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Water’s Next Awards Gala Honours Finalists and Winners

It was a night to remember, as water industry professionals from across Canada and around the world gathered on June 20th in Vancouver to celebrate the 2018 Water’s Next Awards.

The Water’s Next Awards recognized the best-of-the-best in the Canadian water industry; the only national awards program commemorating the efforts of the entire water sector.

This year’s winners were chosen from an esteemed group of finalists, all of which are making important contributions to the advancement of the water industry.

“These winners demonstrate innovation, creativity, and ingenuity. Their efforts are helping to improve the quality of our water, our ability to effectively manage our stormwater, innovate the way we track our watersheds and provide the policies that help safeguard our industry,” said Katherine Balpataky, Water’s Next organizer and editor of Water Canada magazine.

The winners of this year’s 2018 Water’s Next Awards are:

People – Government

  • The U.S. Consulate General Toronto
    • Demonstrating innovation in their use of public-private partnerships, the U.S. Consulate General in Toronto has been convening groups to address critical issues in the Great Lakes to advance bilateral cooperation in the region.

People – Private Sector

  • Lynn Mueller, SHARC International Systems
    • As the founder, president, and CEO of Vancouver-based SHARC International Systems, Mueller has developed two innovative wastewater heat exchange technologies to take advantage of the ultimate renewable energy source—wastewater.

People – Non-Government Organizations

  • Jim Brown, Lytton First Nation
    • With more than two decades’ experience as a former band council administrator and as a level II water operator/former Lead Operator for Lytton First Nation in British Columbia, Brown founded a partnership that provides leadership and support to First Nations water operators, while advocating for better training, pay, and infrastructure investment.

People – Academia

  • Stefan Kienzle, University of Lethbridge
    • Kienzle is a hydrologist whose work aims to improve decision-making about water and land management at the watershed and provincial scales, to ensure water security, resilience in adaptation to climate change.

People – Young Professional

  • James Thuch Madier, Rainmaker Enterprise
    • Addressing intractable intercommunal conflicts over limited water sources, extreme hunger, poverty, youth, and women unemployment in remote parts of Africa, starting in South Sudan by implementing solar-powered water infrastructure.

Projects and Technologies – Drinking Water

  • VTScada by Trihedral
    • Delivering functional and intuitive HMI/SCADA software technology that allows water utilities and water integrators to efficiently build customized applications that can scale in size over the course of decades.

Projects and Technologies – Wastewater

  • SHARC International Systems Inc
    • Capturing energy from the heat that is normally wasted, SHARC’s two heat recovery products (SHARC and PIRANHA) are used to recover the heat energy from hot water and wastewater heat buildings and cool buildings, and heat the domestic hot water supply.

Projects and Technologies – Stormwater

  • Filterra Bioretention System, Imbrium
    • A technology that offers a cost-effective, attractive stormwater treatment system featuring easy installation and simple maintenance.

Project and Technologies – Water Resources

  • Mackenzie Datastream
    • Providing an open-access, online platform for sharing community-based and government monitoring data to generate information to address water challenges. First piloted in the Mackenzie Basin, DataStream is now expanding to include regional data hubs in Atlantic Canada and the Lake Winnipeg Basin. 

Projects and Technologies – Conveyance

  • Hydrologic and hydraulic assessment of the Welland River in Niagara Falls, WSP
    • The study’s purpose was to better understand the extreme flow conditions and the impact of downstream controls on flow, allowing for better response to extreme events and reducing the impacts of flooding.

Projects and Technologies – Early Adoption

  • Water Rangers
    • An online platform designed to empower citizens to discover existing data, report issues, and record observations of their lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans. It also gives tools to different types of groups so they can mobilize volunteers to make an impact on their watersheds.

Company of the Year

  • SHARC International Systems Inc

Water Steward of the Year

  • James Thuch Madier, Rainmaker Enterprise
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