[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, this is Tilly Walton and I'm host of Wild Rivers with Tilly on PBS and you are listening to the Water Values Podcast.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: The Water Values Podcast is sponsored by the following market leading companies and organizations by the American Waterworks Association Dedicated to the World's Most Important Resource by Black and Veatch Building a World of Difference by 120Water New rules need new tools by Suez Digital Solutions Optimizing Water by IDE Water Technologies, your partner in water treatment and sustainable desalination for six decades by Advanced Drainage Systems Our Reason is water by 1898 & Co. Possibilities Powered by Experience by Woodard and Curran High Quality Consulting Engineering Science and Operations Services by Entera Innovation and Stewardship for a Sustainable Tomorrow and by Xylem. Let's Solve Water this is session 275.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: Welcome to the Water Values Podcast. This is the podcast dedicated to water utilities, resources, treatment, reuse and all things water. Now here's your host, Dave McGimpsey.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to another session of the Water Values Podcast. As my daughter Sarah said, my name is Dave McGimpsey and thank you so much for joining me and thank you for your support over the last 11 plus years. Now we've got a terrific show for you this month. David Rubenstein, the CEO of OptiRTC, joins us to discuss smart stormwater infrastructure and how implementation of that smart stormwater infrastructure produces improved outcomes for communities. David does an absolutely fabulous job conveying the information, so you're really going to find a ton of value in this interview.
Also, Reece Tisdale joins us for a Bluefield on Tap segment that discusses Bluefield's recent report on the 10 year forecast for water and wastewater treatment plant CAPEX spend. So fascinating dive into that. So listen on for details but before we get to today's conversations, we always say thank you to our fantastic sponsors at the top of every show. And we do have a fantastic set of sponsors in 2025 that includes the American Waterworks Association, Black and Veatch 120 Water, Suez Digital Solutions, IDE Water Technologies, Advanced Drainage Systems 1898 & Co. Woodard and Curran, Entera and Xylem and that, my friends is a terrific collection of impactful companies that have affirmatively decided to support water industry thought leadership and education. And I thank you all and I'd like for you to do me a favor if you would please. If you work for or with any of those sponsors, please thank your boss or thank your contact at the sponsor firm and let them know that you appreciate their leadership in the industry through the sponsorship. You'd be surprised how far that simple little note of thanks will go.
And as long as you're letting the sponsors know you appreciate their support of water industry, education and thought leadership. Hey, why not leave a rating interview on Apple Podcasts or whatever other podcast directory you're accessing the podcast on? It'd be greatly appreciated and of course helps others find out about the podcast. And of course, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. Yes, the ever important subscription. Well, before we head on to the interview with David Rubenstein, we've got a Bluefield on Tap segment with Bluefield Research's Rhys Tisdale. So take it away, guys.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: Reese, welcome back. We got another Bluefield on Tap. How you doing today?
[00:03:49] Speaker E: I am great. How about that? Let's see. I had to think about it for a second, but I think I'm great. Yeah, let's do it.
[00:03:55] Speaker D: You all rested up from your spring break travels?
[00:03:58] Speaker E: Yeah, I think. As I was just telling you, I went to Japan with the family for spring break, which I can't recommend enough.
The hardest part is getting there. Once you're there, easy to get around. Food is great, lots of things to do and definitely a different vacation for us. So loved it.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Very interesting.
[00:04:18] Speaker D: Well, we'll talk about that more offline later. But a lot going on in the water sector as always. But what has risen to the top of the deck this month?
[00:04:29] Speaker E: So this is taken. I feel like we've just birthed an elephant here at Bluefield, quite honestly, as I think we've talked. Actually, the first time when we ever talked was about capital expenditure forecasts in the U.S. and that was what, 2018 or so.
But now we've released another one. We sort of tweaked our methodology and sized and specifically targeted or sized the market for water, wastewater treatment system and plant assets in the US over the next 10 years.
[00:05:01] Speaker D: From what I'm gathering, this is capex inside the fence.
[00:05:05] Speaker E: Exactly. That's really exactly what it is. Like control systems, piping inside the fence, pumps inside the fence, but just capital expenditures.
[00:05:15] Speaker D: And is this, is this primarily replacement of existing infrastructure or is this new infrastructure to serve new facilities like, let's say, data centers?
[00:05:27] Speaker E: Well, actually, that's a good point. So, all right, so one of the breakouts that we do, we do carve it out into different categories. We break it out into new build, which is actually a really small percentage of the total solis. So we break out new build, we do rehabilitation and we do upgrades. Right. So the rehabilitation upgrades that's really the lion's share of the market. That's like 80% of the market or more of the total. The total is $515 billion over the next 10 years total. So that rises from about 37 billion to 57 billion per year by the end of the decade.
[00:06:10] Speaker D: And what's driving.
Is it just the aging out or.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: The wearing out of infrastructure or are.
[00:06:18] Speaker D: Regulatory, you know, are regulations driving it? For example, I saw that the Trump administration just the EPA put out a notice that PFAS will be enforced.
So they are.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: They aren't.
[00:06:32] Speaker D: You know, when you think about the Trump administration, you think about deregulation, but that's not true in the case of PFAs. So what's your take on all that?
[00:06:41] Speaker E: Yeah, I think that's actually the $64 million question that is probably the most common question that clients are asking us because it's also related to what does it mean for IJA as well, you know, what about federal funding? So your point about PFAS is a really good one. And that's partly tied up with IJ and the was it $10 billion for PFAs through that program and state revolving funds.
So it's an incredibly mature sector. So those not in the know, I'm telling you now, it doesn't move fast. It's like a battleship group.
The other part of that is, you know, I'd say over the past couple years, the tailwinds have been pretty strong when it comes to infrastructure. It mostly is dealing with the existing system, aging infrastructure and ongoing regulatory compliance. Right. And that is sort of what is in place now. Things like PFAS is a good example. It's a relatively new problem or challenge that's been sort of thrust upon the utilities and the utility operators.
So the, the impact of that is still fairly minimal. It's going to, if anything, the impact on capital expenditures is probably going to be greater if in the second half of the forecast at best. Now, I would say Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act. I know everybody's gotten all excited about that. And that's the question, what's the impact? Well, to your point about PFAs. Well, lead and PFAs make up 25 billion, up to 55 billion in new water or wastewater funding that was allocated through that program.
And of that lead and PFAS funding, a lot of it is for just inventorying the problem. It's not necessarily capex related. So that impact is pretty small. And then you have to spread it over five years. Right. So you start Sort of slicing away the total impact for those dollars. And it's actually relatively small and has minimal impact on the forecast.
[00:08:46] Speaker D: Interesting. Let me ask you this, this may sound a little off the wall, but we've all heard about the silver tsunami coming.
Do you see the CapEx as you know, as including smart infrastructure that will help offset the retirement of the longtime workers that are going to be heading off into retirement soon?
[00:09:12] Speaker E: Yeah, so that is one of the things. It's definitely a driver in the type of spending and I don't have actually the number right in front of me as far as let's say digital. It's pretty small still digital spend to offset things like that. But one of the key challenges and maybe drivers for change within capital expenditure spend that those dollars is workforce and labor shortages. And that's everything from ditch diggers, like are we going to have enough ditch diggers? But also just the knowledge base and the silver tsunami related aging workforce at the higher end of the of the workforce stack. And so ultimately it's going to have to happen. It's kind of like manufacturing in the U.S. ultimately, the more that can be automated, the more efficient it becomes and then the less reliant. But like I said, the water sector doesn't move fast and there is resistance to new tech, new solution systems that in many cases utilities are afraid that may even change again in 2, 3, 5, 10 years. So they're nervous about investing in that already.
[00:10:26] Speaker D: Yeah. Let me ask the, you said you mentioned the $64 million question earlier. How about the $64 billion question or maybe $515 billion question? Can American households handle the required rate increases that will support.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: The necessary upgrades?
[00:10:46] Speaker E: So what's interesting is we're just looking at the treatment systems here. We're not even looking at pipes. That's a whole nother question.
That forecast is about to hit the street for us next week. And that's a hundred. Just the pipes alone, not even. And that's probably 75% of the total network cost. That's 116 billion. So now we're looking at 600 plus $700 billion over the next 10 years. And that's just equipment. We're not even talking labor. So no, I don't think they can. And this is the challenge, right? What are we heading, are we heading towards a cliff in which, you know, are ratepayers, Are they willing to take on higher rates? You know, the federal government is not going to be there. We've talked enough a lot about that. You know, they come in every 10 years after a recession or a pandemic or some other issue. But that's where the discussion about consolidation, whether it be IOUs, whether it be munis, rolling up other munis, the co op models, public private partnerships have long been a challenge in the US There is a reckoning coming, I believe at some point. The question is, much like the water sector, it's more going to be like boiling a frog than it is an acute shock.
[00:12:10] Speaker D: Yeah, well, Reece, always appreciate the information.
So lot to chew on this this month and really appreciate it. We'll be back when speak again next month. Thanks so much for coming on.
[00:12:23] Speaker E: All right, Dave, good to see you.
[00:12:25] Speaker D: Likewise, you too.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: As always, great information from Bluefield Research and Reece Tisdale. Now it's time for the main event. Our interview with David Rubenstein, the CEO of Opti rtc. Let's get that water flowing.
Well, David, welcome to the Water Values podcast.
[00:12:40] Speaker D: Great to have you on. How you doing today?
[00:12:43] Speaker A: I'm doing terrific, David. It's great to be here.
You know, I've been listening to your podcast for several years now and I'm excited to be part of the peer group of great guests that you've had over the years.
[00:12:55] Speaker D: Well, thanks so much. And it's, it's, the timing for you to come on is perfect because it has been pouring rain where I live and I'm just very excited to hear about the topic of Stormwater that we're going to talk about today. But before we get onto that, could you just provide a little background on yourself and how you came to the water sector and where you sit in the water sector?
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Sure. Thank you. I've had a pretty interesting career journey. I've actually been at it in the digital world since the early 1980s when I co founded my first company as a systems integrator. But since then I've traveled through nine different venture backed companies. I've had the pleasure of doing an ipo, sold a few companies and even experienced a bankruptcy along the way. So I've learned an awful lot. I joined Opti in 2018. I was brought in on a retained search as they were seeking out someone who has scaled other technology companies in their past.
And I wanted to get into green technology probably since around 2010. I really want to be able to give back and help make the world a better place.
And when I was contacted about Opti, I was really excited and dove right in and started on January 2nd of 2018.
[00:14:16] Speaker D: Awesome. So I've kind of foreshadowed that Opti has to do with stormwater, but where does Opti sit in the stormwater sector?
[00:14:28] Speaker A: So Opti has put together an offering since 2010, actually utilizing Internet technologies. So it's a combination of IoT sensors, cloud based software that's constantly monitoring real time conditions as well as the weather forecast and to be able to retrofit that technology into any kind of a stormwater asset to control the outflow.
So the concept being to continuously monitor and adaptively control the water itself. And in a very simple example, we'll drain down stormwater facilities like ponds or underground detention facilities before the storm shows up so that the water can be taken care of at the wastewater treatment plant or it's going out into nature's waterways where the water is much cleaner due to the residency time for the asset.
So we essentially are adding a lot more capacity to current assets by utilizing technology to manage that capacity.
[00:15:30] Speaker D: Awesome. So in terms of where the stormwater infrastructure sits, that infrastructure that Optius smartly managing, Talk a little about if you would please, the state of stormwater infrastructure and you know why stormwater infrastructure is ready for a smart solution.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Well, it's a, it's a great question and it's been quite a learning experience for me coming in from outside of this industry to see how stormwater is managed. I mean, we're all quite accustomed to what water utilities are doing from a clean water perspective as well as wastewater, those things we must take care of. Stormwater is more disaggregated, you know, as we know, water knows no political boundaries. So water flows the way mother Nature dictates it. So I would say we are in an industry that is highly fragmented.
It's quite important to look at how you manage stormwater on a regional basis. Due to varying ways the hydrology works and having standard practices up till today, it's pretty much passive. You know, we see water accumulate in stormwater ponds next to highways and it's very much like our bathtub. When the water gets too high, it simply goes out the outflow hole and perhaps it goes down into a conveyance system or something like that.
But the, the difference with Opti is we're bringing technology in to manage that capacity. So there's a lot of real time activity going on that keeps humans out of harm's way. Nobody needs to go out and turn a valve when there's an Opti system. We're collecting a lot of real time data so we can make much more impactful data driven decisions. And because of the automation, those data driven Decisions are automatically implemented by the software itself.
So we're a bit more revolutionary, I'd say, leading edge in how we're utilizing this technology versus what the common practices are in stormwater today.
[00:17:35] Speaker D: Yeah, so I think that that's a great synopsis of how the industry is set up for and ready for a smart solution.
What about the assets themselves? I mean, what condition are they in?
[00:17:49] Speaker C: Are there?
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Oh, that's a very good question.
What condition are they in? But are they actually known document as an example, have all the stormwater ponds properly documented? Are they up to compliance, you know, their physical structures? And then when you get into the urban environments, of course you have a lot of underground detention.
And in the private sector, you know, those assets can get lost as properties are sold and resold over, over the decades.
So every once in a while we have pleasant surprises in the assets that we go to work with. And at other times we find very complicated situations with those assets.
[00:18:38] Speaker D: Got it. Now if assets are in one of those complicated situations, how does the state of the asset, how is it impacted by the smart technology? Do you need, do you need a certain level of infrastructure before the smart asset, you know, the smart technology makes sense.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So we actually, we have a methodology where we go and we can assess the asset and what would the impact be by putting real time controls on it. So for instance, in the Chesapeake Bay region, stormwater ponds are quite a popular way to capture water coming off of impervious surfaces.
So we look at it. Well, first we'll look at it from an economic perspective. Is there enough water to be captured that it justifies the investment of putting real time controls on? And that's typically if a pond is bringing in water across about 10 plus acres, then it's very economical. And the more acres you can drive course the cost per acre is going to go down.
So that's something that we examine. The other thing we do is we will do a dam safety analysis to make sure that the pond can hold water and retain it longer than it was actually built for. And I happy to say in the, you know, couple of hundred installations we've done, we've never had a dam breach or anything, but we want to make sure that everything is going to be safe. And then finally on a, on a natural asset like that, the regulators want to make sure that it's, it's up to speed that it's complying. So we might run into a stormwater pond that needs to be dredged because it's accumulated so much silt dirt and whatnot over maybe 20 or 40 years that it needs to be dredged. So that's typically the issues we'll find in dealing with nature based assets when it comes to the underground detention facilities.
Again, we're going to take a look at how much water can flow in and out. What are the local regulations? These are typically very quick retrofits for us to get done that have a great impact in the urban environments. And then it's a matter of understanding how quickly can the water flow out from a regulatory standpoint into the collection system. So we want to check the boxes to ensure that where everything is going to be safe and sound and that we're meeting with regulatory.
[00:21:13] Speaker D: That's a great. And I like how you drew the distinction between gray infrastructure and green infrastructure and natural infrastructure.
I think that's a very important aspect. Do you have any thoughts on gray versus green in terms of how these systems work?
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Well, well, I'll just say that we need all of these systems to work, that it's a multi pronged approach to be able to manage stormwater. And you know, one of the, one of the findings I'm excited about that came out of the ASCE stormwater report card is urging jurisdictions to look at stormwater from more of a watershed basis than at a single site basis. And so, you know, a watershed, we have an example in the city of Albany, there's a watershed called Beaver Creek where we've actually networked together underground detention systems as well as green assets like a lake or ponds. And we can manage all of that water across the watershed. We like to refer to it as traffic management for water, but it's helped to greatly reduce the CSOs for the city of all.
[00:22:21] Speaker D: Got it. So, you know, we've talked a lot about smart infrastructure and smart controls and all this and it almost sounds like we're waving a magic wand. So, you know, can you talk a little about what do you mean when you say, you know, that you're implementing smart infrastructure or smart solutions?
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's a great question because the world I came from, in the high tech sector, when we talked about smart, smart, you know, typically meant that we were not only monitoring, but we're taking actionable real time direction with the system. So, you know, we have a lot of smart technology today in our industry that's, that's reading data and collecting extremely valuable data and then presenting it to an operator who's making those decisions.
I call that smart phase one with Opti Smart phase Two is we're doing everything around collecting all of that data, but then the system is automatically making decisions about, you know, how much to move that slide gate to allow water out or to turn a valve again for water to move out and making a lot of real time decisions that way.
So we're reading the data, we're writing the instructions and this is all done through our cloud software which is held in government secured data centers. So I don't even know the addresses where this systems are. That's how secure it is.
And you know, we have to have a lot of security and redundancy built out at the edge, at the site itself and then in the cloud and then in the web browser where the customer is reviewing all of this data.
And it all comes together with, I'll say best in class technology is, I.
[00:24:08] Speaker D: Assume, and maybe my assumption is incorrect. Is there a machine learning component to this that the system learns as it goes, as it gets more experienced with the assets, or is it. Yeah, how's that, how's that work?
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that, that. So what we do at, at a specific location is we're constantly looking at what is the forecast and what's the history been between the forecast and the actual rainfall.
And we actually have a module in our system where you can go back and replay storms from the past to see how they actually behaved and take a look at the way the asset actually performs form.
So there is a constant upgrading of knowledge going on in the system. I'm not going to say that it's artificial intelligence and I've been through seven technology hype cycles and we're definitely in one of those now where everybody's saying they have AI and I don't doubt that they do. But what we have doesn't require AI at this point in time.
[00:25:10] Speaker D: Got it. You've hinted at it pretty substantially, but how, how is this kind of a, you know, you mentioned we're in phase two. How is this kind of the game changer that allows the technological leap in stormwater management?
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Well, there's a couple of aspects to that. One is the real time data that we're collecting and there are jurisdictions in the country that are starting to move, say their water quality markets to require real time actual data being collected. So let's say you're removing phosphorus or nitrogen from, from ponds in Florida. You need to actually show what are those results. And so we provide all of that type of data within the system itself. The other thing that we have, and I think it's a theme that is really necessary across the stormwater industry. We need to future proof our communities.
You know, I feel like we're stuck in this paradigm where we're constantly modeling design storms. But what we're dealing with with climate change as well as urban growth is everything's dynamically changing almost daily.
So what technology allows us to do is to be able to adapt how systems perform on a real time basis.
Yes, we knew need to understand how much rain could drop in a 25 year storm, a 50 year storm. And that's important for regulatory requirements. But for how the systems actually operate, being able to react real time to real time conditions I think is paramount. So we're hoping that we're going to see more and more adaptive technologies come in so we can future proof ourselves from, you know, this, I'll say ever dynamically changing environment.
[00:27:05] Speaker D: So you know, you talked about, you mentioned future proofing in that answer, David, and can you talk a little more about what does that look like? What are the kind of.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, yeah, no, it's a really critical topic as we look at handling all these environmental challenges. So you know, the sba, Homeland Security, I think even out of the US treasury, they've come up with studies that have said if you spend a dollar on sustainability for your property, you're going to save yourself 6 to $13 in disaster relief. And I think that's, that's really important. As we're seeing, you know, grant money is shrinking, FEMA is not rushing out to help people clean up their properties and they're going to push more of that onto the states and onto the insurance companies.
So when we look at retrofitting an asset that's going to help with the sustainability of your property and you know, we need to, we've got a big issue in this country with what could happen as an economic crisis around climate change. So start out building new structures with sustainability in mind. That first cost hurdle of that $1 is going to get paid back pretty quickly when the first storm comes through.
[00:28:33] Speaker D: So as you're seeing these, these changes, you know, what, what are you thinking in terms of the future and how technology adoption can be, can be implemented on a faster basis to allow more communities to take advantage of kind of smart stormwater applications.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: You know, as a technology veteran and you know, I've done, I'll say technology disruption in nine other industries and I was talking to some folks at the weftech conference in New Orleans last October and I utilize best practices from a book called Crossing the Chasm written by Jeffrey Moore was written in, I think it was 1991. And it's become the, I'll say the de facto best practices on how industries adopt technology.
And you know, before COVID I remember a Bluefield research report that said 75% of water professionals were not interested in digital solutions. So this is pre. Covid. Post Covid, those numbers flipped. 75% are very interested in digital solutions.
You know, what we learn in crossing the chasm is what are the buying habits in an industry. So our industry would be characterized as very pragmatic buyers. Safety is a big concern.
Performance obviously is a big concern. So you like to see who else in my neighborhood is buying these kinds of things when I'm a pragmatic buyer.
So that's really step number one is getting more of these types of systems out there where people can learn from it. I actually wish the professional societies, when they give customers awards, would cite who the solution providers are so that we can speed up the knowledge in our industry and speed up technology adoption. The other aspect of technology adoption is you really need to think about how do you align your people, process and your technology.
What we see today is a lot of technology being brought in, but not a lot of thought given to how do the business processes change, what kind of education do we need to provide to our people? You know, it's done in fits and starts, but I'd like to see that become a lot more consistent. And then we have more and more what I call digital natives moving into decision making goals. These are people who grew up with technology, you know, as, as kids and they're just very comfortable with utilizing apps and sensors and things like that. So I really believe as we move towards the next decade, we're going to see a lot more technology adoption coming into the stormwater industry.
[00:31:17] Speaker D: Yep, I, I agree. So what, what have you seen in the, in the years that you've been, since 2018 when you, when you joined Opti, have you noticed any changes in storm intensity and how these systems are adapting or what is your experience in that angle?
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Yeah, so we are looking at data daily. So we do see much denser precipitation patterns.
I'll also say microbursts coming off the Rocky Mountains or even in the mid Atlantic. What we've seen happen at Ellicott City over the past 10 years with two 100 year storms.
And what we've done is we've actually brought in another weather forecasting service that's actually much more granular than what the National Weather Service provides. And that's available for clients to be able to implement where we're seeing unusual patterns that just aren't getting picked up in the regular forecasting services.
[00:32:19] Speaker D: Yeah, interesting. So how is the regulatory community embracing digital technologies to manage stormwater?
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Well, you know, we, we see it in pockets. I would say that, you know, Maryland has really shown some great advances in their regulatory adoptions of, of the technology. The same with Washington state.
But what we see, you know, with stormwater regulators are they're understaffed and they're overworked.
And so to be able to catch up with technology, that's difficult to do on a, on a good day. And I just finished reading the Coming Wave, written by Mustafa Soliman, who was the inventor of DeepMind, and he has a whole chapter on regulatories.
And it just resonated with me. So. Well, regulatory is always behind and we need to find ways to help them catch up.
[00:33:16] Speaker D: Right, right. And so a community is interested in implementing stormwater solutions. They're looking out there at options.
What kind of ROI and how does a community gauge ROI for this type of investment?
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Well, I can give you a couple of examples.
On the public side, if you have to build a new stormwater pond, you're looking at a million, $2 million. If you take an existing stormwater pond and you retrofit Opti on it, you might spend 100, $125,000.
So you're going to add, let's say, 50% more capacity by optimizing that pond with Opti. So if you put it on two ponds, you've broken, you know, you've basically fulfilled the creation of a new stormwater pond without having to build it. And retrofitting is the least disruptive. It's the, it's the, I'll say, the best economic ROI on what you can do when you have the assets available.
And then from a private sector side, we just worked with a life sciences building outside of Boston.
They saved $2 million by bringing Octi in for their underground detention. They were able to eliminate one underground facility.
So now they were just at one, rather than two underground detention tanks. We also wrote that water over to an irrigation system. So we've reduced their municipal water bill.
So overall, They've saved about $2 million on that build out. And they've come back and said, you're now our standard for all our new development.
So the economics are there, but the environmental outcomes are even stronger than traditional practices. So I call it the economic and environmental arrow.
[00:35:15] Speaker D: Well, David, you've been absolutely fantastic today. I'VE learned a lot.
It's always great to hear about these new and innovative opportunities for folks in the water sector, in this case stormwater. But again, you've been fantastic. Do you have a leave behind message you'd like to share with the listeners?
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Yes, and it was something that I said earlier, which is with all these dynamically changing weather patterns and the continued urban growth, you know, our paradigm of continually modeling design storms is only going to take us so far. What we really need to focus on is how we're going to future proof our communities utilizing these digital technologies. And it's not just the public sector, the private sector has to participate in this as well. We need to ensure that we have water, that our watersheds are healthy and safe, and that our communities.
[00:36:12] Speaker D: Perfect. Well said, David. For those who want to find out more about you and find out more about Opti, where can they go to get that information?
[00:36:20] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. So Opti you can find on the
[email protected].
i'm available on LinkedIn. It's David Rubinstein. I'm going to spell my last name because it gets misspelled. It's R U B I N S T E I N. And if you do a search on David Rubenstein, Boston, I'll come up immediately in LinkedIn.
[00:36:45] Speaker D: Perfect.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: All right.
[00:36:46] Speaker D: Well, David, thank you so much. It was great speaking with you and I hope you have a wonderful day and we'll talk to you again soon.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: Same here. Dave, thanks so much for your time today.
[00:36:56] Speaker D: You betcha. All right, bye now.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: What a phenomenal interview by David. Love the examples he used to show ROI and improved outcomes for communities.
Great job, David, and thank you so much for spending some of your valuable time with us. Well, I'd love to know what you thought about the interview. Please check out the Show Notes page for information and links on this episode. Just Google the Water Values podcast, click the first link that comes up. That's our home on the web that Bluefield Research provides. As longtime listeners know, Bluefield Research and the Water Values LLC are not affiliates. We just have a joint marketing arrangement together.
And as part of that, Bluefield Research gives us a home on the web.
Well, thank you again for tuning in and I hope you make it a great day. Plus, I want to give a huge thank you again to our phenomenal set of sponsors, including the American Waterworks Association, Black & Veatch 120 Water, Suez Digital Solutions, IDE Water Technologies, Advanced Drainage Systems 1898 and Co Woodard & Curran, Entera and Xylem. This show would not be possible without those great companies and industry leaders. And thank you again for listening and for subscribing to the Water Values Podcast. Your support is truly appreciated. In closing, please remember to keep the core message of the Water Values Podcast in mind as you go about your daily business. Water is our most valuable resource, so please join me by going out into the world and acting like it.
[00:38:57] Speaker C: You've been listening to the Water Values Podcast. Thank you for spending some of your day with my dad and me.
[00:39:03] Speaker D: Well, thank you for tuning in to the disclaimer. I'm a lawyer licensed in Indiana and Colorado and nothing in this podcast should be taken as providing legal advice or as establishing an attorney client relationship with you or with anyone else. Additionally, nothing in this podcast should be considered a solicitation for professional employment. I'm just a lawyer that finds water issues interesting and that believes greater public education is needed about water issues. And that includes enhancing my own education about water water issues because no one knows everything about water.
