ABOUT US

Ten years ago (2012), San Diego had no desalination or potable reuse plants producing freshwater from seawater and wastewater. During the 2010 drought, avocado growers sacrificed their groves to save water, and another drought was upon us. In 2012-2014, the San Diego City Councils’ Water Policy Implementation Task Force of civil engineers, chaired by urban planner and mediator Cary Lowe PhD

advocated conservation by all —and rapidly implementing policies and tech for monitoring water use, and more importantly, potable reuse. In 2015, he encouraged “Global Smart City” San Diego (1 of 4 cities so-named by National Geographic in 2015) to grow this name earned by Qualcomm’s cellular and BIOCOM’s biotech industry sectors, by making our pressing necessity for freshwater, the mother of inventions. He urged San Diego to become a national center of water-related tech, beginning with “an informational and promotional network” among the innovative companies in San Diego’s freshwater industry, which he defined as distinct from our region’s Navy, maritime and ocean-focused industry sectors: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/sdut-water-tech-making-a-splash-2015may30-story.html.

In 2016, Dr. Lowe established the Water Tech Alliance (WTA) as an industry advocacy nonprofit organization (501c6) to promote the San Diego freshwater sector’s tech innovations, collaborations, and global recognition. WTA’s in-person and virtual events are hosted and sponsored by regionally based companies, universities, and utilities, which consider WTA their “ethical forum”, to showcase “smart” and hard tech (from digital tools like apps, sensors, and smart meters as well as predictive analytics for cost-effective O&M [such as Qualcomm’s Intelligent Solutions noted above), to satellite surveillance of groundwater, municipal leaks, as well as floating solar, membranes, pumps, valves, UV, …). WTA also raises the next hard issues (like reuse of stormwater [January 2022 Recent event: https://www.watercitizen.org/wtastormwater/ ] while inspiring industry, civic leaders. and students to action, learning and collaboration.