An open letter to Erin Brockovich
By Stephanie Zavala, CEO and Co-Founder of Rogue Water
Dear Erin,
First of all, mad respect for what you did in Hinkley, CA at the beginning of your career. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about you beyond the Julia Roberts movie but I love movies like yours and Civil Action. I love movies that tell a David and Goliath story. My background is in environmental and I’m passionate about protecting it and the public health of the people who live in it.
This is not a David and Goliath story.
I don’t know you, but based on your portrayal in the movie you have a history of coming in hot to situations. That makes for a great movie and a stellar Julia Roberts performance, but it makes for a terrible communication strategy. Your recent assault on the water providers of north Texas has some holes in it. This blog isn’t to fill in those holes.
This blog is to say that I get where you’re coming from but when you come at it the way you are it does nothing to create lasting or positive solutions. What you’ve acheived is further driving a wedge between the public and the utility that serves them. These utility folks are people I call my friends and people who are just as committed to public health as you are. These are people who, every day, are seeking to find strategies that build trust and transparency with a public that only notices them when they feel something is wrong.
I know this because I was one of them for a decade. I left a job at a utility that I loved because I was so passionate about telling their story that I knew I couldn’t do it from the inside.
Why?
Because when the Erin Brockovich’s of the world get on social media and start scaring the bejeezus out of people and throwing around regulatory names and chemical abbreviations that the general public does not understand or have context with, the utility rarely gets the opportunity to tell their story.
Sure, they get to release a carefully crafted press release that’s been combed over by PR professionals and lawyers. Sure — they get to use wording that the state mandates they use. And YES, the TCEQ does enforce the water utilities in the state of Texas. When a notice of violation is a potential consequence for non compliance, that to me is the first clue that a requirement is mandated. I’ve completed the consumer confidence reports aka water quality reports for cities for ten years — I’m aware of the rules they are mandated to comply with.
I left my utility because after ten years I became acutely aware that my industry doesn’t have a voice. I’m not a scientist or an engineer. I’m a communicator. I’ve worked closely with scientists and engineers my entire career to understand the complexities of the industry to accurately tell their story. I’m passionate about telling the real stories of my industry and driving real change and innovation. I want to make the industry THE industry to be in. I want my industry to be a worthy rival to the Googles and the Facebooks of the world.
Why? Because what we do every day is SO important and quite frankly, the reason civilization exists to begin with. #NoWaterNoLife. It’s easy to throw that on a bumper sticker but it’s more than a slogan — it’s a fact.
There’s my “why.” What’s yours?
If your end goal is about bringing change to the industry — you’re speaking my language. Is there a better way to be treating our water? Let’s get together and talk about it. Let’s bring in all of the stakeholders. Let’s bring in any of the bad ass water innovators that I met at the Imagine H2O innovation forum in San Francisco last week. Let’s make it happen.
Let’s get together and figure out how we can use our partnership to create real change in the industry. Change that allows my industry to grow and thrive and provide the highest quality, safest product possible at a price that customers are willing to pay for.
If people are willing to pay $150 for a pair of shoes that cost $20 to make, but aren’t willing to pay the true cost of the most important resource to their public health — water — there is a problem in this country.
Let’s have any of those conversations around a round table. But please don’t come in hot and disparage the people of my industry. They work hard, in fact, they are some of the most hardest working, self-less people I’ve ever met. The people in the field right now ensuring your safe, clean drinking water and ensuring that the wastewater safely leaves your home get paid shit. At least, that’s the case in my experience. Sure, the benefits are great but how much would you want to get paid to work in human excremete plus all of the other things people flush down the toilet that they aren’t supposed to?
Please — don’t come in hot. You aren’t making things better in the long run. You’re only reinforcing utilities to stay silent because, in their eyes, no matter what they say, it’s only the Erin Brockovich’s of the world that get people’s attention. Can utilities be better at communicating with the public? Hell yeah. Girl, we know. In most cases — they know. That’s why we left our super stable/great health benefits world to start our own business — to help them!
Our industry is slow to change but there are incredibly driven people across this country that are working tirelessly to be the catalysts that incite this change. We need people’s help. We need the engagement — positive engagement — of the communities we serve.
Water people are my people. If you have an issue with a water provider can you please reach out to us first. Let’s talk. Let’s have a face to face conversation and not a one way social media post. We’re old school in that way.
And if you want change — I have friends on the east coast, west coast, and everywhere in between that would be happy to sit down and talk change. This is our life and our passion. If you want to talk real change, we’re here. Hit us up at roguewatergroup.com.
We respect your grit, your gumption, and your passion for public health. We are cut from the same cloth. But let’s talk with each other and not at each other.
