The Outfall Podcast

In this episode, we are hunting water unicorns with Dr. Piers Clark. Piers is the founder and chairman of Isle Utilities. They have offices all over the world and what they do is help water utilities identify and adopt new technology and innovation.  

Some of the companies discussed in this episode:

• Mango Materials 

Learn more about Piers and Isle Utilities here. 

We appreciate all the positive feedback so far. Thank you! Please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. Want to contact the show? Reach out at [email protected].

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOutfall 

We talk with George Greene, President of Water Mission, about the Bahamas. Water mission is unique in the world of NGOs with a powerful story. They are a nonprofit Christian engineering organization that designs, builds, and implements safe water solutions.

Water Mission is on the ground providing emergency safe water solutions to communities that were devastated by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. In the midst of this heartbreaking tragedy, we not only hear about the unique and costly challenges of providing clean, safe water to these communities, but how volunteers, engineers, and corporate partners are working to make a difference.

Learn more about Water Mission Here.

"A dubious solution that plays fast and loose with Occam's razor. The prudent manner abides by the weather glass" - Mark Malsick, SCDNR

Many in the Carolinas and throughout the world know Mark Malsick by his severe weather email. His email is wildly popular and gets forwarded around offices every time he sends one out. We discover who he is and his secret to his growing email list. We also discuss some of the tools he uses for his predictions and why sometimes he does not agree with the National Weather Service. Thanks again to Mark Malsick for making severe weather special. Sign up for Mark's Email's Here.

Want to contact the show? Reach Robert at [email protected]

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In the summer of 2017, a group of residents and environmental activist Erin Brockovich challenged Mount Pleasant’s water system claiming that the town’s water contained pesticides that might be causing brain cancer in children. Listen to Clay Duffie, General Manager of Mount Pleasant Waterworks, explain how the events unfolded, how they responded and his lessons learned.

When David Werth started this lab over five years ago he literally bet the house by maxing out his credit cards and getting an instrumental loan to start the lab. His bet paid off. David is one of those guys that is full of passion when he is describing the lab. This is one of only a few labs in the world that conducts hundreds of physical hydraulic model studies for a variety of water intake and pump stations. 

This episode explains why physical models are still important, why a dimensionless number holds a secret to scaling a model, and why water doesn’t always behave the way we think it will.

View pictures of the lab here.

Our second water short has us searching for the mysterious Blue Ghost Firefly. This Firefly is found nowhere else in the world, but the Southern Appalachians and the largest population is in Western North Carolina. While all other species of firefly blink on and off as a mating ritual, the Blue Ghost emits a steady glow lasting from 30 seconds to a whole minute with a glow intensity so bright that they illuminate a circular patch of light on the ground beneath them. You can only see them from late May to early June when the males are looking for the females.

Special Thanks to David Hart for the story idea and the Cradle of Forestry for the tour.

Dr. Ladner had a chance to talk with Layne Carter from NASA recently. During his 28 years at NASA, Mr. Carter has worked on the development, design, delivery, and operation of the ISS Water Recovery System (WRS), which includes the Water Processor Assembly (WPA) and Urine Processor Assembly (UPA). His current role is the ISS Water Subsystem Manager, for which he is responsible for the ongoing operation of the water management and WRS on ISS. In addition, he is the co-Lead for NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Wastewater Processing and Water Management team, which has the responsibility for developing the technologies to be used for NASA’s future manned missions. 

On this episode, you will learn,

1. How urine is recycled so astronauts can drink it. Yes, drink it.

This week we produced our first Water Short, a short podcast five minutes or less with one big idea. This week we ask a question: When you lose weight, through which orifice does it leave? It’s something we don’t typically think about, but you may find it interesting.

We talk with New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash. He is the author of Serena and Above the Waterfall, in addition to four prizewinning novels, including The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight.

Water runs deep in his writing and he explains how he didn't quite realize it until others started to point it out to him. He talks to us about his grandmother's farm on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the beautiful stream. He shares how his grandmother would never let him go to the spring house. The young Ron loved to catch salamanders and crayfish as a child, but she would not let him disturb the salamanders in the spring house. She felt like they were the guardian spirits of the water. 

When asked about his favorite water quote, he says it is, "A river is a vein in God's arm." Powerful, right?