The human connection behind the work in the water industry

Perhaps more than any other industry, work in the water sector has a direct connection to the improvement, health and safety of the people living in a community.

In this Q&A, Katie Walker, Jacobs global PFAS principal, reflects on how her father, also a water professional, impressed upon her the values that led her to her environmental career. That work now includes finding solutions to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) pollution, including the novel and innovative destruction technologies rising in esteem in water and wastewater circles.

Walker is one of a handful of women thatWastewater Digest and WaterWorld are featuring in March for Women's History Month.Wastewater Digest and WaterWorld feature these women to highlight their expertise, share perspectives, and show how women are influencing a market traditionally dominated by male professionals.

Walker proposes a vision of the future in which pollution is treated directly at its source, providing a clean and safe environment for the future of her children, whom she is now sharing the lessons her father shared with her about the planet, the environment and how to best care for it.

What does it mean to you to be a woman in the water industry?

Being a woman in the water industry, for me, it means grounding my work in the communities that I either work in or that I live in. I like to think that women really focus on the human part of work, whether that's water or wastewater. And many women I know, myself included, entered the water and environmental space because we want to positively impact the lives of others, so that's really a driver. I feel like for many women when they're looking for career, [they ask] how can I improve the lives of others?

And then the other thing that plays a little bit of a role for me is that I'm happy to be a role model within the industry. I have a daughter, and I know that she's really excited when she has the opportunity to see me somewhere in a space, making a difference. So I also like to think that being a woman, especially in the role that I am today, is somebody that can be a role model for others.

I didn't have this one on here, but my other question that I like to ask, generally is: Did you find water, or did water find you?

A little bit of both, and part of it is because my dad was in the water industry. So my dad really shaped kind of a desire to be in the water industry.

Being in Texas, a lot of our sports and our outdoor activities are based around, how can we cool off. And water plays a big role in that. And so for me, it also has to do with the environment and the natural world that I am in every day. So that's part of my job, but it's also part of my personal life. So that has always played a role in what I wanted to do growing up. It was not only how can I positively impact the lives of others by making sure they have clean drinking water, but I also want to make sure that the water that I play in every day is also clean and safe.

So when it comes to achievements, what do you consider to be some of your greatest achievements in your career at this point, at moment in time, and then how do those differ from the work that you've done that has made you most proud? 

I think one of my greatest achievements has been getting to the role that I am in today. I know that that sounds maybe a little trite, but I think working as a subject matter expert for a top engineering company is an achievement of itself.

Kind of on the complete opposite scale of things, I'm really proud of the work that I've done for some of the smallest utilities and communities that I worked with, because it's very hard to overstate what it feels like when you don't have enough water or when you have concerns about the safety of water. And so when you sometimes work on those really personal levels with people, it's really meaningful to see those impacts that they have on their daily lives, that you can have on their daily lives. So again, it's kind of from one end to the other.

I'm really proud of working for such a large company and being able to hopefully impact a wide variety of projects. But then I also really think back to my my first answer, to that personal and that meaningful impact that you have on somebody's direct day to day activities.

There's something like really satisfying and gratifying for a lot of professionals in this industry, because you get to see that line way more than you would in many other industries.

That is something I've also heard mirrored by a lot of the newer generation that's entering the workforce, is they also very much want to see that direct impact. They don't want to kind of live in an office cubicle and never actually see the output of their work. And so I think in the environmental and the water space, you can really see that difference.

How do you hope to use your influence to shape the water industry, direct the water industry, or guide it in the direction that you think it needs to go for what what you're working on with PFAS in particular?

So I think in the water industry, sometimes there are silos in how we treat and view the water cycle. We [think] drinking water lives here, wastewater lives here, industrial lives over there, off to the side. And I think as we investigate these emerging contaminants more and more, like PFAs, you can really see how pollution becomes pervasive throughout the entire environment, throughout that entire water cycle. So as we look at these more complex challenges, like forever chemicals, like PFAS, we really have to do that as a team.

One of the things I'm really excited about at Jacobs is how there's a real focus on collaboration with PFAS professionals all across the water cycle. [Cooperating professionals] are working on environmental remediation projects, improving industrial practices, testing novel destruction technologies — which is something I'm really excited about — or just basically designing the treatment systems that help improve that water quality. So as a global principal in that role, I look forward to seeing how I can take what the environmental group is [doing] and apply it to what we're doing in drinking water and vice versa. How can we can really bring those innovative solutions to our clients across a wide variety of platforms? Again, we really need that complex group and that diverse group of professionals working on this type of challenge.

It's the one water mindset. Jacobs is very big on that. 

Exactly! So many people have talked about one water for many years, and I don't think there's been anything like PFAS to really drive home how one water works. I mean, it's just something that you see come out of industrial discharges, potentially into a drinking water cycle. If you have an incineration technology, maybe it's not perfect, and you have PFAs going up into the air, and then it rains PFAS.

It's such a good visualization of how the one water mindset should be approached. So I'm really excited. Again, like you said, Jacobs, takes the one water mindset very seriously, and we have all of those different professionals even back up in the industrial supply chain to really figure out how we can all work together to tackle that problem.

When you think about like your role within Jacobs and how you could affect change within the company, what are some of the things that you look at that excite you?

What I'm really excited about are destruct technologies. They are not applicable to everything that we do in drinking water. Oftentimes those drinking water problems are on a larger scale, but maybe with lower concentrations compared to some other sorts of contamination sites that we may be dealing with.

And so part of it is, how can we take the technologies that are currently out there and do a better job with them? How can we optimize those existing technologies, and where can we find applications for those emerging technologies? I ultimately feel like the only way we're going to get rid of PFAS is through a destruction process. Not every water source can be applicable to a destruction technology, but how can we find those end sources or those endpoints at which a destruction technology makes a lot of sense?

So again, it's collaborating across all of those different markets, because we're going to see innovation in industrial pre treatment, for example, before we see some of those mature and come over to the drinking water side. And so that's part of what I want to do, is figure out where innovations are working in other platforms, and bring that to the drinking water market.

Well, thinking really big now, what is the moonshot vision that you have for the future of the water market?

So I have a vision for a day where we treat pollution right at its source, so essentially, before it really enters our natural environment, before it becomes a larger cleanup challenge. That gets back to one of my focus areas of how we can apply those novel destruction technologies at a larger scale.

How do we get rid of these contaminants, really, once and for all? If we can make that magic black box that could be there at the pipe before it enters another matrix or another environmental source, that's really where we can probably do the most benefit. So trying to find a way to make that work, and destroying these contaminants once and for all at the point of creation would be the moonshot vision. Then I wouldn't have a job! It would be all nice and clean, right?

That's a good segue into the follow up question, which is, what role do you hope to play in the moonshot vision?

I really hope to play a role in trying to get some of these technologies to something that our everyday clients can understand. A lot of these novel technologies are something that almost seem to happen in a black box in a laboratory setting. It's not necessarily something that our operator at the water treatment plant right down the road can understand.

So how do we vet these technologies and find out what is most applicable, and how can we bring something that can be centered on the real world; something that people can offer and actually operate on a day to day basis? So that's really what I want to focus on, how do we review these different technologies? How do we find the right applications for our clients, and how can we actually start destroying them and end that water cycle contamination?

Then last question, I didn't have it on here, but is there a a piece of media, a book, a podcast, a movie, music, or something that has really influenced the way that you viewed the world in the past 12 months?

I watched [Planet Earth] when it first came out, and as a parent, we've been starting to watch that with our kids as well to introduce the concept of this greater world that's beyond what we can see in our backyard and how we're connected as a whole living planet. That's been always a shaping force in my career: hose natural programs.

I watched a lot of those growing up on PBS or other sorts of channels like that. The natural world has always drawn a fascination to me, and so again, that's kind of what I'm reflecting on right now, is watching Planet Earth with my kids and using that as a forum to talk to them about how we're connected and what the water cycle is like. So that's what I can draw on right now.

That's a great answer. I actually really love it because it connects so directly to your upbringing, too, with your dad impressing the importance of water on you. Now you're sharing that with your kids on an even bigger scale.

It's not just water. It's also just such a gorgeous thing to look at. All those different places that you know you hope to visit someday.

Thinking about PFAs, it's so pervasive. We see it all over the world right now, and so that's just what I think about. I think a lot about the world that I want to leave to my kids. And what can I do today to make it a better place? And it may be a small part of it, but anything I can do to help find ways to destroy some of these forever chemicals helps protect my kids, helps protect wildlife and our natural environment all over the world.

Thanks so much. I appreciate your time!

Yeah, I'm happy to do it. It was a real honor.