast

One data center operator hired over 100 people just to solve their water problem. Another operator of equal size hired two.

That gap tells you everything about where this industry is right now.

Data centers are the hottest topic in water. And over the past several months, we've collected five perspectives from guests who are thinking about this differently — from community planners to state regulators to investors to infrastructure economists. In this special compilation episode, host Isaac Pellerin brings those voices together for the first time.

Here's what's covered:

• Why water reuse is one of the most practical responses to data center growth — and why climate makes it more urgent

• How to design the stakeholder table before a data center breaks ground — and why economic development and water need to talk much earlier

• Why not all data centers are created equal — and what that means for utilities negotiating leverage

• The difference between direct and indirect water use — and why both matter for communities and utilities evaluating a new facility

• Where standardization stands right now — and why 92% of last year's incremental GDP growth makes the answer critical

Five voices. Five angles. One of the most important conversations the water sector is having right now.

Learn more about 120Water: https://120water.com

Featured voices:

Bruno Pigott| Water Reuse Association

Michelle Stockness | Freshwater

Anthony DeRosa | Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA)

Damian Georgino | Dentons

Peter Yolles | Echo River Capital

#MakeWaterWork #DataCenters #WaterIndustry #DrinkingWater #WaterInfrastructure #WaterTech #AIandWater #WaterPolicy #Sustainability #WaterInnovation

This week's episode is a special on-location field report from the SWAN Conference — the Smart Water Networks Forum — held in Tampa, Florida. SWAN is a global annual event bringing together utility leaders, engineers, practitioners, and innovators to push the conversation on how the water sector adopts new technology.

I had the chance to facilitate a two-hour roundtable with Anthony DeRosa of ASDWA, exploring one of the most important and underexplored tensions in the sector right now: how does regulation fit into digital transformation?

Here's what we covered:

Why the water sector's regulatory framework was built for a different era

How governance lags are leaving utilities to modernize at their own risk

The funding misalignment that's blocking solution adoption

Why solving the most common problem — not the hardest one — is the key to scaling innovation

What it means to design tools for field workers, not just desk workers

Why deployment funding without sustainability is a dead end

If you work at a utility, an engineering firm, or anywhere in the water sector, these conversations matter. The decisions being made now about how we govern, fund, and adopt technology will shape the next decade of water infrastructure.

The water industry doesn't want to be disrupted. And that's not a problem — it's the whole point.

In this episode, Isaac sits down with Adam Tank, co-founder and Chief Communications Officer at Transcend, to talk about what it actually takes to build and sell technology in one of the most risk-averse industries in the world. Adam has spent his career at the intersection of water, startups, and design thinking — from GE's venture group to a water robotics company spun out of General Electric, to leading Suez's smart cities group, to co-founding Transcend in 2019.

The conversation covers what the water industry still gets wrong about innovation, why the real opportunity might be in energy rather than water, and why the single most important word when selling to a utility isn't "efficiency" or "savings" — it's risk.

Adam covers:

→ How Ralph Exton and a GE internship started it all

→ Why solving non-revenue water isn't about finding the leaks

→ The single most important thing early-stage water entrepreneurs get wrong

→ Why "disruption" is the worst word you can use with a water utility

→ Risk mitigation as the real language of utility decision-making

→ The toilet-to-tap PR failure and what it says about water communication

→ Why over 50% of California's energy is water-related — and what data centers are forcing us to reckon with

→ How AI is about to change who can innovate in the water sector

→ Why Transcend is focused on the planning phase — and why 80% of project outcomes are decided there

The technology exists. The talent is there. What's missing is the ability to communicate value in the language utilities actually speak.

Connect with Adam Tank: linkedin.com/in/adamtank | adamtank.com | transcendinfra.com

Learn more about 120Water: https://120water.com