This week for TT086, our guest is Heather Stevenson, the Director of Workforce Development for the Kentucky Rural Water Association. Kentucky is one of the 35 states that participates in the National Rural Water Association's apprenticeship program, and Heather has overseen the building of Kentucky's program and the development of many successful apprentice graduates since 2019. In Part 1 of our conversation with her, Heather, Steve, and Jennifer discuss the requirements and basics of KRWA's program, its history, the advantages it offers to the industry, success stories from graduates, and more.

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Welcome to Tap Talk Season 8! To kick off this new season, we welcome Courtney Lee to the show, who is the Director of Workforce Development at The Water Tower. The Water Tower is a nonprofit innovation hub striving to transform the future of water with research, workforce development, and industry collaboration programs. Courtney talks with Steve and Jennifer the unique approaches the organization is using to cultivate the next generation of water professionals.

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Today, we finish up Season 7 of Tap Talk with the final part of our conservation with Anthony DeRosa, the executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA). In this half of the conversation, Anthony discusses the changing approach of states to drinking water compliance and the challenges they face, the shifting culture of innovation and knowledge-sharing across the water sector, and some of the distinct difficulties that small systems deal with.

Don't forget to listen to Part 1 of this episode if you haven't yet. And keep your eyes peeled for Tap Talk Season 8!

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To conclude Season 7 of Tap Talk, we bring you a two-part conversation with Anthony DeRosa, the executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA). In Part 1 of the episode, Anthony tells Steve and Jennifer about the work ASDWA does to support drinking water regulators, the evolution of the organization over the time he has worked there, and his approach to leadership in this changing technological age.

Be sure to check back next week for Part 2 of the episode, which will be the final release of Season 7!

Visit drinkingwaterpodcast.org to learn more and find the full show notes for this episode.

This week on Tap Talk, we are pleased to welcome to the show a colleague from the Illinois State Water Survey: Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford. Trent explains the weather phenomenon of El Niño to Steve & Jennifer, including the science behind the oscillation's mechanics, the likelihood of this year's El Niño becoming a "Super" El Niño, the expected impacts on regional climates around the world, and what these impacts can mean for water supplies and systems.

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This week's episode of Tap Talk is a direct follow-up to last week's show, "What We Can Learn from Vermont's Flash Drought." In that episode, we primarily discussed the impact of flash drought to private well users in Vermont. This week, we hear about the challenges from the other side of 2025's water crisis: those experienced at public water systems. Sille Larsen, water resources program manager from the Vermont Department of Environment Conservation, tells Jennifer and Steve about the steps taken at the state's water systems and the value of collecting data for understanding longterm drought impacts.

Visit drinkingwaterpodcast.org to learn more and find the full show notes for this episode.

For the 80th episode of Tap Talk, we are pleased to talk with Tom DeBell, an environmental health engineer at the Vermont Department of Health. Tom tells Steve and Jennifer about the intense flash drought that Vermont (and other northeastern states) experienced in the summer of 2025, particularly how the drought impacted private well users in the state. They also discuss the steps that the health department took to help well owners maintain their wells and educate the public on obtaining adequate water supplies during the water crisis.

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The more people maintain their septic systems, the more septage gets generated. But, there's increasingly no where for it to go. Sara Heger, a decentralized wastewater expert with NOWRA, is back on the show to break down why septage disposal is becoming a bigger headache, what PFAS and other contaminants have to do with it, and what it might actually take to fix this challenge.

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Next up on Tap Talk, we are welcoming Shannan Walton, the National Rural Water Association's Director of Workforce Development, to the show. At NRWA, Shannan has been integral in running the organization's successful NRWA Apprenticeship Program for training new operators across the country. Listen to her conversation with Steve and Jennifer to learn all about the history, development, and the future of this program, as well as Shannan's thoughts on what else we can do to bring young people into the water industry.

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This week on Tap Talk we finish our two-part series with Bob Schreiber! In this episode, Bob (a water resources engineer at CDM Smith and long-time National Ground Water Association member) continues to discuss the development and importance of the National Ground Water Monitoring Network with Steve and Jennifer. They also discuss the links between Bob's advocacy work for both groundwater and bladder cancer awareness, as well as the importance of well testing and the need for greater understanding of the impacts of groundwater contaminants on health outcomes.

Visit drinkingwaterpodcast.org to learn more and find the full show notes for this episode.