That underpricing is exactly what a multi-year partnership between Israel and California's water agencies set out to fix, pairing leak detection with new rate structures. Utilities needed spreadsheets just to believe the numbers. Orange County came out of it with a water reuse system now considered a global leader.



Mary Conley Eggert saw the same pattern closer to home. Being able to see it at all, was sparked during a conference in India where she learned that enzymes and aeration technology could revive lakes suffocated by pollutants. She came back to Illinois to build Lake County Lake Lovers, which now tracks water quality across 21 adopted lakes. The Great Lakes hold roughly a fifth of the world's fresh water, and protecting our backyard lakes has become ever more important now. Crisis is what changes behavior, Eggert says.

This episode is for leaders looking to prove conservation pays off, and for anyone who has ever questioned what happens when they turn on the tap.

Susan covers:

00:00 How little water is usable

01:12 Mary's path from finance to water

02:40 The 2030 report and the 40% gap

03:46 Israel's water-saving culture

04:32 What the pilot actually saved

05:42 What $1,700 says about how we value water

07:20 What the partnership actually achieved

09:02 Why crisis changes behavior

09:18 The three-minute test nobody took

09:54 How rate hikes shift habits

11:44 The hidden cost of a leaking toilet

12:38 Building a water innovation hub

14:32 The India trip that started it

16:32 Reading a lake's vital signs

18:38 The Great Lakes by the numbers

Trace the Source:

🚱 Learn more about the Flint crisis that changed water behavior: flintwaterstudy.org 

💧 See how Orange County built one of the largest water reuse systems in the world: ocsan.gov/news/the-groundwater-replenishment-system-final-expansion 

Resources:

💼 Connect with Mary Conley Eggert on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mary-conley-eggert 

🌐 Visit Global Water Works: globalwaterworks.org 

🏢 Global Water Works on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/global-water-works 

📘 Global Water Works on Facebook: facebook.com/GlobalWaterWorks 

▶️ Global Water Works on YouTube: youtube.com/GlobalWaterWorksORG 

Connect with Susan Springsteen:

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susan-springsteen-58788144 

💧 LeakAlertor Pro: leakalertorpro.com 

📧 Email: [email protected] 

Listen Next:

🎧 Why America Can't Take Water for Granted Anymore: Hidden Costs, Drought, and What's Next | Ep. 03: https://youtu.be/p3eGaxwHR9s

🎧 What It Takes to Keep Your Water Safe: Inside the Cost of PFAS, Cyber Security and Lead Pipe Removal | Ep. 04: https://youtu.be/qYm8UYx97IU

About the Host

Susan Springsteen is the founder and CEO of H2O Connected, developer of the LeakAlertor product line. With more than two decades in water technology and product development, she brings a practitioner's lens to The Leak in the System, examining the innovations, responsibility, and decisions that shape the future of water.

Your water bill goes up and you assume the water is getting more expensive, yet the water itself is almost never the reason the number keeps climbing.

Chris Franklin didn't plan to stay in water. He took a job at a small utility expecting to leave in two years, and more than three decades later he runs what has become Essential Utilities, one of the largest water providers in the country. In this conversation he explains something that catches a lot of customers off guard: when a water bill climbs, the water itself is rarely the reason. He gets specific about where the money goes: Removing PFAS at a single treatment plant, down to four parts per trillion, can run around 150 million dollars, A federal rule that requires utilities to find and replace every lead service line within a decade. Cybersecurity and aging infrastructure piling on costs that didn't exist a generation ago. How utility consolidation or mergers can reshape what a household pays for clean water at the tap.

For policymakers, utility professionals, and anyone staring at a rising bill who wants to understand what's actually driving the number.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Why water outages hurt worse than power

01:14 Chris Franklin's 33 years inside Aqua

02:56 From $100M to $12B utility

04:08 Reservoir to faucet, explained

06:30 PFAS and the four parts per trillion rule

08:38 Why one plant's PFAS fix costs $150M

09:14 Lead line replacement's half-billion-dollar bill

10:15 Why water utilities are a cyber target

13:26 Why federal rules force consolidation

14:16 The Essential and American Water merger

14:54 What actually drives your water bill

16:32 Low-income programs and the sub-$10 bill

Go Deeper:

🧪 What are PFAS, and why "forever" chemicals? Yale explains it in plain language: sustainability.yale.edu/explainers/yale-experts-explain-pfas-forever-chemicals 

🚰 Is your community replacing its lead pipes? Check the Environmental Defense Fund's national map: edf.org/national-map-LSL-replacement-programs 

Resources:

💼 Connect with Chris Franklin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christopher-franklin-5220642 

💼 Aqua on LinkedIn: MyAquaWater 

🌐 Visit Aqua: aquawater.com 

🌐 Visit Essential Utilities: essential.co 

Connect with Susan Springsteen:

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susan-springsteen-58788144 

💧 LeakAlertor Pro: leakalertorpro.com 

Listen Next:

🎧 Why America Can't Take Water for Granted Anymore: Hidden Costs, Drought, and What's Next | Ep. 03

🎧 Who Keeps America's Water Running: Fragmentation and the Future Behind Your Tap | Ep. 02  

About the Host

Susan Springsteen is the founder and CEO of H2O Connected, developer of LeakAlertor product line. With more than two decades in water technology and product development, she brings a practitioner's lens to The Leak in the System, examining the innovations, responsibility, and decisions that shape the future of water.

Water in America has long been treated as a given. That assumption is breaking down faster than the systems built to deliver it.

Only about half a percent of the world's water is accessible for potable use, and the cost of delivering it across the United States has been climbing. Aging infrastructure is driving rate increases, and utilities are now being required to clean up PFAS contamination they did not cause. Drought is reaching regions long considered water-rich, including parts of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Host Susan Springsteen walks through why rates are rising, the difference between municipal and investor-owned utilities, the wave of consolidation moving across roughly 51,000 water agencies, and the consumer and commercial technologies now reducing water loss. Listeners come away understanding not just where US water costs are heading, but why conservation — one percent at a time — is starting to matter at scale.

Made for the professionals shaping water systems, and for anyone trying to make sense of where US water stands today.

Susan covers:

00:00 How little of Earth's water is actually usable

00:01:02 How a single leaking toilet wastes 25,000 gallons undetected

00:02:38 Why historically low water costs have suppressed conservation behavior

00:03:27 How PFAS remediation mandates are pushing municipal systems toward sale

00:04:58 How municipal vs. investor-owned utility structures drive rate differences

00:05:48 Why the industry is consolidating and what that means for ratepayers

00:07:40 How small behavioral changes translate to measurable water savings

00:08:52 What emerging commercial and consumer water technologies are now viable

00:10:31 Why cross-sector collaboration between policymakers, utilities, and innovators is needed

Further Reading on Water Conservation:

🧪 Learn about PFAS "forever chemicals": epa.gov/sdwa/proposed-pfoa-and-pfos-compliance-extension-rule 

🌵 Track current US drought conditions: droughtmonitor.unl.edu 

🔧 Find and fix household water leaks: epa.gov/watersense/fix-leak-week 

Connect with Susan Springsteen:

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susan-springsteen-58788144 

💧 LeakAlertor Pro: leakalertorpro.com 

📧 Email: [email protected] 

Listen Next:

🎧 Beneath the Water Bill: Who Sets Your Water Rate and How to Have a Say | Ep. 01

🎧 Who Keeps America's Water Running: Fragmentation and the Future Behind Your Tap | Ep. 02

About the Host

Susan Springsteen is the founder and CEO of H2O Connected, developer of the LeakAlertor product line. With more than two decades in water technology and product development, she brings a practitioner's lens to The Leak in the System, examining the innovations, responsibility, and decisions that shape the future of water.

Water infrastructure in the United States is governed across roughly 51,000 separate systems. Federal funding for it has fallen 40 percent since 1970 -- and new pressures are arriving faster than the system has been able to absorb them. Rob Powelson has spent much of his career inside that system -- and in this conversation, he explains how it actually works.

Powelson spent eight and a half years as a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, served as a federal energy regulator at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and now leads the National Association of Water Companies, the trade group representing private water utilities across the United States. This episode looks at how water utilities are funded and regulated today, what the fragmentation of 51,000 separate systems costs in practice, and how compliance demands around old lead service lines and new PFAS are landing on systems already stretched thin. It also gets into something newer: what the rapid buildout of data centers means for water demand, and where the private sector is seeing room to move into.

This is a conversation for anyone who wants to understand the system behind their water bill -- and why it's under more pressure than many of us understand.

We cover:

00:00 What's behind rising US water bills

04:12 51,000 water systems vs 3,200 electric grids

05:14 Federal water funding down 40% since 1970

06:35 PFAS contamination across thousands of communities

07:56 How AI and data centers strain water systems

08:46 What tech giants are doing about water use

11:59 Suing 3M, DuPont, and Chemours over PFAS

12:36 How rate cases and the PUC work

16:43 Trillions of gallons lost to leaks each year

18:25 Inside the Jackson water crisis

20:02 Why private capital is moving into water

21:36 The utility bill at the kitchen table

Resources:

📰 Read more on the Jackson water crisis: ehn.org/jackson-s-water-crisis-a-tale-of-failed-promises-and-financial-ruin 

🧪 Learn about PFAS "forever chemicals": epa.gov/sdwa/proposed-pfoa-and-pfos-compliance-extension-rule 

🏛️ Explore how the EPA regulates drinking water: epa.gov 

💼 Connect with Rob Powelson on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rob-powelson 

🌐 Visit the National Association of Water Companies: nawc.org 

Connect with Susan Springsteen:

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susan-springsteen-58788144 

💧 LeakAlertor Pro: leakalertorpro.com 

Listen Next:

🎧 Who Sets Your Water Rate and How to Have a Say: Beneath the Water Bill | Ep. 01

About the Host

Susan Springsteen is the founder and CEO of H2O Connected, developer of LeakAlertor product line. With more than two decades in water technology and product development, she brings a practitioner's lens to The Leak in the System, examining the innovations, responsibility, and decisions that shape the future of water.

Every month a water bill arrives. The number on it is the end of a legal process most ratepayers never see.

Darryl Lawrence is the Consumer Advocate for the State of Pennsylvania, an independent state agency whose sole function is to intervene in utility rate cases on the ratepayer's side. In every major water, electric, and gas rate case filed with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, his office files complaints, deposes expert witnesses, challenges return on equity calculations, and advocates for public input hearings across affected service territories.

In this episode, Lawrence walks through how water rate cases are filed and litigated, why the timeline from filing to commission decision is capped at nine months by state law, and why most rate cases are inflated on return on equity rather than infrastructure spending. He explains how the gap between utility-proposed and OCA-proposed return on equity can reach tens of millions of dollars in a single case, why the distinction between on-the-record and off-the-record testimony at a public input hearing determines whether his office can cite what ratepayers say in its formal filings, and what negotiated settlements can deliver that a commission order legally cannot. He also covers what makes public testimony impactful, why turnout at hearings shapes how many hearings get scheduled in future rate cases, and how organized civic pressure has forced utilities to pull contested proposals entirely.

For policymakers, utility professionals, community advocates, and anyone who has received a rate increase notice and wants to understand how water rates are set before the next bill arrives.

What you know changes what's possible.

We cover:

00:00 Why Water Rates Keep Climbing

01:20 Meet Pennsylvania's Consumer Advocate

03:30 Infrastructure Is The Real Driver

04:18 You're Paying For Future Spending Too

06:08 Why Public Input Hearings Matter Most

08:41 On The Record vs. Off The Record

11:32 When 1,000 People Killed A Proposal

12:55 How To Prepare Your Testimony

15:49 You Know Things The Advocates Don't

16:16 Why "Average Bill Impact" Misleads You

22:18 The Nine-Month Legal Clock

22:56 Why Settlements Beat Litigated Outcomes

Resources:

🌐 Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate: oca.pa.gov 

📧 Contact the OCA: [email protected] 

Connect with Susan Springsteen:

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susan-springsteen-58788144 

💧 LeakAlertor Pro: leakalertorpro.com 

Listen Next:

🎧 Coming soon: Episode 2.

About the Host

Susan Springsteen is the founder and CEO of H2O Connected, developer of LeakAlertor product line. With more than two decades in water technology and product development, she brings a practitioner's lens to The Leak in the System, examining the innovations, responsibility, and decisions that shape the future of water.

You can live three weeks without food. Only three days without water.

The Leak in the System is hosted by Susan Springsteen, founder and CEO of H2O Connected and creator of LeakAlertor Pro. The show follows real-world water systems, uncovering how people, organizations, and innovations shape what happens to water and why it matters. Less than 1% of the Earth's water is readily usable, demand keeps growing, and costs rise every year. Episodes go inside cities navigating crumbling infrastructure, examine why water is becoming harder to afford, and trace how AI and smart technology are reshaping what's possible inside utilities. Reporting draws on practitioner interviews and case studies covering water rate cases, non-revenue water, smart metering deployment, water governance, and water affordability policy. The aim is plain-language understanding of the systems that move, price, and protect water, and the choices being made inside them right now.

For policymakers, utility professionals, and civically engaged listeners who want to understand water infrastructure before the next bill arrives.

What you know changes what's possible.

🎧 Episode 1 goes live next week.

Connect with Susan Springsteen:

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/susan-springsteen-58788144 

💧 LeakAlertor Pro: leakalertorpro.com 

About the Host

Susan Springsteen is the founder and CEO of H2O Connected, maker of LeakAlertor Pro. With more than two decades in water technology, she brings a practitioner's lens to The Leak in the System, examining the policies, infrastructure, and decisions that shape what comes out of the tap and what it costs.