Hurricane Melissa, USACE funding pause & American Water and Essential Utilities Merger
In this episode of Talking Under Water, the hosts break down recent news happening in the water industry. First, they covers the impacts of Hurricane Melissa, which made historic landfall in Jamaica on October 28 as a Category 5 hurricane before moving through Cuba and the Bahamas, leaving widespread damage and power outages across the Caribbean. Then, they dive into the Trump administration’s decision to pause more than $11 billion in funding for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. Finally, they details the blockbuster $63 billion all-stock merger between American Water and Essential Utilities—set to create one of the largest regulated water and wastewater providers in the U.S.
Show Notes:
- What to know about Hurricane Melissa
- Trump administration pauses $11B in Army Corps water projects amid budget standoff
- Army Corps of Engineers Pausing $11B in Projects, White House Official Says
- How the government shutdown affects water and wastewater utilities
- NJ Governor proposes revisions to data center reporting bill to include water use study
- American Water and Essential Utilities announce merger to form $40B water and wastewater utility
Timestamps:
- Cold open and intro | 0:00
- Episode summary | 01:17
- Hurricane Melissa impacts across the Caribbean | 01:33
- Transition to next story |03:39
- Pause in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project funding | 03:50
- New Jersey governor revises data center reporting bill | 07:07
- American Water and Essential Utilities announce $63B merger | 08:01
- Housekeeping and announcements | 11:04
Resources:
About the Podcast
Talking Under Water is the premier podcast for the water industry, including municipal water and wastewater, residential water treatment, storm water management and erosion control. It is produced in coordination between Wastewater Digest (WWD), WaterWorld and Storm Water Solutions (SWS). The podcast covers topics under the One Water movement including the municipal and industrial water and wastewater, residential, stormwater and erosion control markets. Talking Under Water highlights news, trends, new technologies, industry discussions and interviews with experts across the municipal water industry. New episodes of the podcast are released every other week. Logo Images: Anatoly Tiplyashin / Romolo Tavani / stock.adobe.com.
Contact the Talking Under Water podcast editors by emailing [email protected] engaging with them on X @TUWpodcast. Join the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #talkingunderwaterpod on social media.
Editor's note: The episode summary and timestamps were written with the assistance of AI.
About the Author
Katie Johns
Katie Johns, editor-in-chief of Storm Water Solutions and Water Quality Products, graduated from the University of Missouri in 2016 with a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Johns joined the Storm Water Solutions team in September 2019. Johns also helps plan the annual StormCon conference and co-hosts the Talking Under Water podcast. Prior to entering the B2B industry, she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Sarasota, Florida, and a magazine assistant editor in the Chicago suburbs. She can be reached at [email protected]
Bob Crossen
Bob Crossen is the vice president of content strategy for the Water and Energy Groups of Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B. EB2B publishes WaterWorld, Wastewater Digest and Stormwater Solutions in its water portfolio and publishes Oil & Gas Journal, Offshore Magazine, T&D World, EnergyTech and Microgrid Knowledge in its energy portfolio. Crossen graduated from Illinois State University in Dec. 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in German and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. He worked for Campbell Publications, a weekly newspaper company in rural Illinois outside St. Louis for four years as a reporter and regional editor.
Mandy Crispin
Mandy Crispin is the editor-in-chief of WaterWorld, having joined Endeavor Business Media in 2023. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and is a graduate of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has internal and external corporate communications experience in disparate industries including online retail, gaming, plastics and is now enjoying exploring the water utility space. Crispin can be reach at [email protected].