Episode description
Jay Famiglietti - Hydrologist, Exec. Director - Global Institute for Water Security, Host of "What About Water?" Podcast
Episode description
Jay Famiglietti is a hydrologist, a professor and the Executive Director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, where he holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Hydrology and Remote Sensing. He is also the Chief Scientist of the Silicon Valley tech startup, Waterplan. Before moving to Saskatchewan, he served as the Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. From 2013 through 2018, he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California State Water Boards. He has appeared on CBS News 60 Minutes, on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, as a featured expert in water documentaries including Day Zero and Last Call at the Oasis, and across a host of international news media. He is the host of the podcast What About Water?
"Well, I think these days we have good cause to be a little bit wary of our tap water, given what's happening in some cities in the United States. I'm thinking about Flint and thinking about Jackson, so not everyone's water is great. But you know what, in many cities - in fact in most cities - it actually is great. There will always be the issue of industry sort of trying to game the system vs. what is the EPA monitoring for vs. what is industry releasing into the environment. So that puts the EPA, it puts the environmental community always sort of on watch to be looking for these emerging contaminants. And it's a bit of a game in one which I think again, some national policy could be really helpful. Most water districts in the United States publish their water quality. It's all available online. I always tell people if you have any concerns at all, put it through an activated charcoal filter."
What About Water? podcast with Jay Famiglietti
Twitter @WhatAboutWater