Industrial Water Week is here—and Day 1 is Pretreatment Monday. In Episode 498, Trace Blackmore, CWT, opens the 2026 celebration with troubleshooting stories, returning guest greetings, and a new Detective H2O case that brings pretreatment performance into focus.
Celebrate with purpose
Take a photo with your favorite pretreatment equipment—a softener, RO, or filter housing—and post it with #IWW26. Then search the hashtag to connect with others doing the same work. Trace’s invitation makes the week visible and recognizes the people who keep downstream systems operating.
Start with the pretreatment train
At a food processing plant, rising RO product-water conductivity had already prompted a membrane replacement. Trace found the cause in the softener: channeling allowed hardness to pass through and scale the RO. Rebedding and reprogramming the softener resolved the problem without further work on the RO.
You’ll also hear greetings from Conor Parrish of Fact Water Co, Ron Blutrich, and Dr. Kelle Zeiher. Their stories cover proper isolation before opening resin bottles, UV pretreatment and microbiological risk, and unexpected newspaper debris inside an RO—three reminders to keep questioning assumptions.
Follow the evidence with Detective H2O
James McDonald returns with The Case of Something Fading Fast, investigating boiler alkalinity that will not hold. A softener may test soft just after regeneration yet leak hardness later in its service run. The case connects that missed leakage with treatment consumption and falling alkalinity.
Detective H2O proposes an end-of-run grab sample or a 24-hour screening composite, supported by logs of the active tank, makeup demand, production load, and alkalinity timing. The composite helps screen performance across the service cycle; it does not replace targeted grab samples.
Follow along on LinkedIn to guess the mystery guest voices. Trace reveals them on Careers Friday, October 9. With Boiler Tuesday, Cooling Wednesday, and Wastewater Thursday still ahead, there are more opportunities to celebrate the work you do.
Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:20 — Trace recalls how James McDonald created Industrial Water Week to recognize industrial water professionals.
05:00 — Share equipment photos using #IWW26 and connect with others celebrating the industry.
11:00 — Trace explains why softeners, filtration, and RO deserve attention as the foundation of downstream performance.
13:10 — A food processing plant reports rising RO product-water conductivity despite replacing membranes.
14:00 — Trace investigates the pretreatment train and discovers softener channeling that allows hardness to reach the RO.
15:20 — Rebedding and reprogramming the softener resolve the complaint without further work on the RO.
17:50 — Conor Parrish shares a resin-bottle mishap and the importance of proper isolation before opening a fill port.
19:30 — Ron Blutrich discusses point-of-entry UV systems and microbiological risks associated with filters.
20:30 — Dr. Kelle Zeiher recounts finding newspaper inside an RO and encourages looking beyond familiar failure modes.
23:30 — Detective H2O begins The Case of Something Fading Fast, investigating falling boiler alkalinity.
34:50 — Detective H2O recommends reviewing service runs, resin condition, and the design basis, plus hardness checks at the deaerator.
37:40 — Trace introduces the LinkedIn mystery-voice game and Careers Friday reveal, then invites listeners to share their pretreatment equipment.
Connect with Conor Parris
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.factwaterco.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conor-parrish-cwt-15208251/
Connect with Ron Blutrich
Email: [email protected]
Website: Clear – UV Treated Purified Water at Point of Entry
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-blutrich-50262b2a3/
Connect with Dr. Kelle Zeiher
Email: [email protected]
Website: Water Treatment Expertise Since 1904 I Garratt-Callahan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelle-zeiher-6bab221/
Links Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
Industrial Water Week Scaling UP H2O Resource Page
008 The One with Conor Parrish
186 The One Where Conor Parrish Interviews Me, Part 1
187 The One Where Conor Parrish Interviews Me, Part 2
446 Leveraging the Culture Index for Business Success with Danielle Scimeca and Conor Parris
452 UV Innovation and Whole-Building Water Safety with Ron Blutrich
351 Maximizing Water’s Potential: Tech and Water Treaters in Perfect Harmony
454 Water Recycling, Innovation, and Industry Wisdom with Dr. Kelle Zeiher
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