Ep. 51 - Frank Ramos on Water Contamination and the Future of Clean Water

Most of us never think twice about turning on the tap. But what if the water we rely on every day contains far more than we realize?

Michael Nathanson sits down with Frank Ramos, Founder and CEO of Save the Water, to discuss the growing challenges surrounding water quality, contamination, and public awareness. Frank shares his remarkable journey from immigrating to the United States from Cuba to becoming a chemical engineer, environmental advocate, and founder of a nonprofit dedicated to identifying and removing harmful contaminants from water sources.

The conversation explores the Everglades Clean Drinking Water Initiative, forever chemicals, endocrine disruptors, water testing, and the science behind protecting drinking water for future generations. Frank also reflects on family, a 60-year marriage, volunteerism, fishing, community involvement, and why clean water is one of the most important issues facing our world today.

Whether you're concerned about environmental protection, public health, water quality, or simply want to learn how one person can make a lasting impact, this conversation offers an eye-opening look at a resource many of us take for granted.

Contact Michael Nathanson:
Email: Michael@soldbythebros.com
Website: https://soldbythebros.com/

Contact Michael Nathanson:
Email: Michael@soldbythebros.com
Website: https://soldbythebros.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome back to Food, Family, and Philanthropy, the podcast where we shine a light on the people and organizations making a difference in our communities and around the world. You know, most of us don't think twice about turning on the faucet, filling a glass of water, or taking a shower. Clean water is something many of us simply expect to be there whenever we need it. But for millions of people around the globe, access to safe, clean water is not guaranteed. It's a challenge that affects health, education, economic opportunity, and quality of life. And as our population grows and environmental challenges increase, protecting our water resources has never been more important. That's why I'm excited to welcome today's guest, Frank Ramos, the founder and president of Save the Water. Save the Water is focused on ensuring communities have access to clean water today while also protecting water sources for future generations. Their work includes testing water sources for contaminants, educating communities about water quality and conservation, and developing innovative water purification technologies that can create sustainable solutions where they're needed most. Frank and his team understand that clean water is more than a convenience, it's a necessity. It's the foundation of healthy families, thriving communities, and a better future for all of us. Today we'll talk about the growing importance of water stewardship, the impact Save the Water is making, the challenges that still exist, and how each of us can become better stewards of one of our planet's most precious resources. Because at the end of the day, food nourishes us, family connects us, and philanthropy gives us the opportunity to leave the world better than we found it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, Frank Ramos. Thank you so much for being here, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Thank you, Michael.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

My pleasure. How did we do? Is that good? Yeah, that was good. We hit some important parts there, right? Well we'll expound on all of that. And uh yeah, what we're gonna talk about today is is very important, right? It's something we like I talked about in the intro, we we take for granted. We take it for granted. We just turn on the faucet and expect clean, good water and take a shower, brush your teeth, have a glass, jump in the pool, whatever it may be, we take it for granted. So there's issues.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

We think that when we flush it, that that water is gone forever.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

The water that we have today is the same water that we always had, and the only water we will ever have.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

It's just in a cycle back and forth.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So, but we have this notion that we flush it and it's gone.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Right. I used to think that way. Yeah, and I uh I was lucky enough to do this amazing class through the Boca Chamber of Commerce called Leadership Boca. It's a about 40 local business members, uh, business owners, every other Wednesday for an entire day, get on a bus and go learn about Boca and the area, you know, and the and the county. And one of the days we went to the water plant in Boca, I've driven by a million times, never even questioned it. Never even questioned it. And we drove by and I learned a lot about how, yeah, all the water goes back through there. They they clean it, and you know, you have the the water you use that's not good enough for drinking, use it to to water the lawns and and then the drinking water, and it just keeps recycling. It's uh it's it's amazing. So, you know, a lot of times I'll I'll start the the podcast and I'll talk a little bit about kind of the real estate market and what's going on. I've I've been in real estate locally for feels like a million years, but about 20 years. Uh yeah, it's listen, the market's going. It's hot, it's cold, it's like a day-by-day thing. It's it's been a weird market for the last couple of years. It is what it is. And as I say always, if you have questions, give me a call. Let's go grab a coffee or lunch on you, of course, and uh and we'll talk about it. Um so we're talking about Save the Water, right? The mission, protecting water resources and advancing clean drinking water solutions. Uh I would love, you know, before we kind of get into the the fun stuff that we like to talk about, the food and the family part. Uh I would love for you to tell us a little about uh the Everglades Clean Drinking Water Initiative. It's uh it's something that you got going on here. Yes. Who you would tell the world a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

This is something uh that uh it was very close to our hearts, and we wrote a proposal and we have a study on it, because the simple reason is that we found endocrine disruption in alligators. What that means is that alligators' offspring are being born with mostly female with both sexes or deformed genitalia. Now, when you have uh an animal that is so high in the food chain with those uh endocrine disruption problems, it's time for us to be concerned. Yeah, this happens, this study was conducted back in uh the late 80s, and nothing has followed up. So we are going to follow up. Uh we uh one of the things that we talk about is forever chemicals. Yeah, forever chemicals, they're called out because they do not go away. Right. Yeah. So uh what do we think that the chemicals back in the 80s went away? No, they have we have added much more more.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Uh so this is the reason for the Everglades Clean Drinking Water Initiative because eight million people drink this water. Wow. And the existing water treatment plants that we have today do not remove the endocrine disruptors.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Really?

unknown 5:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

The the plants that we have today treating uh the drinking water are not efficient enough uh to remove these large organic compounds. They just pass right through.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

And if by any chance you've removed some of them, they're caught on the sludge or in the biosolids, and they are used as a fertilizer. So you put it right in the back of the floor.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, wow. Man, like we talked about, this is something we take for granted every day. And uh thank you for doing what you do. I mean, listen, we'll dive, we'll dive much deeper into exactly what you do. I think the people already have an idea. You're a pretty smart guy. You understand a lot. I mean, listen, I mean, we're all smart in what we care about, right? Yes, we always and you've dedicated your life to this. And me, Janine, the world, thank you for this. But before we dive deeper into it, let's let's let the people learn a little bit about you, right? Because what you're doing is very important. But who are you, Frank?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

I'm a normal guy. Yeah? Well, that's the goal, isn't it? Uh actually, I was born in Cuba. Awesome. I came to the United States as a teenager.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Okay, I married uh my wife. I've been married to my wife for 60 years.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Wow. 60 years.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

We congratulate together. I mean, I I don't know what I do without her. She's the reason that Dharma is still here, probably. So she lets you. Yeah. I have some. Same with my wife. She lets me have children, grandchildren, great-granddaughter, and uh, you know, uh, and family is probably what that's kept me together most of the time. I've um uh I've been working the I first became involved with water back in the mid-60s.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Uh we had a problem up here in the United States called uh eutrophication. Our rivers and lakes were turning green uh from excessive nutrients. We didn't have laws. Everybody was discharging everything in all the rivers and lakes, and we had a mess.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah, just throw it in, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

They there was a saying uh dilution is the solution to pollution. Not true at all. Yeah, okay. So um we went through that, and uh I I was involved in that project because I was working for a company that manufactured phosphates. Okay, and phosphates were one of the culprits. So uh we were very involved in that atrophication uh project. So after that, I kind of you know just uh it seems like water followed me throughout my career as a chemical engineer. And um at the peak of my career, I was invited uh uh twice to the White House for environmental conferences uh during President Clinton. And uh I was also invited to Kuwait to assess the environmental damage in Kuwait after the Gulf War. So I have traveled quite a bit, nationally, internationally, in many water projects. And um uh at the uh I was considering retiring and uh thinking I, you know, I know this about water and uh I'm reading an article about whales and dolphins having cancer. Wow, and I say, What in the world? This is September 17, 1999. That is the day that I reached the save the war. Uh and I said, Whales and dolphins having cancer? So I really look for it and says, Well, the whales and dolphins have thousand times more polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, the stuff that we use for electric conductance and is used in the transformers. Um thousand times more PCBs in the fat tissue than um than humans. Immediately I said they're swimming in it. How can you save the whale? You cannot save the whale, you cannot save the dolphins, you cannot save anything unless you save the water. I went and went and I said, Save the water available. It was at save the water.org, save thewater.com. I raised them that day. Uh I called a couple friends of mine um and I said, uh, I I want to start this nonprofit called Save the Water. And uh uh after five people, one jumped in, and it was Alan Fusco. And fortunately, my friend Alan Fusco that jumped in with Save the Water day one, um uh he died of prostate cancer, which I believe was caused by contaminated water. I believe that uh prostate and breast cancer uh are caused by the water that we drink. Wow, that's so uh here I am all the way from Cuba, came here. Uh I'm I'm actually a self-taught chemical engineer, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Really?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Wow, no kidding, huh? Yeah, I'm uh good for you. I mean that's unbelievable. I mean, the things you're doing are are unbelievable. And so you talked about family, so you're married for 60 years. 60 years. Wow. I mean, I hope I hope to get there someday. Hopefully, I make it that long. I've been with my wife this year in uh in a couple months. We're gonna be, this is what, 2008. I was married, so 18 years married in a couple months. You're doing good. So I'm saving up. We're saving up for 60. Uh, I think that's absolutely beautiful. And how many kids do you have?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

I have three, uh, two daughters and a son.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Excellent. Are they local?

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Uh, one daughter is local. Uh, my son is in way over there in uh Washington State, and my uh other daughter lives in uh the middle state of Florida. She was just here uh this weekend.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

And we went to the beach at the stand.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Good for you. It's nice to get some sun every now and then, isn't it? It's funny. I'm uh I'm a very busy man between business and being with my family. I have I have two children who I, you know, I adore, and my older one, he actually just graduated high school, but he was a singer, so I was always at his concerts. My younger one is a basketball player, okay, and he practices, he has three practices a week between two to six or seven games every week. Sometimes we travel. It's so it takes a lot of time, so I don't get outside that often. This weekend we had nothing. I was telling my my uh administrator for my real estate team, Kelly, man, I I did yard work for two days and I loved it. I'm sore, I'm tired. Man, it felt so good because I enjoy doing it. I don't listen, I don't want to have to do it. Yeah, I want to be able to do it and do it. I had a blast, man, mulching and painting and ripping stuff off. Yeah, it was awesome. I had a great weekend. So get out, get some fresh air, get some sun, jumped in the pool. Hopefully, it was hopefully it was clean. Um, and uh, no, that that's really great. So, three kids, how many grandkids?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Uh, I have uh two grandsons, and uh one of them has a daughter, so I have a great granddaughter. Wow, good for you.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

That's a matter of fact, she's 13 now.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Wow, congratulations. Listen, that's that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

It's a blessing, it's really a blessing. The uh the children and the grandchildren is what make this world go around.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah, it really does. Yeah, listen, I uh my my parents always taught me that it was uh it was worth having kids to get to the grandkids. Yes, they said, listen, your kids are gonna give you a hard time, that's their job. Yeah, when you get to those grandkids, makes it all worth it. No rush to my children, please. No rush, but I do want to be a grandfather.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

It's not yet actually you enjoy the grandkids and especially the great-granddaughter. Oh, what's it such a joy for us? Yeah, yeah, good for you. Um a day uh after my birthday. Nice. When I turned 70.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Wow. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Yeah, good for you. Good for you. And you met your wife here?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Uh uh, well, actually in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

St. Louis, Missouri.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

She's American or she's from no, she's American. She's American. Good for you. I mean so in St. Louis, huh? It's amazing how things work, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good for you.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Uh I I uh I am also American. You know, I was born in Cuba, but you know, you know, I came here as a teenager. I wasn't even formed completely when I came here, and I grew up as a teenager here, and you know, it's it's where you grow up, where you become absolutely yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

My wife is the same. My wife is from Brazil. She moved here when she was about 15, and yeah, you know, she's she's an American. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And uh, you know, I think that's absolutely beautiful. Very good. So I want to talk about food a little bit. Okay, like you like food?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Too much, probably.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Uh same here. Do you have a favorite local restaurant?

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Um, I don't go out as much anymore, but there's two places that I was thinking about when I I know that you were gonna ask me this. One of them is a crab house.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Over there in uh, and the other one is a Spanish restaurant on uh on 84 call uh is just talking about ice on 84 and uh uh oh my goodness. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Plus, I'm dying here, man. I gotta get some good food.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

This is Spanish food.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Okay, I eat everything.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Um It's alright, you'll think of it. We'll come back to it. So you cook at home mostly? Most of the times, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Uh the wife and I alternate. That's nice. She learned how to cook Cuban food from my mom. Beautiful. She does a pretty good job at it, and we alternate. One day I cook and the next day she cooks. Um we're both the same age. Unfortunately, she's not as small as I am. Um, but uh, you know, we we get along.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's great. You know, it coming from a different culture. Listen, I'm American. I was born in Massachusetts. I've I grew up in a very American family, and I got with my wife, Brazilian, and you know, they're all loud and yelling and music, and I absolutely love it. And many years ago, I uh I was taught, and I I luckily I learned how to do Brazilian barbecue. Okay, so I'm the guy every time. There's a barbecue. This guy's at the at the grill. I love doing it, and it turns out I'm pretty good at it. Yeah, good, good. Uh so much fun. But the the Brazilian food, too. Oh, I love my wife, my mother-in-law.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

They make the restaurant is called Tamarindo.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Tamarindo.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Tamarindo. It's on 84, it's a few blocks uh west of uh of Few S1.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Right there by the port, coming out of the port. It's on the right there. It's uh they have a so what do you get there?

SPEAKER_01 14:38

What do you like?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Um, one of the things that I they have a platter, the mixed things, and they have the fried bananas and they got the chicharrones, and they got the all the little croquettes about eight different things of the platter.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

That sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Uh, but uh they have to go for that now.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Kind of I haven't had lunch yet. Uh go for that now. It sounds good. Um, I think that's great. Listen, it's food has always been a huge part of my life. It's growing up. Mom always said food equals love. Yeah. And uh, you know, so it's a great place to get together with family, friends, and just have a meal, have a laugh, just get together and just enjoy some some company where you don't have to worry about the water killing you or or a business deal going bad, or whatever it is. You can take a few minutes and just relax, right? So I think that's beautiful. Uh, so right, we talked about food, we talked about your family a little bit. And I want to talk about something I know you're very excited about sports. Yeah, very exciting. I know you're telling me you're very excited about this. Right. You'd mentioned to me kind of before the show that you're not a huge sports guy. By the way, that's okay, just so you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

I I'm a swimmer uh and I like boating, I'm fishing, but yeah, you know, and I'll watch a game.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

But not that I'm gonna go out and look for a game to watch or got any favorite team. You know, if the Dolphins are playing, of course, I you know, I go along with the crowd.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Co-patriots, yeah. No fresh patriot. Um, I think it's great. You mentioned fishing. So do you go saltwater, freshwater? Saltwater, fishing, saltwater. Also, you're catching big stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah, I like to catch the catch.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Catch, release, eat.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Uh release some and keep one to eat.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Although, you know, nowadays um the fish is difficult to find a clean fish.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yeah, very difficult.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Yeah, that's tough. Listen, it's uh I totally get that. So my younger son, Jacob, who's he's 13 years old, just recently started getting into fishing. Now, I grew up, my dad and I used to go fishing all the time. We'd get in the canoe, we'd go, didn't matter if you caught anything. That was all fresh water. I grew up in Massachusetts. We just go on little lakes and streams and all that stuff. Down here, there's water everywhere, right? So we, you know, my son and I, we go and try and find little spots to go catch. And it's just it's really cool. He's excited about it all the time. It's fun. We don't keep, we just catch, release. Uh it's first off, he would never eat it. The kid would never wouldn't eat fish, not if you paid him. I like fish, but I don't want to kill it, clean it. Yeah, right. I'm good. I'll leave that, I'll leave that to the other. So for us, it's just get some fresh air, stay off your phone, stay off the TV. Go if you catch something cool, if not cool. Like what we went, what day is today? Today is Tuesday. We went Sunday. We went fishing this little lake right near my house and could see all the little rainbow, the little rainbow bass were kind of running around having a good time. They wanted nothing to do with us, but we had a we had a great time. You know, it's nice. It's nice to just get out there. I haven't taken them out on the the salt water stuff yet. I uh I'm sure we will. I gotta take some uh the the the motion sickness thing. Sometimes we go out on the boats, I get a little a little queasy, but I think it'll be a a great time go out there. I think I'd be scared to catch something big though. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Well, it's kind of exciting, and uh most of the time if you got something big, usually let it go before you even bring it in the boat.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah, hopefully. Yeah, I don't want to touch that thing and I can measure the size of the hooks you use. Jesus. I mean, they've got to be like the size of my arm, right? Um again, I'm a rookie in that part, but I think it's great. I have I have a friend who's a fisherman and he catches and cooks, catches it, clean, kills it, cleans it. Absolutely delicious. A grouper, all that stuff. It's uh phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

There is a guide to eating fish in Florida. Sorry to tell you. Really? Yes, and you can just get it from the internet from the state of Florida.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

And he tells you some fish you can eat maybe once or twice a week, and some fish you cannot eat at all.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Really? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, I know I've heard over the years about like tuna having mercury in it. Well, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

The bigger, some of the bigger tuna is not a big deal. Uh some of the tuna is not a problem, but some of the other problems, and the sardines are not a problem either.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

You know, amazingly. Uh but a lot of the fish in especially freshwater fish. Really? Very difficult.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, it's very contemporary. It stinks, it stinks, but it is how it is. And um, so for sports, right, there's large events, so there's an increased focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility as far as water with these with these events. So, how how does that play? Like uh are sports teams reaching out to people, or they don't care, and people are reaching out to them saying, Hey, you need to focus on this, or is it kind of a mix of both?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Or well, um, you know, regarding uh the philanthropy part of it and the sports, uh, you know, uh there's just not that much um uh like you uh started the conversation with we take water for granted. Yeah. We take water for granted. Do you know how much water is used in one of those events?

SPEAKER_01 19:41

I can't even imagine. I couldn't even guess the number. I'm assuming thousands and thousands of things.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Flushing the toilets and cleaning and washing afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

It's quite a bit. Uh but again, um you know, save the water. We're looking for a spokesperson. Yeah. So, you know, we would love to have somebody big in sports take a loving to save the water and say, hey, this is important.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Yeah, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

This is necessary, yeah, it's important to do. Uh, I don't know if we mentioned what the mission of save the water is.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, we talked about um protecting water resources and advancing clean drinking water solutions.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Well, the the actual words in our mission are important because our mission is to conduct research to identify and remove harmful contaminants in water and to raise public awareness. It's exactly what you said, but when we say it in our words, it's important because the words identify and remove is what the key here.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Very important words, yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Uh I want to when it gets the time, I want to talk to you about some numbers and why identify and remove is so important.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Do I want to hear these numbers? I think so. Yes, I do, right? You've it's easier to easier to ignore, but you can't. It's too important. Too important, right? You need to be able to do that. You got a great grandkid. Yeah, yeah. You gotta have her have some water when she's older, and her kids, and her grandkids, and her great grandkids. And man, it's uh it's crazy. So, like I said, we talked about some food, we talked about sports. Again, it's okay to not love sports. I love sports. It it kind of I grew up with it with mom. Dad never really loved sports, but mom and I really connected on it. I played sports, I still play sports, my son plays. It's just it's a great way for connection for me. It definitely is, and I love that, and I love good, healthy competition. I still I coach basketball as well. I coach one. I coach two different teams. One my son is on, and I actually coach a girls' basketball team as well, 11 to 15-year-old girls, and I don't have a daughter. I just do it because I love it and it's a way to give back because it's not it's not about you know putting a ball into a hoop. I try and teach these young adults, yeah, these people that are becoming our future, right? About life, about doing right, about making good choices, even when nobody's looking, about helping someone, things like that. Because, of course, basketball's great and basketball's fun, but I'm pretty sure that most of them will not make the NBA. I'm pretty sure. I'm not saying they can't, but statistically, they're probably not. Going to. Right. So if you can learn, because growing up, right, your parents don't know anything. They're idiots. They don't know anything. You they'll tell you something, and the neighbor will tell them the same thing, and the neighbor's right, and your parents still wrong.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

So I like to be that male role model to help offer positivity and and growth and learning and acceptance and things like that. So that's why I do that. And it's uh selfishly, it's very fulfilling because I get to help these people. As as you know, I can't tell you how many times I've had a single mom call me for a kid that I coach say, Hey, we're having this issue at school, we're having this issue at home, whatever. It made nothing to do with basketball. Would you talk to them? Oh, that's great. And I've said, of course, of course, absolutely. It'd be my pleasure if I can help even the slightest bit, help make a difference. That's awesome, right? Because it's gonna make the world better. Yeah, and listen, that's that's kind of how this podcast came about. So I've talked about it before many times on the podcast, but I do this because I never heard of you before Josh introduced us. Yeah, right? I never probably never would have had the opportunity to sit down with you and to have a conversation with you and learn about you. And the cool thing is that there's people watching and listening, and there the goal of this is that one person, a hundred people, a thousand people, whatever it is, are gonna hear and go, Oh wow, I didn't think about that. That is really important. How can I help? Can I give money? Can I donate time? My cousin died from drinking bad water, whatever it is, there's gonna be someone out there right now who it's gonna connect with, and they're gonna be there to help you, which is gonna help the world. So that's what this is about, just so you know. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. So I've had some amazing people on the show that I never would have had the chance to meet before. So I'm I'm so glad you're here. So now I want to talk about what you do, right? So you're the founder, you're the man 26 years ago, right? What's your role? What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Uh well, right now I am focusing on fundraising and science. Because we did uh install a president, I'm CEO now, so we install the president and the president is running the organization, and I get to concentrate on the science and the fundraising.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Good for you.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Um the basic uh uh work of Save the Water is based on its mission to identify and remove harmful contaminants. Okay, what is this exactly that we want to identify and remove? The contaminants of emerging concerns. Why? Because there are so many. And I'm gonna go to some numbers now that you probably never heard before. We have something called the chemical abstract database. That is a uh an association that assigns a number to every chemical known. Okay, we have 290 million chemicals registered on that data. 290 million chemicals. That database goes at the rate of 15,000 chemicals every day. Those are the laboratories all over the world doing organic chemistry and making new chemicals. 15,000 every day. Okay, we have 350,000 chemical compounds in commercial use in the United States. What are those chemical compounds? 350,000 to make everything that we have. Okay, because there are 100,000 of those iron foods and consumer products. So we got three hundred and fifty total, yeah, 100,000 iron foods and consumer products. Okay. Now we manufacture, watch this number, 10 trillion pounds of those 350,000 chemicals a year.

unknown 25:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Get that number. 10 trillion pounds of 350,000 different chemicals year after year after year.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

I'm sure the number just grows, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Well, uh, it does grow and and it's just all disposable. The chemicals are just coming in, we're consuming them, and they're just adding and adding and adding. Now, of these 10 trillion pounds, 35 billion fall under the Toxic Substances Control Act. And I'm only going to repeat that. I don't know what they're controlling. There's 35 billion pounds of toxic substances.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Right. I guess. So where does that go?

SPEAKER_00 26:23

That goes into our foods and consumer products and everything that we have. Yeah. Okay. 700 million pounds are made of PFAS. The PFAS is the new thing, for every chemical thing that from the nanstick pants and the firefighting foam and all that. 700 million pounds a year of that, right? The EPA regulates 106. We have tested 200 in 50 years, and we suspect 100,000 in our drinking water. Now, you tell me, identify and remove. There is no way that anyone is going to stop this manufacture of 10 trillion pounds a year. We're going to continue to manufacture because you and I want the car, we want the phone, we want the cosmetics, we want the personal care products, and we want all the conveniences that we have. Nobody's going to give them up. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Okay. Nobody's going to give up the conveniences. Nobody's going to so society demands that we manufacture 10 trillion pounds of chemicals a year, every year after year. What is the answer? The only answer is identify those chemicals and remove them from the water before you drink.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

There's no other answer.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Yeah, I mean, those numbers, I mean, let that sink in for a second. Those numbers, the numbers aren't don't seem real. They don't seem real. I mean, yeah. They don't seem real. It's crazy. So that's what you do, huh? That is what we do.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

So that is what we do. We go out and collect samples of water from the Everglades right now. We're working on the Everglades Clinic Water in Ipsit. We go out and get some samples from the Everglades. We come into the lab, we analyze it. Okay, and we find out what's in it, and then we do our water treatment. We got some real sharp water treatment that we do, and when then we analyze it afterward, we identify and remove it and identify again, make sure they're not there.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Okay. We don't write petitions, we don't protest, we don't do any of that stuff, we don't dig wells, we don't do that. We go out and get a sample of water, we find out what's in it, and when then we treat it to remove those things out of it. Wow. That's our work. Period.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah. Wow. So how does save the water combine science, technology, and community engagement?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Well, we also have what we call a day in the life of a scientist program. Because it's very important that the children know about the water contamination problem. So we have this program that we do have virtually and we have it in person. And we also have a field trip to the Everglades. Wow. So what we do, uh many schools right now don't even have a science program.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

So we connect with the school, they always love it. They don't even know we exist. And when we find a school that they just love it. And we go up and take a classroom and set up a laboratory in the classroom with a microscope and a computer and everything set up so we can look at the thing and everybody can see in the computer the microbes and things. And then we do some water chemistry and stuff. And hopefully they go home and tell their parents, and hopefully it Well, it um it's it's a it's a 50-minute class, and we run as many students through the classes as possible during two days of classes. So we show the kids how the it's fun, it's fun being a scientist. That's the idea of the whole day in the life of a scientist, and we make it fun for the kids with their chemistry and the microscope and things. Perhaps one day they'll become scientists.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

So we also have uh a publishing team that publishes directly into our website, uh, Water and Insights. We publish about water contamination, water treatment, and all kinds of water related issues.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

And we have our research and engineering team that um uh we have 14 scientists in research and engineering. We write technical papers and we do and we have a chemical, a CEC database where we already identified 30 3,000 chemicals that are the first chemicals that we're gonna start testing in our laboratory.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Uh the EPA regulates 100. Those are the only chemicals that are being tested. We already identified another 3,000 of the 100,000 suspected in the water that we want to start testing.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Right. Wow. That's amazing. Right. We need we need a thousand of you.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

We need uh or more. Or more.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

And we need people to be involved. You know, we it's I mean, we spend ten dollars on a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

We need people to be involved. I mean, uh a cup of coffee a month to save the water. Uh if you if you consider how much of the water you consume, and if you could donate five, ten dollars a month to save the water, it this is a tremendous help because we need the continuous support. If you give me $100 today, I'm gonna spend it.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

But if you give me $5 a month, that'll last a long time.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Right. I understand. It makes sense, yeah. And so you have you're building or looking into building a state-of-the-art accredited water quality laboratory as well, right? So that's we're gonna be testing those 3,300. Exactly. Oof, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Exactly. We the same equipment that is used for a commercial laboratory that we're gonna be accredited for, and that laboratory up here in South Florida could generate about $10 million in business. Wherever you did the market research for it. Uh, that laboratory can produce about $10 million in business. The same equipment that we use for those $10 million uh in revenue is the same equipment that we use to run thousands and thousands of other chemicals on the Everglades.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

We're just using the same thing, okay? So we run for businesses in the day and we run for the Everglades at night.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

But we duplicate the equipment and continue to run. And this is what we want to do a perpetual study of the waters of the Everglades.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Great. Well, listen, yeah. I mean, just need to do it and let people know, right? So that's what we drive. When people get upset, they start to make changes, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah. Wow. And so you also have partnerships with universities, businesses, community organizations. Tell me about that. Like what how do you partner with them?

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Well, um, we have uh several tiers of uh partnerships that uh I I don't really have them all, but uh you know, depending on the amount of donations we share with you, certain documents we put you on the website, and we do social media, we share our social media with followers, and uh um basically uh most of our partners are just people that donate maybe a thousand, two thousand dollars a year to us.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Okay, but uh really we're really looking for a bigger partner, and we're we're willing to uh call it then the the Michael Save the Water Laboratory.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Yeah, listen. I get it, yeah. Okay, uh, you know, I mean uh we'll put the family name uh to the name of the laboratory. We really this is bigger than just uh one person, and this is bigger than me, and bigger than many of us put together.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Uh if if we we need the funding, we need about five million dollars right now to get the first uh accreditation. Okay, and that will give us the building. Perhaps when we get ready to that point, we can you can help us find the building that we need.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Yeah. Um five million to start.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Yeah, that's what we need. But we don't need it all at once, though.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

We could get it, you know, we get that money in a quarterly basis.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

The goal is the person's listening, right? Yes, yes, the person that's got it. Yeah, that didn't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

And again, five dollars a month is fine too. Yeah. Okay, because we need a million people to give us five dollars a month and we're there. Right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

I totally get it. Um so I know you talked about the Everglades Clean Drinking Water Initiative, and that's awesome, right? You're testing and figuring out how to get that stuff out of there. Yes. Right, to make it safe for us, for the animals, for the environment. I I think that's great. You talked about money. Is there, right? How how else can people support you? Is there volunteer opportunities?

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Is there we have well we're totally operated with volunteers? Right now we have about a hundred volunteers in our organization.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Okay, wow.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Fourteen of them are scientists.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

And we have uh maybe 10, 15 PhDs in the organization. Okay, people that have really seen the the vision and the mission of Say the Water, and they've seen the problem and they dedicate themselves. We have volunteers have been with us over eight years.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Wow, that's great. Obviously, there's there's a reason. Yes, there is a reason for that, okay?

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Uh we have uh PhDs that work for the government in other jobs, right? And they're also But you don't need to be a PhD to volunteer. You you don't need to be a PhD.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Just somebody who cares, wants to make the world better, supports what you do.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

There was a girl from Canada that came in, she was a high school student. Yeah, she has to talk to me. And I usually don't get to talk to many other people because I just don't get to talk. We have a team of people that takes care of everything.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Uh, so she has to talk to me. I said, lovely, I want to talk to her. And you know, like I when I she says, and she was an intern, and I told her, When you finish your internship, why don't you tell them that you want to go ahead and volunteer? Because we don't accept people under 18. Uh it's gotta be 18 years old.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

So she became uh 18 and she became one, she became the director of operations within two years.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

No kidding, huh? Yeah, wow. We're proud of her. That's beautiful. That's beautiful, right? Just that's great. I love stories like that. That's absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

So 20-year-old goal is a director of operations in our organization.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

That's great. So I want to get off this for a moment. I want to go to one of my favorite segments. Okay. So this is good. This segment is called The Book of Awesome. So what I'm gonna ask you to do is just open up to a random page. Okay. Okay. You're gonna read the highlighted sentence at the top, and hopefully it's gonna spark some sort of good thought or memory or feeling, and then just share with the audience. And if you get one, there's a few weird ones in there. If you get a weird one, you can pick another one. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Okay, so you have some highlighted in here.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

But it's amazing. You'll open, it's amazing how the world works. A lot of times the first one you open to it hits home. It's something that, right? So does that mean anything to you?

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Finding out that your birthday is on a Friday or a Saturday next year. Okay, really, um, not because I usually celebrate my birthday for a whole month.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Yeah? Oh, yeah? You're a diva, you're one of those.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Well, my family does. I'm just joking. Okay, no, my family does. We uh we have this standing thing regarding birthdays that uh we go to the beach on our birthdays.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Oh, yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

Usually, you know, uh my daughter comes down, my son tries to, but uh, we've been doing this for a long time, and we do a beach barbecue, and uh, and that is our favorite thing to do. If we spend a day at the beach on the birthday, and if it's a Saturday, it doesn't matter. Actually, um I don't like going to the beach on Saturdays or Sundays. I go there in the week. Too many people. Yeah, too many people.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yeah, it's too crowded. I get it. I totally get that. Uh, I think that's wonderful. Listen, those those birthday traditions are are great. That's what that's what your grandkids are gonna be talking about long after you're gone when they're when they're sitting with their grandkids. Oh, you know, my grandpa, we used to go to the beach on the birthdays, right? We did have the birthday. They're gonna they're gonna be telling those stories for years.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

And we don't have as many people right now, but we still do it. Yeah, we still do it. Yeah, listen, it's important.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Listen, I have a small family, yeah, and we do we do the stuff together. I mean, it's it's important. Yeah, that's great. You know, with my family, we actually every Sunday we do Sunday family dinner. Okay. Uh a lot of times it's at my house, but we switch off cooking between me, my brother, and my mother-in-law. And now my wife's aunt and uncle just moved here from Massachusetts, so they're they're partaking now, so we're switching off. And I gotta tell you, it's it's great. I look forward to it. It's just a nice time to just relax, kick back.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

We have a similar we uh Friday nights, we have company all Friday nights. Some of my children, my grandchildren, somebody always comes over on Friday night.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

That's beautiful. Yeah, that's beautiful. And then you take turns cooking, you and your wife.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Yeah, me and my wife take quick turns cooking.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

That's perfect. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

We do the all the the all I do most of the housework, and uh, once a month I get a lady to come in and do it. But during the month, I do the sweeping and clean everything. That's beautiful. Uh, you know, she's done it all her life. She gave me three kids and she's worked very hard. That's great. Now that I help out, I still got the energy and I still, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

Absolutely. You know, so yeah, I feel like we're very similar. I can't sit still. I'm not good. Every now and then I'll be like, oh, I'm exhausted, I need a day off. And I'll go, I'll sit on the couch, I'll turn on the TV, and then 10 minutes later I'm like, I can't do this. I gotta go do something.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Uh my head doesn't stay there watching TV.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah, yeah. I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

You know, I got things to do. I uh I get up at six o'clock in the morning every morning, whether I sleep or not.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same, same. I get it. So for people that are looking to get engaged in nonprofits and just helping the world, how how can people participate in environmental protection, whether it's with you, somewhere else, their own thing, whatever it is, just some advice for them.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

It is um, I mean, it it's always good to do something that is bigger than yourself. I mean, that that means so much personally, uh, when you do something that you know that is bigger than what you could do alone. I myself am amazed at the over 100 volunteers that we have that I have nothing to do with.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Right, right, right. They're doing there that's the word volunteer. They're giving their time to help a greater cause.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

We have a human resources group, and Sunita is the director of the group, and uh Chi continues to bring these people in, and this is a guy here, there's a new guy in marketing, there's a new guy in research and engineer, and we continue to get all these people in the group, and I say, Well, God put this in here because if I was doing it myself, I would sure mess it up.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, listen, that's what smart people do is they hire and bring in people to do the things they're not good at. Right? So that's important, right? That makes that means you're smart.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Getting into philanthropy and getting into the environment is very important. We, of course, we have volunteering positions, but uh and you know, whatever expertise you have, we have a spot because we are a business.

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

Okay, we need people in marketing and finance, we need people in all the departments. Um, but um basically you don't have to really do a lot. If you can commit to five dollars a month for the water, I mean how much money do you spend for a bottle of water out there when you're at the whole at the airport? I think there's seven dollars.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Jeez, yeah. My brother complains every time. I said, stop complaining. You already know it's gonna be expensive.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Water costs more than gasoline.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Yeah, okay. It's crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

So you figure if you you can drop five dollars a month to a water organization, you know, save the water if if that's the thing. Identify and remove is the thing that really you think is the important thing. This is what we think is important. Identify and remove. We we're not gonna be able to the chemicals are already in the water.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

We can figure out how to get them out and then stop the other ones. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

And stop the other ones from getting in there.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

So do you ever host events or anything like that to help raise awareness and money and things like that? Do you have anything coming up or do you have any annual events that you do?

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Or well, we do uh unfortunately at this time we don't uh our team that does the local events is kind of weak. And boy, that requires a lot of work.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Yes, it does.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

I have arranged a couple of the events myself.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

It's exhausting, isn't it? Very stressful, exhausting, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

I arranged one. We had a nice dinner at uh on uh in 2023, and we had a breakfast uh last year, and we haven't done anything this year, but we I do give events and I do give a little talk about water, and I talk about those numbers and you know uh and this type of thing. We do have events and we also do cleanups. We go with uh the University of Miami and get together. We are partners with the EU University and uh we do cleanup, beach cleanups. That's great. Um every third Saturday we do a cleanup at the Marina Bay when our office is. That's great. So I love it.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Yeah, yeah. I I had a guest on here a few months ago who's with another organization that cares about water a lot too, is Four Ocean. The Four Ocean, yeah. And I gotta say, it was uh it was great as well because right, obviously they're different than you. You have different ways that you do things, they're both very important. Yes, right. So it's uh, you know, I think it's great. The the listen, beach cleanup's not tough. To be honest, what I do uh and uh my wife, my brother, so my brother lives in the same neighborhood as me, thankfully. So unfortunately, our our mom passed away about seven and a half years ago, almost eight years ago. And our father moved in with my brother, and a house came on the market in my neighborhood, seven houses down, so they bought a house together, so I get to see them all the time. So me and my wife and my brother, we go for walks around the neighborhood. It's a it's a quarter mile, so we just go go a couple of times, get some fresh air and to talk about our days and things like that. And uh a couple years ago, I started bringing with me one of the little grabbers. Okay, yeah, and a and a public spag. Let's go. Just a little bit. If everybody did that, can you imagine what it would be? Just a little bit. I go, oh, bottle cap, uh, piece of paper, whatever it is, just clean up a little bit to make my area a little nicer. Yeah, yeah. And uh, you know, I just think it's beautiful when if everybody does a little bit, it makes a huge, huge difference, right? So I think it's wonderful what you're doing. Please don't stop. Don't retire, keep going.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

I've already passed my retirement. Uh my mother uh worked, uh, she died at 93, and she worked until the day she died. Yeah, you know, so I guess I took after my mother. We're not re I I don't know what I would do if I didn't have the lab. I, you know, yeah, I feel in my head. I got some experiments that I got going back over there that I'm just thinking, dying to get back there and finish it.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

Yeah, I think that's beautiful. I love your passion. I mean, it I think it definitely shows through to the people the the passion for just wanting to do good, wanting to help, wanting to make a change and a difference. And you know, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

I want to say thank you for the time that you've given me here, and I thank you, you know, your listeners to uh consider, you know, water is something that we take for granted, and we should not, we should be considering and be worried about some of the diseases that we can catch from water, and we're not trying to really clean it, right? Nobody knows about it, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Yeah, I mean, listen, it's uh it's great. So we're gonna put this all all the information out there. It's gonna go live next week through everywhere. You can you can download a Spotify, Apple, all that stuff, and through social media, we'll be tagged, you know, tagging you, collaborating with you through social media and getting this out there. And we'll put in some of those numbers, those scary numbers, and how to contact you, how to donate, how to volunteer, all that stuff. And and hopefully we can just, like I said, if it's one person, if it's a thousand people, it makes a difference.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

If it makes you feel good, uh, you can donate five dollars a month, ten dollars a month to something that really, really gonna come back and help the future. Yeah, uh, I think uh, you know, we're worth it. There is other couple of charities that I donate to. Uh, there is a Christian charity that I have some children. I, you know, I send them ten dollars a month, you know, not much, but you know, I like everything else. Uh the tunnel for towers, I like that organization. Yeah, you know, so I throw in ten dollars a month hoping that you know somebody that's the great thing about being human, is we're not all the same, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:09

You can have passion about something, it doesn't make you wrong because it's different than you. No, no, it may it's just as right. Yeah, it's just as right, right? And it's just I I think it's it's beautiful. Listen, I I am uh the chairman of the board of the YMCA in Boca Raton. Okay, I'm very passionate about children. So I fight to make sure that no matter what's going on at a kid's home, that they have a safe place to go where they can play sports, learn how to swim, go to camp, right? There's a death, a job loss, a divorce, whatever it may be. You're gonna have a place you can go where you're safe. Oh man, right? So that's what I fight for, and it's beautiful too. So it's all about that. So anything else you want to share with the with the world before we we wrap this up? Or you scared us enough. You scared us enough with the numbers.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Just consider when you're drinking water, you just consider there might be a hundred thousand chemicals in that water when you take a sip. And regardless, where it's bottled or top, yeah, the chemicals are in the water already.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

Yeah, yeah. So definitely some stuff to think about, people. Please and consider a few bucks a month, right? One cup of coffee. It's gonna make a difference. It could save someone's life. Literally, it could save someone's life. So please consider it. Frank, thank you so much for coming today. This has been a great experience. Josh introduced us. I'm so glad that he did. Uh, and my friend Aitan is the one who introduced me to Josh. So it's all about those relationships. So I just want to say thank you so much for your time. It has been great, eye-opening, and can't wait for everybody to hear about it. And uh, for those of you at home who listened, uh, make sure you subscribe, you download, share it with a friend, share it with someone you think that could really benefit from listening to this podcast. And uh thank you all again for listening to another episode of Food, Family, and Philanthropy. Bye.