The Leak In The System

Water in America has long been treated as a given. That assumption is breaking down faster than the systems built to deliver it. Only about half a percent of the world's water is accessible for potable use, and the cost of delivering it across the United States has been climbing. Aging infrastructure is driving rate increases, and utilities are now being required to clean up PFAS contamination the...

Water infrastructure in the United States is governed across roughly 51,000 separate systems. Federal funding for it has fallen 40 percent since 1970 -- and new pressures are arriving faster than the system has been able to absorb them. Rob Powelson has spent much of his career inside that system -- and in this conversation, he explains how it actually works. Powelson spent eight and a half years...

Every month a water bill arrives. The number on it is the end of a legal process most ratepayers never see. Darryl Lawrence is the Consumer Advocate for the State of Pennsylvania, an independent state agency whose sole function is to intervene in utility rate cases on the ratepayer's side. In every major water, electric, and gas rate case filed with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, his...

You can live three weeks without food. Only three days without water. The Leak in the System is hosted by Susan Springsteen, founder and CEO of H2O Connected and creator of LeakAlertor Pro. The show follows real-world water systems, uncovering how people, organizations, and innovations shape what happens to water and why it matters. Less than 1% of the Earth's water is readily usable, demand keeps...