Make Water Work Podcast Featuring Manny Patel

Episode 51: Manny Patel - From Regulator to Bridge Builder

When Manny Patel's boss called to move him from the air program to drinking water, his answer was honest: "I don't know anything about water except that it comes from a tap and I drink it." A decade later, he calls those years the most fun of his nearly 40-year career.

In this episode of Make Water Work, Isaac Pellerin sits down with Manny Patel, Senior Director of Water Administration at 120Water and former Drinking Water Program Manager at Georgia EPD. Manny walks through what a state drinking water program actually does, why five new rules landing on flat budgets forced states to rethink their tools, and what he'd modernize next if he had the time and money.

In this episode:

• How a chemical engineer from petroleum refining and air permitting ended up running a state drinking water program
• The four core buckets of a state program: compliance, sanitary surveys, engineering review, and source water protection
• Monthly operating reports, CCRs, and the case for a single state dashboard
• Using data to prioritize SRF dollars before a crisis instead of after one
• Asset management: why pipe age isn't the only indicator of failure
• Why a 20-year regulator chose to join a solution provider