ACE19 is just over 1 week away and the 120Water team is looking forward to connecting with our customers, partners and future customers (come see us in the Innovation Lounge Booth #1420). I am particularly interested in a few sessions that focus on keeping our drinking water safe and updating our infrastructure. Marianne Bain from Greeley and Hansen offered to share a few highlights of her session on June 12 at 10am, Addressing and Reducing Lead Risks Through Service Line Replacement.
The 2026 AWWA Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE)
From June 21-24, more than 10,000 water professionals from 40 countries attended AWWA’s 2026 Annual Conference and Exposition. Under the theme “Water Heroes,” the conference honored water professionals who work behind the scenes to help deliver safe drinking water to communities every day.
Outgoing President Heather Collins challenged the water community to move beyond invisibility, saying the workforce that keeps water flowing deserves to be seen, understood, and appreciated.
The conference concluded with a gavel-passing ceremony as Brent Tippey — a nearly 30-year veteran of the water sector — assumed the AWWA presidency from Collins.
Tippey said the water community needs AWWA’s 145-year unbroken legacy of leadership in technical content, knowledge exchange, and regulatory engagement now more than ever.
Inside the Program: The Conversations Shaping the Water Sector
ACE26 comprised 215 educational sessions spanning 23 tracks. The following list highlights the most popular tracks by session count.
Intelligent Water (22 sessions) Data, AI, and smart systems are no longer emerging themes but the defining direction of the water sector.
Water Utility Management (14 sessions) Reflects the enduring operational complexity of running modern utilities.
Advances in Water Treatment (14 sessions): Addresses the foundational science and technology utilities need to meet evolving water quality demands.
Infrastructure Management (12 sessions): Underscores the urgency utilities face in addressing aging systems amid growing capital constraints.
Water Resources Planning, Protection and Management (10 sessions): Speaks to mounting pressures around supply reliability amid climate variability and growing demand.
Financial, Management, and Legal (10 sessions) Reflects the complex pressures on rates, funding, and regulatory compliance utilities must navigate.
Reuse (9 sessions) Signals the continued rise of reuse as a mainstream supply strategy rather than a niche alternative.
Water Education and Workforce (8 sessions) Reflects growing industry concern over the talent pipeline needed to operate increasingly complex systems.
The Latest on Lead and Copper (8 sessions) Driven by sweeping compliance demands of the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), the most significant lead rule update in decades.
Research (8 sessions) Captures the sector's need to translate emerging science into actionable practice for utilities.
120Water at ACE26
120Water had a strong presence on the expo floor. Our team connected with water utilities, consultants, and regulators from across the country.
Our booth showcased 120Water solutions for water quality and asset compliance. These tools help water systems connect data, save time and money, and improve compliance.
Conversations at the booth reflected the urgency utilities feel as regulatory deadlines approach and reinforced why a centralized water data platform matters more than ever.
National Collaborative Honors Excellence in Lead Pipe Replacement
Timed to coincide with ACE26, the Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative marked its 10th anniversary by recognizing 16 people and programs for excellence in lead service line replacement. The awards ranged from technical efficiency and fiscal savvy to community engagement and equitable access.
Among the honorees were three 120Water customers:
Denver Water’s Lead Reduction Program – Recognized for outstanding leadership across multiple categories
Greeley, Colorado’s Lead Protection Program – Excellence in Community Engagement
The Wilmington Water Lead Reduction Program – Fiscal Savvy and Funding Innovation
With over 4 million lead service lines still connected to water systems nationwide, the awards highlight utility-led collaboration. 120Water is proud to support this work as customers advance LCRI compliance and lead-reduction programs.
Looking Ahead: WaterPro 2026 in Phoenix
With ACE26 now in the books, the 120Water team is already looking ahead to the next major event.
Widely known as the “Industry Event of the Year” for rural and small water systems, NRWA WaterPro will be held September 14–16, 2026. The conference will take place at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
120Water will be on the WaterPro show floor in September, and we look forward to connecting with you. We will share more information soon about our booth location and how to find us at the show. Keep up with 120Water updates on our LinkedIn page and in our monthly newsletter.
In the meantime, learn more about how we help water systems of all sizes navigate today’s compliance landscape. Contact our team at 120water.com/contact to discuss your system's needs.
Water utility executives are facing a paradox. Their teams have more data than ever. They have sampling results, service line records, lab reports, and regulatory submissions.
Yet many leaders still cannot answer a simple question: Are we on track?
That gap between having data and acting on it costs utilities. It hurts efficiency, raises compliance risk, drives staff burnout, and weakens community trust.
The good news: the utilities closing that gap are not bigger or better funded than yours. They chose to modernize how they manage water quality compliance programs, and the results are measurable.
The Real Reason Utilities Fall Behind
This is not a technology problem as much as it is a capacity problem compounded by fragmentation.
Consider the scale of the challenge:
In the U.S., 85% of water utilities have three or fewer employees.
Yet these small teams manage complex sampling programs, service line inventories, regulatory submissions, and public communications. Often, they do this across disconnected spreadsheets, paper records, and siloed databases.
One in three utilities face a compliance violation in any given year. Dig into those numbers, and most violations are not about water quality. They are about administrative failures.
Someone filed a report late. A public notice did not go out on time. Data sat in different places, but people couldn’t pull it together fast enough.
The problem is not a lack of effort. The systems couldn’t handle this volume of work because no one built them for it, and regulatory requirements keep growing.
Four Stages of Operational Maturity: Where Does Your Utility Stand?
Through years of work with over 8,000 utilities and 7 state agencies, 120Water has seen a clear pattern.
Utilities often evolve their operations in similar ways. Most organizations move through four stages.
Stage 1: Overwhelmed.
Data is fragmented or nonexistent, and teams are reactive to regulatory demands. No single source of truth exists.
Stage 2: Reactive.
Data exists but lives in silos, and reporting is manual and time-consuming. Staff are aware of the gaps but lack the right water data platform to close them.
Stage 3: Proactive.
A single platform centralizes programs, and teams hold clear accountability. Data flows between functions and connects directly to both regulatory reporting and public communications.
Stage 4: Predictive.
Teams can integrate historical data, infrastructure records, and program outcomes so they can anticipate needs. That way they can model scenarios and stay ahead of compliance deadlines.
What Moving Up the Curve Actually Looks Like
These stages are not theoretical. Here is what the progression looks like for real utilities.
From overwhelmed to reactive: Valley Rural Utility Company
Valley Rural came to 120Water with more than 25% of their service line inventory listed as unknown, meaning no data and no starting point. By creating a clear digital verification process, they reduced the number of unknown service lines.
They used the platform to filter and rank the unknowns. In under a year, the total unknown service lines dropped from 661 to 26.
From reactive to proactive: Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln manages 93,000+ service lines across multiple material types. Annual resident notifications were manual and time-consuming. After they centralized their data on one water data platform, notifications now go out automatically. Each line segment uses the correct template.
That data goes straight to a public dashboard, so residents and regulators can track the program in real time.
From proactive to predictive: El Paso, Texas
El Paso entered 2025 with 130,000 unknown service lines and a 2027 LCRI (Lead and Copper Rule Improvements) compliance deadline. Instead of costly physical inspections, 120Water worked with the city to use predictive modeling.
They used historical records, construction-era data, and neighborhood indicators. El Paso's unknown service lines dropped from 130,000 to fewer than 13,000, with no additional field visits for the reclassified lines. The result was an estimated savings of approximately $50,000.
The forces pushing utilities toward modernization are not slowing down:
Aging infrastructure is a growing problem
Lead and copper rule requirements are tightening
PFAS programs create new responsibilities
Cybersecurity mandates demand extra time and resources
Demographic shifts can shrink rate bases.
Each new requirement puts additional strain on teams that already work at full capacity.
The utilities navigating this well share a common trait. They stopped treating each regulation as a separate problem.
They started building a connected data foundation. This lets utilities report to regulators and communicate to residents. Which means they no longer rebuild their workflow from scratch each time.
That foundation is what separates proactive utilities from those that are perpetually reactive.
Where to Start
The most common question we hear from utility executives is: where do we begin?
The honest answer is this: start with your biggest pain point. Work with a partner who helps you build for the long term, not just this quarter.
Whether you still use spreadsheets or run a digital program with gaps, the goal is the same:
You need water compliance software that keeps all data in one platform. It should automate reporting workflows and link your public communications. Then your team can focus on work that actually needs human judgment.
120Water works with utilities at every stage of this journey. To see what the path forward looks like for your system specifically, let’s talk.
See how 120Water helps utilities move from reactive to proactive. Schedule a demo at 120water.com/contact to start the conversation.
Scott Huckaby is no stranger to the realities of small water systems. As a geologist, retired teacher, and water quality expert, he oversees eight systems across Georgia, each grappling with the same obstacles: aging infrastructure, limited funding, and increasingly complex regulations. “The systems I work with were largely installed in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. They’re old, patched together, and expensive to maintain. Convincing local governments to invest in these systems is often an uphill battle,” he explained.One example stands out. For years, Scott worked tirelessly to convince a town council to upgrade a collapsing water system from the 1950s. “They were spending more money fixing leaks than they were earning. It took me five years of constant conversations to get them to apply for funding. But in the end, they were able to secure a loan with 60% forgiveness, and the system is finally rehabilitated.”But funding and upgrades are only part of the equation. Scott recalled an especially challenging project involving an orphanage, where decades-old galvanized lines and 50/50 lead solder created serious risks for the vulnerable population living there. “The only real solution is replacing the plumbing in every house,” he shared. “But they don’t have the funding, and there’s little help available for private systems like theirs.”
Aging Operators and the Next Generation Crisis
Beyond infrastructure, the water industry faces another looming crisis: a mass retirement of operators with no clear pipeline of new talent. At 62 years old, Scott is part of a generation nearing retirement. “I’m 62, and most of the operators I know are my age or older. The younger generation isn’t stepping in to fill these roles,” Scott noted.Scott is training one young operator in hopes of bridging the gap. “I tell him, ‘You’ll have job security for the rest of your life. Small towns will always need clean water.’ But we need to do more to attract younger people to this industry. We need programs in high schools to show them this work doesn’t require a college degree, just hands-on training and a willingness to learn.”
PFAS and the Next Frontier of Water Quality Challenges
While tackling aging infrastructure and the lead and copper rule remains critical, Scott pointed to PFAS contamination as the next big challenge. “PFAS is going to make lead and copper compliance look easy,” he said. One of the systems he oversees receives purchased water that already exceeds the limits for several PFAS chemicals.His county is now part of a pilot project funded by the EPA to explore solutions, including drilling new wells that aren’t contaminated. “It’s a step in the right direction, but smaller systems that lack resources to treat PFAS or even conduct proper sampling are going to face enormous hurdles,” Scott explained.He stressed the importance of having the right tools to track and manage compliance. “Operators need simple software to monitor their systems, track sample results, and stay on top of notifications. Right now, we’re drowning in paperwork, and it’s only going to get worse with these new regulations.”
Using Technology to Overcome Barriers
Despite the challenges, Scott sees technology as a key part of the solution. He highlighted how digitizing his service line inventory with 120Water made an unexpected difference during a recent meter replacement project.“The installation company couldn’t locate addresses because the county hadn’t assigned them yet,” Scott explained. “But using the 120Water platform, we were able to map every meter location in the system. It saved us weeks of work.”Scott believes this kind of digital innovation will be essential for navigating new regulations and addressing the operator shortage. “We need tools that are easy to use and help us track everything—from sampling results to customer communication. That’s the kind of support operators need to do their jobs well.”
Looking Ahead: A Call to Action
The challenges facing small water systems are daunting, but they’re not insurmountable. With increased funding, better training programs, and the right technology, the future of clean water for rural communities can be secured.For Scott, the mission is deeply personal. “At the end of the day, it’s about keeping people safe—especially the most vulnerable populations, like kids. We’ve known for a long time what lead and other contaminants can do to people. Now it’s time to do something about it.”By sharing Scott’s story, we hope to inspire collaboration, innovation, and action across the water industry to tackle these critical issues head-on.Are you ready to tackle the challenges facing your water system? Learn how 120Water can support you with software, sampling kits, and expert guidance.
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