The Outfall Podcast

Ever stumble across something so intriguing that it sparks a whole new avenue of questions? Get ready to be surprised as The Outfall dives into the obscure rabbit holes and unique backstories hidden in plain sight all around us. From high-stakes battles, tragic disasters, and the mysteries still baffling science, this season pulls back the curtain on fascinating water tales you'd never expect.

We're thrilled to have Dr. Piers Clark back on the podcast. Wondering who Dr. Clark is? He's not just any expert — he's the visionary founder and chairman of Isle Utilities, a trailblazing company dedicated to propelling the water sector into the future. We caught up with Piers, who shares one of those middle-of-the-night epiphanies that compel you to wake your spouse. What was the revelation? Learn More here.

Today, we're revisiting a holiday highlight from Season 2 with a new twist – Dr. Ladner's family and an old friend are joining the adventure! So, get ready to dive back into this mystery story involving turkey aroma and a wastewater treatment plant. Show notes here.

Today, we get an insider's perspective on the drinking water sector from Alan Roberson, a veteran leader who has seen it all. Alan is the Executive Director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators. Alan draws on his 30+ years of experience in this fascinating interview to give candid thoughts on regulations past and future, infrastructure, emerging contaminants like PFAS, and other challenges. Show Notes are here.

Today, we're unraveling how the ice trade vanished, and spoiler alert: the South was at the epicenter of it all! We're kicking things off with John Gorrie. This guy was a doctor down in Florida who had this brilliant idea long before the Civil War started. And not just any idea, but one that eventually led to the first plant where ice was made - not harvested from frozen lakes - but actually made, and it all happened in New Orleans. Show Notes Here.

In the early 1800s, Bostonian Frederick Tudor had a radical vision - to ship frozen New England water across oceans to the tropics. Tudor pioneered the global ice trade despite being called "crazy." We have an EXCLUSIVE interview with Frederick. This is a story of how one man's far-fetched idea built an unlikely empire and forever changed the world's relationship with ice. Learn more in the show notes. 

Today, we have turned a Waffle House conversation with Mike Caston into our classic 5-minute water short. For those familiar with Mike Caston, you'd know encapsulating his insights in just five minutes feels ambitious. Widely recognized in South Carolina, Mike has devoted nearly 30 years as the CEO of SJWD Water District in upstate South Carolina. View Show Notes Here.

We uncover the forgotten water crisis of 1993, where over 400,000 unsuspecting individuals fell victim to a severe waterborne disease outbreak. Join Dr. Ladner as he sits down with Ralph Welsh, a principal lecturer at Clemson University, who shares his personal experience coaching a track team during the height of the crisis. See the show notes here.

In this episode, we'll shed light on an often-overlooked hero of our urban landscapes: sewers. These sewers are living entities, silently at work beneath our feet. They might lack a certain amount of dazzle but are silently monumental in safeguarding our environment and health. Leigh Thomas, PE, shares her experience with our sewers. Leigh works for HR Green. Discover why every sewer tells a story. Here are show notes. 

Today, we will be investigating the cause behind a discolored pond. All is not right, or is it? We are grateful to have Tancey Belken from Cooperative Extension Clemson University and Dr. John Hains, Associate Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, with us to help share this story. Show Notes.

Today, we've got a five-minute water short to share with you about hot springs, geothermal energy, and how I paid money to bathe in wastewater. Show Notes.

In this episode, we're diving deep into our supply chain and learning about how it's shaping the development of water and wastewater projects. We've brought in two of our favorite industry insiders: Mack and Justin. These guys have shared their construction stories with us for the past three seasons. Mack Harmon hails from Ferguson Waterworks, while Justin Jones is a pre-construction engineer with Harper General Contractors. See show notes here. 

In this episode, you get a front-row experience inside a lecture hall at Clemson University as we discuss Chelsea Wald's book, "Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet." This book, which we selected as our 2022 Book Club Pick, offers an entertaining and passionate exploration of sanitation. During this engaging discussion, we'll uncover the fascinating story of how a science writer found herself writing a book about toilets.  A big shout-out to Dr. Ladner for facilitating this event.

Today, we head to Baltimore to their famed inner harbor. We will visit a googly-eyed, water-wheel-powered, trash-eating machine like no other. This ingenious contraption has become an unsung hero, but it's more than just a machine. In fact, it's even garnered a cult-like following with its own social media account, a locally brewed beer bearing its name, an annual fan festival dedicated to its greatness, and a special society known only as the Order of the Wheel. From its humble beginnings to its rise as a local legend, we'll explore more about Mr. Trash Wheel. Learn More in the Show Notes here.

In this episode, join us on a journey from Greenville, SC, to Cleveland, GA, to a small town in Australia, and back again as we explore an innovative solution to tackle trash in our streams. Along the way, you'll discover how a trash-eating mechanism made its way across the globe to help clean up our favorite waterways. Show Notes and Pictures are here.

We have been working hard developing and collecting stories for the past few months, and next week we're bringing you a brand new season of The Outfall. Season 5. Thank you for your continued support. The first episode drops Friday, May 5.

In addition, to producing all his YouTube videos, Grady Hillhouse is releasing his book today titled "Engineering in Plain Sight." This book is an illustrated field guide to every part of the constructed world around us.  We go behind the scenes to learn more about the book's creation. But, most importantly, Grady provides lessons in working through obstacles and reminding all of us of the power of communication. Click here for the show notes.

One of the critical pieces of our supply chain happens at our Ports. So today, we go down the rabbit hole to the water's edge where commerce, engineering, logistics, and water meet. We talk with Walter Lagarenne, Vice President, Engineering and Facilities at the South Carolina Ports Authority. See some cool pictures here in our show notes.

For over three decades, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have fought over the two shared river basins. Access to these basins is critical for the Atlanta metro area. Don't worry this is not a story about water wars, water supply, or water litigation. This story is about the wonderful Katherine Zitsch, Managing Director of Natural Resources at Atlanta Regional Commission and Director of Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, and how water ultimately brings us together. Link to the show notes.

We are excited to announce our book club pick for this year. We wondered what a book club announcement would sound like if it were a movie trailer. Join the book club here.  Enter the raffle for a FREE book here.

Today we're going to Antarctica, one of the world's coldest and most pristine places. Specifically, we are going to The US McMurdo Station, the largest science station on the continent. It has over three hundred toilets. So, where does the wastewater go, and how is treated? In this episode, you'll find answers. See pictures and learn more in the show notes here.

What if you could measure water quality from pixels on an aerial image? This episode is about the emerging geospatial analytics field that combines data-hungry algorithms and AI with remote sensing data. This technology can change how we identify, measure, and solve challenging environmental problems. We talk with the Sean Donegan, President & Chief Executive Officer of Satelytics.    Learn more in our show notes here.

We were honored to have Cynthia Barnett, award-winning author of The Sound of the Sea, join us virtually as we discussed the book together this past fall. We did not know what to expect from our first Outfall Book Club, but not only was it a wonderful discussion of the book, Cynthia shared some life wisdom with us all. Her paperback is now available. To help celebrate, we are also giving away one FREE copy of her book, which you can enter to win on our website.

If you have been to a pool already this summer, you have seen a bright-colored pool noodle. Someone had to have invented these, right? Yes, someone did, and this invention was far from guaranteed success. Enjoy this fun summer water short.

You want to know right? Should Doc Brown drive an F-150 Lightning, Ford's new all-electric truck?  We have got the answer in this water short.  Visit the show notes here.

Building our infrastructure in regular times is hard. But, in this new volatile world, it's like the heat is on, stakes are higher, and conflicts are easier. Our guests include: Phillip Sexton, Capital Projects Director, with North Charleston Sewer District Mack Harmon is with Ferguson Waterworks Justin Jones is a Preconstruction Engineer with Harper General Construction Learn more in our show notes here.

As a quick update, we have been working hard on our new season of The Outfall. Season 4. Thank you for your continued support. The first episode drops on May 13. In the meantime, we thought we would share one of our first water shorts since it is blue ghost hunting season.  The Blue Ghost Firefly is found nowhere else in the world but in 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.    Learn more about Blue Ghosts here.     

This episode concludes our conversation with Tim Cash about his adventures operating a fire tower for the US Forest Service this past year. We shift gears from talking about the lookout itself to the elements- fire, smoke, and lightning. One of the fires he experienced burned close to a million acres, which is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. To see more pictures go to the show notes here.   Since 2019, The Outfall podcast has been sharing the backstories of our water world and infrastructure worldwide. We thank you for listening and continuing to support us.    

We go on the front lines of a drought from a unique vantage point—a fire tower. Tim Cash, a retired career public servant with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, shares his eye-opening adventures of operating a fire tower for the US Forest Service this past year. So how do you get to spend a summer out west in a tower? For Tim, it only took him over forty years. Check out the show notes to see his wonderful pictures of the fire tower. Our next episode will conclude our conversation with Tim Cash, shifting gears from talking about the lookout itself to the elements. We are talking fire, smoke, and lightning. Since 2019, The Outfall podcast has been sharing the backstories of our water world and infrastructure worldwide. We thank you for listening and continuing to support us.

In this episode, we continue the flushable wipes story originating deep under the streets of Charleston from our first season. We talk with Paul Calamita with Aqualaw about Charleston Water System's lawsuit against seven manufacturers and retailers of wipe products. Paul and Charleston Water System have been climbing a mountain without an established trail. How were they going to win where so many had fallen off the side of the mountain? Visit the show notes here.

Earlier this year, we talked to a commercial diving firm, Global Diving & Salvage, Inc., to learn more about what they did. Here are five things we learned that we think you may enjoy too. The clock is ticking for this five-minute water short.  Check out the show notes.

This is a story about people and a utility rising up in unbelievable circumstances where failure was not an option. We go behind the scenes and learn how the CIty of Columbia responded to cascading catastrophic failures throughout their infrastructure, and the lessons learned in the past six years. We want to thank Clint Shealy and Joey Jaco for sharing their stories. Learn more in the show notes.

This episode is a tale about an abandoned one-of-a-kind facility recently discovered in a middle of a South Carolina river, a famous sediment transport researcher and Albert Einstein.  Yes, Albert Einstein.  Check out the show notes to pictures of the lab and Albert Einstein.

We have talked about starting a book club since we began the podcast. Well, we finally did it. We are excited to read together as a community Cynthia Barnett's new book, The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans. We caught up with Cynthia to learn more about the origins of the book. Now, this is the cool part. Cynthia will join us in October to help us dig deeper into her book. We will chat with her taking thoughts and questions from you. We are excited to offer this opportunity. You can attend in person if you are in the Clemson area or virtually via Zoom. If you are interested, please sign up here.

In this episode, we talk to a YouTube superstar, Grady Hillhouse. Grady has over two million subscribers to his video channel called Practical Engineering. We learn the remarkable tale about how he started and how he has evolved. Grady also reveals for the first time a new project. Grady is leading the way and exposing others to our built world.   Learn more about Grady in our show notes.

It seems nothing we buy today is immune to supply constraints in this crazy connected world, including new water Infrastructure. For example, pipes sometimes can be hard to find depending on the size and material, and costs are increasing daily. This episode swims upstream in the pipe supply chain to find out why.  Show notes can be found here.

John Woodruff spent six years building an oasis. He made it without blueprints but had a vision of a water-filled oasis with plants and trees of all varieties, fish, and a mini-golf course carved through solid canyon walls eons ago. We hear about his remarkable journey, learn about how he uses water, and we even learn about the mini-golf craze of 1931. Check out the show notes here for pictures of his course.

On this episode: We talk to artist Mary Edna Fraser, an internationally renowned artist. She has done some largest batik works to date by one artist. Also, we were able to talk with her good friend Marjorie Wentworth, NYT best-selling author and former SC poet laureate. Sometimes, in looking so closely at what we do, we can miss the beauty and power that water has. Read more in the show notes.

The wonderful Christina Rae Butler, author of the recently published book titled Lowcountry at High Tide: A History of Flooding, Drainage, and Reclamation in Charleston, South Carolina joins us. She spent close to a decade writing this first-ever book about the topographic evolution of Charleston.   In this episode of The Outfall, Christina explains how compacted material or fill physically transformed the peninsula. Wild stories and history hide under the streets and buildings of Charleston.   For more information see the show notes here. Subscribe to our newsletter here.

It's that time of year again. We have been working hard and next week we're bringing you a brand new season of The Outfall. Season 3. We will explore more and laugh more. Thank you for your continued support. The first episode drops next Friday, April 9th.    

Aquaponics is the union of hydroponics (growing plants without soil) and aquaculture (farming fish or other aquatic organisms). This combination produces both plant and fish crops from a minimal footprint. This is a perfect solution. Right? In this five-minute water short, we try to answer why we don't see more of these aquaponic systems. Learn more and see some pictures from our visit here.

Who better to talk about the birth of Phosphorus than Phosphorus himself. Right? We gave this show over to Phosphorus to tell this crazy tale. The story begins on a cold night in Hamburg; a German physician Hennig Brandt is attempting to create gold by boiling down thousands of gallons of urine. Learn more here in the show notes.

We go underground on this show to hear first hand from the people who help design tunnels and the equipment that make it possible. We hear some stories from an underground profession ruled by geology, massive machines, and above all, passion. See all our pictures here.

David brings us a 5-minute water short about a wastewater treatment plant that smelled like turkey. Was it for real or was it a myth?   Let us know what you think and drop us a note. Listen to more of our bite-size water shorts here.

In the spring, we published an episode where we talked to two researchers where they described how wastewater testing can act as a coronavirus early warning system. Since this show, this research has rocketed from a handful of labs at an unprecedented speed to many college campuses around the country as a frontline public health tool. Yes, wastewater was coming to the rescue. However, there was a problem. There was no official guidebook for implementing, using, or even communicating wastewater epidemiology on this scale. We talk to Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, and Susquehanna University about this remarkable effort. Learn more in the show notes.

The City of Charleston in South Carolina has a long relationship with water which is always being tested. They have experienced more than a foot of sea-level rise in the past 100 years, but half of this rise occurred in the last twenty years. We talk to Mark Wilbert, Chief Resilience Officer at the City of Charleston, about the problems and opportunities with flooding and sea-level rise in this five-minute water short.  Learn more about this and the City's efforts in our show notes here.

  In this episode, we talk to three people who made discoveries while simply looking down. We talk to an engineer, an artist, and a local historian from around the world.   All of them shared a common trait. They discovered manhole covers not far from their homes. These discoveries impacted their lives. After you listen to this episode, you may look down and see the world a bit differently. I know we did. Learn more from our show notes here. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here. Give us a comment here.  

On this dispatch, we talk with Dr. Andrew Pyle who is an associate professor at Clemson University in the Communication Department. His interests include risk, crisis communication, and social media.  We learn an unexpected secret in crisis communication. We learn how organizations can become more resilient. We also dive into social media and discuss a life-changing book. We love this book too! Learn more about this show here.      

On this dispatch, we talk with Pam Kenel who is the Director of Water Resources at Loudoun Water. Loudoun Water is just west of Washington DC and provides drinking water and wastewater services to over 80,000 households in Loudoun County. We talk about how one transatlantic data cable caused an explosion of data centers which dramatically influenced Loudon Water's water supply. We also talk about how reusing quarries for water supply will be an important part of their future water supply and how this will be important for other water utilities on the East Coast. Take a look at these quarries on our website. https://theoutfall.com/dispatches/water-resources-with-pam-kenel/

In this story episode of The Outfall, we talk to two researchers on the front lines of using wastewater to analyze the epidemiology of a community. Wastewater surveillance for the Coronavirus has huge potential. Data suggests that each person infected will excrete millions, if not billions of viral genomes into the wastewater per day. We learn more about why this research is so important, what is going on now, and what the future of this research looks like.  Thanks again to our guests: Dr. Sean Norman, Associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Learn more here. Dr. Ian Pepper, Environmental Microbiologists at the University of Arizona. Learn more here. Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOutfall  Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_outfall/?hl=en

This week we get to travel the world with no passports or luggage. Our adventure begins in Brest, France and then we travel back in time to Hong Kong during the SARs epidemic. Our travel guide is the wonderful Vera Bin San who is a marine biologist and a friend of Amy's. P-Traps, Masks, and the French Police somehow make it into this conversation. We have fun producing these weekly dispatches. It has made the world a bit smaller for all of us and that is a good thing. Send us a note if you want to join us for one episode. Check out Vera on her own YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YqZKndK7HxCnbe06ZCEuw/featured Recorded April 9, 2020 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOutfall  Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_outfall/?hl=en