*Intro Music*
McKenzie:
Hi Folks! I’m McKenzie VanMeerhaeghe, and this is ‘Water You Talking About?!’ A podcast brought to you by WaterOne where we talk about the ins and outs of all things water. Today Is the season 2 finale! In this episode I wanted to take a look through the season and talk about some of my favorite takeaways. Let’s dive into it!
Okay first off let’s rewind allll the way back to March – I met with Senior Financial Analyst Shane Hoffman to discuss our Annual Budgeting Process. Now I love this episode! Shane is such a great explainer when it comes to complex financial topics. Specifically, I loved to hear about what we call our Nessie Model. Let’s take a listen,
*music*
McKenzie:
Your team has also worked on developing an affordability metric that is now widely used by many organizations. Can you talk to us a little bit more about this?
Shane:
This metric was developed by Natalie Morrison and Cassandra Gunther. And so what this metric does is it measures household affordability in terms of income after basic needs. So it takes the 20th percentile income and then it strips away money that you might need for housing, for food, for health care, for taxes. And it looks at what's left over after that. And then it takes our rates as a percentage of that. It was amazing idea from Natalie and from Cassandra to work on this, because, you know, we live in a very affluent county and it would be easy for us to ignore affordability. But like so many other things we do here at WaterOne, we are trying to stay ahead of the curve. We are trying to look at things like this before it becomes a problem.
McKenzie:
That is absolutely incredible and super impressive.
*music*
Mckenzie:
My favorite thing about this moment was learning about the strides WaterOne takes to ensure affordability for our customers. Even more so – this model was created by two of our staff. It is a true testament to how much each employee cares about what we do. This affordability model is now used beyond WaterOne. Which I personally think is incredible.
Okay, moving on let’s take a look at one of the most fun episodes from this season. In May I sat down with Communications Manager Kelly Fry and Communications Specialist I Tayler Loudermill as well as Fleet Administrator Scott Bundi to talk about our Education and Outreach Programs. My favorite part about this episode is how it reflects some of our core values as an organization. Here’s a clip
*music*
Mckenzie:
So why do we prioritize outreach specifically at water one?
Kelly:
It's actually baked into our strategic goals that guide our work every day. Goal number two is to provide excellent customer service. And one of the ways we do that is providing education and outreach through our innovative communication tools.
Goal number seven is to be good stewards of the environment. And we do that by promoting efficient water use and fostering an educated, aware and engaged community, Connecting with our customers is important. We know folks are busy and water is often taken for granted. We want to be present at our events so our customers can come by, say hello, and just ask any water related questions they may have.
Mckenzie:
100% water one is committed to increasing awareness about the value and quality of tap water and critical customer interests. We want our community to know that we hear them and that we care. We are a part of the community that we serve, and we are dedicated to helping make our community thrive.
*music*
Mckenzie:
Our education and outreach program is such a pivotal part of our mission. It is yet another way WaterOne goes above and beyond to connect with and serve our community. Making sure that our community is (no pun intended) tapped into the why of water is SO important. Now this was filmed right at the kickoff of our outreach season, and now that it’s over I would love to give you an update on its impact. Over the summer we dedicated over 120 hours, reaching 60,000 people. Absolutely phenomenal. And now, Taylor has been booked and busy educating students through our education program. I can’t wait to see what 2026 has in store for Misty and the Quench Buggy!
Next up we have an episode that taught me so much about what our crews are doing out in the field. I met with Distribution Tech 2-1 Brandon Vallejos and Restoration Contract Coordinator Steven Anderson to dive into all things Main Breaks and Restoration. In this next clip we hear Brandon Break down the facts when it comes to Main breaks.
*music*
McKenzie:
Absolutely, the people here at WaterOne are amazing to work with, and it is so rewarding to be able to know that the work we do has a direct impact in our community. So let's start off with an important question. What exactly are main breaks?
Brandon:
Main breaks are when an underground water line breaks or cracks, causing water to leak to the surface. They're caused by various reasons, like ground shifting, aging, a pipe corrosion, fluctuating water pressure. Temperature can also play a role. As well as contractor hits from them digging up with heavy equipment.
McKenzie:
Interesting! Yeah. I hadn't thought about that part. It's so interesting to know that there can be so many different things that actually cause a main break. And although they are an inevitable part of operating a water utility, we do all we can to both prevent breaks from happening where we can and to fix them quickly when they do break. So what are the different types of main breaks? Are there different types of main breaks?
Brandon:
Yeah. So, there's some that are called round breaks and lateral breaks. So a round break in our terms, when we're out in the field, we'll call it a shear, and then there's also the lateral, which we would call split, but they're caused by, the ground shifting. So which is more of the round break or shear? And then, lateral. That's sometimes you get like pinholes or a split that runs along the main.
McKenzie:
For those, do they look different on the surface? I know there are some main breaks where it's just like a bubble on the top. And then there's some that shoot up really high.
Brandon:
So like when the, the older the pipe is sometimes when there's like high water pressure it'll cause a hole to burst the water main. And so sometimes you'll see water shooting, sometimes high in the sky. Sometimes it might be like a pinhole or a small leak. And so those will cause more saturation in the ground.
*music*
McKenzie:
Okay so, main breaks. Everyone’s Favorite thing, right?! We see the outside of a main break. I’m talking that water gushing down the road (during a morning commute, of course). But we never see the inside of a main break. What exactly is going on in there – that’s been a mystery to the public for so long. That’s what I loved so much about this clip – and this whole episode. We hear first-hand from the crews that are out there every day. Working to break down that mystery surrounding main breaks. I mean I didn’t really understand the complexity of mains and how they function until this episode.
In September I met with Elain Corbin – CS Manager, and CS Supervisors Essence Henly and Lindsay Stimatzeto discuss all things customer service. This was such a fun episode to record! These women are incredibly knowledgeable in their field, not to mention hilarious. Alight let’s listen to this clip before we dive in further
*music*
Mckenzie:
100%. Okay. If you could let our community know one thing about your work, what would it be?
Essence:
We don't just answer calls. We listen to concerns, we advocate for our customers, and we work behind the scenes to make sure that their water service is reliable and safe. And, we're responsive to their needs.
Mckenzie:
Yeah, I think something that goes unnoticed, I want to say, in customer service specifically, is the amount of technical knowledge that you have to have about the water industry and about our utility. That is a lot to know and a lot to be able to just like someone ask you a question and be able to just say, oh yeah, that's this, like you were saying earlier about our human water to like, leak detectors. That is so cool. And that is something that doesn't get seen that often, but is an incredibly useful skill to have and is super hard to gain. I feel like.
Essence:
Yeah. I always say, you know, I've always been in customer service, but I always even when interview and I always tell people like, customer service here is different than any other customer service you ever worked at. Yes. Like your skills to be empathetic and understanding and, you know, listening. But the technical knowledge is is totally different. It's not just a script you follow. It's not just push this button, push that like you literally are, almost an honorary plumbers.
*Laughter*
*music*
McKenzie:
What I really love about this clip is how to explain that Customer Service is not just phone calls, It is so much more than that. And our reps – I mean they are absolutely incredible. The knowledge that they must have in order to do their jobs is immense. Like Essence said they are honorary plumbers.
Let’s move on to our most recent episode. In this episode I sat down with Darci Meese – Manager of legal & Gov Relations and Ellen Parker – Associate Attorney to talk about Water Law. My favorite part of this episode actually right at the start – so let’s take a listen.
*music*
Mckenzie:
Yes, it's so awesome when you can find two things that you really like and they mesh together and become a career for you. All right, so let's dive in to the subject matter. Let's get started by talking in general about WaterOne and your role and what that looks like.
Ellen:
Well, well, one, we are a quasi municipal body corporate. So we were created by a statute back in 1957. And we say we're quasi municipal because unlike our municipal friends in cities, we only serve one public function, and that is to provide clean drinking water. Being quasi municipal means that we are subject to all the regulations. While many of the regulations that governments are think about the Open Meetings Act, the Open Records Act, So that means that, you know, everything we do here, the public could request to see our records unless there's an exemption to it.
But we're also a business. So then all the laws that apply to a regular business apply to us. And you can think about like employment laws and stuff like that.
Mckenzie:
Absolutely. And that was a great explanation to kind of dive into the difference between us and a city and why we fall into that quasi municipal body definition.
Darci:
Right. And I think it's kind of important to because we go by the name of WaterOne in the community. Now, sometimes it gets a little confusing. People think we're a private water company, kind of like Missouri American water, American water. So it's really important that our employees and the public know that we are actually a governmental entity. So we function just like a city or we have a governing body, that's elected at large. So um A couple of the differences from us, though. One is that we don't have taxing authority. So, cities can tax. We don't, but we are completely nonprofit. So all of the revenue that we make has to go back into the organization. We do have the power of eminent domain. So that's where you can take property to put in your water mains. We don't use that very often, but occasionally we do. So cities also have that and one of the things that we, we also like to highlight is that our statute actually allows us to put our water mains in the public right away. So we don't necessarily need permission to put our water mains in the public right away. But we we usually try to cooperate with the cities that we serve. But as to why we need lawyers, I think, there's a lot of work. Like some people probably wonder why cities need lawyers too. But if you look around every department, Ellen and I probably have a project going on in every single department in the organization right now, in some form or another, whether it's a contractor reviewing or some sort of dispute, we're trying to help mediate through, dealing with a governing body requires lawyers to understand all the different rules and regulations that, apply to that. So there's just a whole host of different things that we get to do on a daily basis.
*music*
McKenzie:
Okay so, this episode dives into the nitty gritty of a lot of complex topics- but this particular explanation was so enlightening for me. I loved the way Ellen took a moment to explain where WaterOne falls in the grand scheme of things. I know when I say we are a Quasi Municipal entity people always respond “huh?” It is not a common phrase and is very hard to explain at times, and I thought that she did a fantastic job of doing so. It was a total lightbulb moment for me when she was speaking!
Okay so those are my 5 favorite moments from this season. It was hard to go back and choose just five – there were so many takeaways, funny moments, and thoughtful insights this season. I can’t believe that 2025 is already ending, I had the best time sharing the ins and outs of water with you all.
Don’t worry, you aren’t done hearing from me yet! We will be back in 2026 with a whole new season of Water You Talking About. You can expect to hear more fascinating main stories, get a deep look into our involvement in Committees across America, and so much more. Do you have suggestion for us? In the description of this episode I will have a link to a survey where you can give topic suggestions, feedback, or thoughts on the season! I will also be posting the survey on Facebook so you can look for it there too. I would love to hear from you!
Speaking of Facebook, don’t forget to follow us on social media so that you can stay connected anywhere you go. We are active on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and even TikTok. And please give the pod a follow on Spotify or Apple Podcast and share the it with friends and family – It is a fantastic way to help show you support!
In the meantime stay hydrated and I’ll talk to you next time on, Water You Talking About.