The frequency of videos in 2024 for Wastewater Digest was less regular and resulted in fewer total published videos, but the videos that were published resulted in the best year of veiwership ever for the Wastewater Digest YouTube Channel. While it isn't on this list as we published it on WaterWorld, our video profile of the Orange Count Water District Groundwater Replenishment System was a breakout hit with more then 20,000 views since it published Oct. 14, 2024.
As for those published on this website, two of the videos on this list are video essay style content pieces, a style of video that shows great promise in 2025. Expect more of them in the near future!
Thematically, we also noticed a focus on water market dynamics as viewers enjoyed getting an understanding of construuction activity, how leadership changes are shaping the water market, and finding revenue from existing treatment processes or billing strategy updates.
These are the Top 10 Videos of 2025 for Wastewater Digest.
1. Water industry construction is at an all-time high
Activity in the water industry is at an all-time high. The infrastructure bill combined with regulatory pressures are driving spending in the market, and that is generating more projects than ever.
Stantec Executive Vice President Ryan Roberts, HDR Inc. CEO John Henderson, Jacobs Global VP of Water Susan Moisio and Veolia North America Environmental Services CEO and President Bob Cappadona explain the trends and market influences driving business growth and opportunity for the water and wastewater industry.
2. EPA's future depends on water and wastewater professionals
Bruno Pigott took office as assistant administrator for the Office of Water in late February after the departure of former assistant administrator Radhika Fox. Pigott has a 30 years history as a public servant and 20 of those years were spent with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
In this interview, he explains what his goals are for the Office of Water, his vision for the industry's future, and the actions EPA will take in the coming months and years to safeguard the most precious resource on Earth: water.
3. Where does the buck stop with PFAS?
Veolia North America CEO and President Bob Cappadona says the water and wastewater market shows a lot of optimism, despite the many headwinds the industry is facing from regulators to supply chain to workforce constraints.
This video is part of a series in February in which Wastewater Digest has interviewed high-ranking decision-makers and business leaders about their expectations for growth, challenges, and drivers for the water and wastewater marketplace in 2024.
4. How CEOs are managing historic workloads in the water industry
As money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act begins to percolate to water and wastewater projects across the United States, engineering and design firms are seeing historic workloads for their teams.
John Henderson, CEO of HDR Inc., explains the extent of those historic workloads, how it is challenged by a competitive workforce marketplace and what he and HDR are doing to tackle the problem headon.
5. Interest is growing for recovering resources from wastewater
Wastewater treatment systems collect and treat flows of wastewater, but not all the qualities of those flows are actually a waste. Interest from wastewater utility managers and engineers continues to grow in how to use that waste to generate energy and repurpose nutrients treated out of the water for other beneficial uses.
Ryan Roberts, executive vice president of water for Stantec, explains this is one of a number of business growth areas that he and his company see for the future of the water and wastewater industries.
6. What water systems can learn from digital billing and payments research
Digital and online billing continue to gain traction as the primary means of paying utility bills, including water, sewer and storm water. But with that transition, some customers can be left behind. How can you accommodate their needs?
Sara Phelps, vice president of payment operations for InvoiceCloud, shares Invoice Cloud's latest research on digital billing and payments, growing trends in how customers pay digitally and what this means for water and wastewater utilities.
7. How an Evansville wastewater plant uses data to optimize processes
Consider this. You’re a wastewater operator. You make your rounds of the plant first thing in the morning. Aeration tanks are black. Effluent? Terrible. You don’t know what happened. You could take a sample now, but the cause may have already passed through. What if you could capture that data and sample when the problem happened even though you’re not around?
That’s exactly the path that Evansville, Indiana’s West Wastewater Treatment Plant is on to try and solve its industrial pretreatment woes.
8. How WEF Operations Challenge champs Controlled Chaos developed a winning team
The Operations Challenge is a competitive event that tests five core competencies of competing teams from around the nation. Each team consists of four competitors and a coach.
In 2023, Controlled Chaos — captained by Patrick Ross and coached by Troy Newton both of Mount Pleasant Waterworks, South Carolina – took home first place at WEFTEC, the largest championship for the competition in the U.S. This is how they view the competition and what it took for them to reach the top.
9. Americans' concern over extreme weather continues to grow
Extreme weather events are having an impact on public perception, and that perception is also influencing how stormwater is managed. Stormwater, unlike wastewater, can be commonly overlooked for reuse purposes, but it offers a wealth of options for enhancing water supplies.
Brian King, Advanced Drainage Systems executive vice president of product management, marketing and sustainability, shares what he has learned from his utility customers across the U.S. in regards to water reuse.
10. How wastewater utilities recover resources for revenue
Wastewater has a mix of organic and inorganic wastes that utilities across the country and globe treat and remove from incoming sewer flows to produce clean water that reenters the environment. As technology has improved, wastewater utilities have identified resources in wastewater that they can recover to repurpose for its own needs or repackage as a revenue stream, such as ammonium sulfate (shown in the thumbnail).
Eric Kadaj is senior director of market and applications development for Energy Recovery, a company that specializes in wastewater resource recovery. He explains how technologies and processes differ from industrial to municipal applications and the kinds of resources that are commonly recovered.