Oldcastle Infrastructure joins public-private partnership to solve water scarcity

Jeffrey Johnson, innovation manager at Oldcastle Infrastructure, gave a presentation at WEFTEC 2024 in New Orleans about water scarcity in the U.S.

"80% of the United States was worried about where there water was going to come from," Johnson said, referencing a 2014 study. "And the picture doesn't look much better today."

Johnson talked about addressing water scarcity, or water loss. 

"You look at places like Phoenix where there's new houses popping up, they're haulting construction because there's not enough water," Johnson said.

Johnson stated in the presentation that people are taking a more sustainable approach to dealing with water scarcity. Johnson said that aging infrastructure is one of the largest contributors to this problem. Maintaing old infrastructure can add to water leaks and maintenance costs. 

"Half of all the maintenance work is after something has already failed," Johnson said. "The average lifespan of an asset is 50-70 years. A lot of our infrastructure is at the end of its life, driving water loss."

Oldcastle explored the Colorado river basin and ended up with a public-private partnership called Water United.

Water United addresses water scarcity for populations by utilizing tools like AI.

"AI is not the future, it's today, and what shapes the future," Johnson said.

AI can help streamline the different systems that help solve water scarcity.

Oldcastle partnered with a U.K. based company to develop AI for its Hydro-Logic CivilSense sensor to use AI to detect water leaks.

The product uses cloud-based communications with AI giving results almost immediately. 

"Adapting new technologies can help solve these problems," Johnson said.