{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"453 Water Risk, Governance, and Community Engagement with Dr. Annette Davison","description":"Industrial water professionals sit at the intersection of risk, regulation, and community trust. In this episode, Dr. Annette Davison (\u201cthe water risk doctor\u201d) joins Trace Blackmore to show how disciplined governance, clear supply chain thinking, and community engagement can turn fragmented water systems into coherent, defensible risk management frameworks.  Water risk from source to customer  Annette starts with a simple question most customers never ask: \u201cWhere\u2019s your water coming from?\u201d She walks through a conceptual supply chain from source to end point\u2014collection, transfer, treatment, distribution, and customers\u2014then layers governance on top. Who holds custody at each handover point? Are water quality objectives clearly defined and documented? What happens when something \u201cstuffs up,\u201d and how is that communicated downstream? For leaders, it\u2019s a practical reminder that risk isn\u2019t just about treatment performance; it\u2019s about clearly assigned responsibilities along the entire chain.  Governance, ISO 31000, and the Water31K framework  Drawing on her background in microbial ecology and environmental law, Annette explains why \u201cyou can\u2019t do a good risk assessment unless you\u2019ve got the context right.\u201d She describes how ISO 31000 inspired the Water31K framework\u2014an approach that is jurisdictionally agnostic and capable of spanning drinking water, recycled water, and recreational water guidelines. Using Water31K, her team walks into any jurisdiction and systematically maps stakeholders, legal and formal requirements, reporting lines, and internal obligations so utilities can see their governance landscape clearly before they start scoring risk.  Critical control points, AI, and learning from incidents  Critical control points may have started in the food industry, but Annette shows how they can be sharpened for water. Her test\u2014 \u201cwould a computer understand this?\u201d\u2014forces teams to close logical gaps and define thresholds and responses precisely enough to be automated. She also explores how AI and \u201cagents as a service\u201d could help analyze incident data, while warning that AI is useless if utilities haven\u2019t done the basics: monitoring the right things, at the right place, at the right time, with a firm grasp of supply chain risk. Her mantra: never waste a good incident; dissect it and make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.  Regulations, public\u2013private contracts, and community projects  Using Australia as an example, Annette unpacks the complexity of layered laws\u2014Commonwealth, state, local\u2014and the different regimes governing public, metro, and private utilities. She shares a five-part checklist for public\u2013private contracts (quantity, quality, maintenance, ownership, operations) and explains how weak agreements can undermine water quality objectives and monitoring. In parallel, she talks about social initiatives like One Street and One Creek, community-led work on Rocky Creek, and bringing STEAM (not just STEM) into high schools so the next generation sees water as a diverse, creative career path.  Strong water risk governance isn\u2019t just about compliance; it\u2019s about making better decisions for customers and communities over decades. This conversation gives leaders language, frameworks, and examples they can use to tighten their own systems and engage people beyond the plant fence.  Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!    Timestamps    02:15 \u2014 Trace reflects on the end of 2025, recap planning, and how goal setting shapes a stronger 2026 for sales and learning. 11:12 \u2014 Introducing lab partner Dr. Annette Davison and her diverse day-to-day across mediation workshops, field work, and high school outreach. 12:10 \u2014 The Risk Edge Group mission: protecting people, processes, and the planet from contaminated water with documents, templates, tools, and audits. 13:14 \u2014 \u201cIncidents Online\u201d as a free learning resource and how sharing real events helps others protect themselves. 14:10 \u2014 Becoming Australian Water Association\u2019s Water Professional of the Year and launching the One Street and One Creek social initiatives. 15:29 \u2014 From microbial ecology and contaminated sites to environmental law and a career focused on water quality governance. 19:47 \u2014 Training as a core \u201ccase study\u201d: lighting up operators and directors by finally explaining the \u201cwhy\u201d behind procedures and funding. 22:00 \u2014 Walking the water supply chain from source to end point and identifying governance handover points and quality objectives. 24:22 \u2014 Strategy-to-operations workflow: from planning and design to commissioning and operations, and why design must serve operators. 24:45 \u2014 Critical control points, space diarrhoea origin-story, and the discipline of defining CCPs so clearly \u201ca computer would understand.\u201d 30:30 \u2014 How Water31K creates a common language for teasing out complex legal and regulatory structures across jurisdictions. 33:03 \u2014 The multi-layered Australian governance example: Commonwealth guidelines, state acts, and differing regimes for local, metro, and private utilities. 36:23 \u2014 Rocky Creek and the Karingai \u201cKraken\u201d network: turning an unloved creek into a pilot for community care and data-driven education. 38:19 \u2014 onestreet.earth, mobilising your community, and building a playbook so others can replicate a \u201cOne Creek\u201d model. 39:21 \u2014 STEAM power in schools: bringing science, technology, engineering, art, and maths together to improve water communication. 42:01 \u2014 Public vs private utilities, the Water Industry Competition Act, nimble private operators, and the five-part contract checklist. 44:39 \u2014 Emerging hazards (microplastics, PFAS) and the reminder not to take our eyes off the basics while we monitor new risks. 46:19 \u2014 Annette\u2019s core message: we\u2019ve got to love water and help customers understand what it takes to keep it safe and reliable.   Quotes \u201cYou can't do a good risk assessment unless you've got the context right.\u201d  \u201cWhere's your water coming from? How do you collect it? How do you transfer it to where it needs to go to? How do you treat it?\u201d  \u201cWe now just keep asking ourselves the same question, will the computer understand this?\u201d  \u201cAI's not going to help us until we get the right inputs to AI. Let's get the basics right first.\u201d  \u201cWe've got to love water. We've got to make sure that people are aware of water, not only the technocrats, but also the people who are using it.\u201d    Connect with Annette Davison Email: annette@riskedge.com.au  Website: https:\/\/www.riskedge.com.au\/  LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/annettedavison\/    Guest Resources Mentioned   The Risk Edge Group \u2013 Water31K Framework & Services  Incidents Online (Risk Edge)  Risk Edge Training (e.g., CCP and Governance Courses)  Ku-ring-gai Community Rotary Network (\u201cthe Kraken\u201d)  Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG)  WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality  The Overstory \u2013 Richard Powers  The Three-Body Problem \u2013 Cixin Liu  The Covenant of Water \u2013 Abraham Verghese    Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned  AWT (Association of Water Technologies)  Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses  Submit a Show Idea  The Rising Tide Mastermind    2025 Events for Water Professionals  Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we\u2019ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.  ","author_name":"Scaling UP! H2O","author_url":"http:\/\/scalinguph2o.com","html":"