{"podcast":{"title":"(don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World","slug":"don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684","podcast_index_feed_id":429684,"rss_url":"https://feed.ausha.co/br23DCZ1GnG3","website_url":"https://dww.show","image_url":"https://image.ausha.co/aqeIcrBNGzFT8mIP6OvDO4mNiOTIvMgC4rdQTNqS_1400x1400.jpeg?t=1593422433","author":"Antoine Walter","episode_count":502,"summary":"❓ Ever wondered how the #WaterIndustry was reacting to our World's Water Challenges? Water Scarcity? #SDG6? PFAS? Climate Change? Circular Economy? Digitization and Smart Water? 💪 Get the Water Market pulse for free. In one hour per week, while you do the dishes! 📈 We talk water investment, water tech, water entrepreneurship and water market with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, book authors, scientists, investment funds, VCs, and C-Level experts from water majors. ➡️ Leverage their insights, advice & experience and ensure to stay on top of best practices 🗓️ Tune in every Wednesday (don't miss out! 😅) 🌐 Find all the detailed episode notes, interviews, infographics, and more at http://dww.show Currently in its 10th Season, the \"(don't) Waste Water\" podcast has already welcomed around 250 guests from Water Majors (SUEZ, Veolia, Jacobs, Xylem, Kemira, Evoqua, Aquatech, SKion Water...), Scale-Ups (Cambrian Innovation, Epic Cleantec, Gradiant, Liqtech, 374Water, Gingko Bioworks...), Start-Ups (Puraffinity, KETOS, 120Water, ZwitterCo, Membrion, Source...), Universities (Berkeley, the Columbia Water Center), Investment Funds (Sciens Water, Mazarine, Burnt Island Ventures...), Business Acc…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684"},"episode":{"title":"By 2050, Clean Water Will Cost You $3'700 a Year (I Recalculated the US EPA Numbers)","slug":"by-2050-clean-water-will-cost-you-3-700-a-year-i-recalculated-the-us-epa-numbers","published_at":"2026-04-01T05:32:46+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684/by-2050-clean-water-will-cost-you-3-700-a-year-i-recalculated-the-us-epa-numbers","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684","url":"https://podcast.ausha.co/dont-waste-water/by-2050-clean-water-will-cost-you-3-700-a-year-i-recalculated-the-us-epa-numbers","audio_url":"https://audio.ausha.co/yOwR5IaJrdKl.mp3?t=1775021410","summary":"How Much Does The USA Really Need to Fix Its Water Infrastructure? And Why Is Nobody Talking About the Real Number? (Hint: the US EPA has it wrong!) I built a bottom-up predictive model spanning 32 federal datasets, 433,000 water systems, and 15.1 million regulatory violations to determine the true cost of bringing US water infrastructure back to shape. The answer: $3.9 trillion over twenty years (that's three times the EPA's official estimate of $1.25 trillion) 🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️ 📊 A model reproducing the US EPA's own $625B drinking water estimate with 0.00% deviation - then extending it to domains the surveys structurally omit 🔧 $1.63 trillion in physical pipe failures that no federal survey captures - cast iron mains break 10x more than modern plastic 🏚️ 5,112 wastewater plants \"rotting in place\" serving 22 million Americans - the US EPA says $8.5B, the real number is $80B 💰 Full cost-recovery requires a $26/m³ tariff - roughly $310/month per household, which is 4.4x today's rate (will anyone pay for that?) 🧪 $139 billion for PFAS compliance, absent from all current federal estimates (no scandal, makes sense!) 📈 PE-backed platforms (CSWR, Nexus Water Group, Inframark) are silently consolidating the fragmented utility tail (and it's a good thing!) 🥜 IN A NUTSHELL 🥜 **How big is the real infrastructure gap?** The combined water and wastewater need is $3.9 trillion over twenty years, three times the EPA's $1.25 trillion official estimate. **Why is the EPA's number so low?** The surveys ask utilities what they plan to spend, not what aging infrastructure physically demands - and they cover only 891 of approximately 39,500 small water systems. **What about pipes?** One-third of America's 2.2 million miles of water mains are over 50 years old, and 860,000 miles need replace…","meta_description":"How Much Does The USA Really Need to Fix Its Water Infrastructure? And Why Is Nobody Talking About the Real Number? (Hint: the US EPA has it wrong!) I bui…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2050,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684/episodes/by-2050-clean-water-will-cost-you-3-700-a-year-i-recalculated-the-us-epa-numbers/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/don-t-waste-water-water-tech-to-solve-the-world-429684/by-2050-clean-water-will-cost-you-3-700-a-year-i-recalculated-the-us-epa-numbers.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}