452 UV Innovation and Whole-Building Water Safety with Ron Blutrich

Scaling UP! H2O

Content provided by R. Trace Blackmore, CWT, LEED AP: Water Treatment Enthusiast, Trainer and Consultant. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by R. Trace Blackmore, CWT, LEED AP: Water Treatment Enthusiast, Trainer and Consultant or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

11d ago 1:03:40

MP3•Episode home

Entamoeba histolytica nearly ended Ron Blutrich's scientific career. Instead, it pushed him to rethink how we protect people in multi-family buildings, senior facilities, and dense urban centers from invisible microbiological risks in their drinking water. In this episode, he joins host Trace Blackmore to unpack what whole-building UV can (and can't) do for Legionella, biofilm, and real-world water safety.

When One Bad Cup of Water Redefines a Career

In the middle of his PhD in molecular genetics, Ron drank from an under-sink reverse osmosis tap at an Airbnb and contracted Entamoeba histolytica. The infection triggered more than three years of severe gastrointestinal symptoms and a 100-pound weight loss, despite being "clinically cured." That experience—and the lack of clear answers—led him to dig into how governments, utilities, and buildings actually manage microbiological risk in water. He discovered that even in urban centers, there is "a lot left to be desired" in monitoring, guidelines, and the epidemiology of waterborne disease.

UV at the Point of Entry: Why Medium Pressure Matters

Ron explains why he chose UV as the primary disinfection tool for CLEAR's whole-building solutions. He contrasts conventional filters (carbon, RO, media) that remove contaminants but do not kill biology with UV systems that directly target DNA and other cellular structures. He walks through the differences between low-pressure and medium-pressure UV, including temperature independence for hot water recirculation and the broader wavelength spectrum that can damage DNA, proteins, membranes, and even DNA repair enzymes. That same technology is being used for multicellular control in marine environments, ballast water, and mollusk control, and Ron argues it is uniquely suited to domestic hot water systems facing Legionella and biofilm.

Legionella, Biofilm, and the Limits of "Good Enough"

Drawing from CLEAR's field work, Ron describes how often Legionella shows up in single homes, condos, and new buildings, and how standard practices typically focus on remediation and short-term clearance instead of long-term prevention. He highlights the gap between ASHRAE 188's recommendations for hot water temperatures and real constraints in senior housing, where anti-scalding concerns keep tanks too cool to reliably control Legionella. He also shares stories of property managers and public agencies reluctant to test because they lack cost-effective treatment options or don't want to confront what the data might show.

Scaling UV from Towers to Single Homes

Ron walks through why conventional media and RO systems don't scale well to large towers—footprint, cost, and pressure loss—and how CLEAR instead installs inline UV systems at the point of entry. These systems can handle up to roughly 2,000 gallons per minute, require minimal head loss, and are designed as a single point of installation and service. From there, he explains how his team layered on monitoring and a tenant-facing dashboard so that properties can see UV dose, transmittance, and flow in real time, and service can be triggered based on performance instead of fixed schedules. He also discusses emerging opportunities in UV LEDs and next-generation media that could make fully comprehensive point-of-entry treatment feasible in more buildings.

For leaders responsible for building portfolios, senior living, or high-density residential properties, this conversation offers a rigorous look at what it really takes to move from "we hope the water is fine" to a defensible, data-backed stance on microbiological safety.

Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!

Timestamps

04:59 - Trace talks about skipping turkey and ham this year and explains his usual turkey-stock "ice cube" tradition

13:59 - Trace introduces today's lab partner, Ron Blutrich of Clear Inc., and sets up the UV-in-buildings topic

13:03 – Events page shout out

10:57 - Water You Know with James McDonald

16:21 – Drinking from an under-sink RO line at an Airbnb, contracting Entamoeba Histolytica

19:15 - Why unmaintained RO and carbon filters can increase microbiological risk

23:27 - UV to keep post-UV systems cleaner

34:51 – Installation

40:23 – Cyanotoxins, Great Lakes algal blooms, and using medium-pressure UV to denature toxins, not just microbes

43:31 – Ron's current habits

48:08 – Future Opportunities: UV LEDs

49:04 – Multi-spectral UV LED arrays

Quotes

"And what I learned really changed my life, because what I understood is that even in urban settings, not just in remote communities, there's a lot left to be desired when it comes to water quality, water quality treatment, guidelines, monitoring" - Ron Blutrich

"I think that in general, we need to understand with our eyes open exactly what it is that we do when we treat." - Ron Blutrich

"So generally, there's a lot left to be desired in terms of what we're trying to do for Legionella. It turns out that Legionella is extremely susceptible to UV. Legionella can be reduced almost 6 logs with most conventional UV systems" - Ron Blutrich

"So, at this point, our UV systems, it's an inline system. It's basically a section of pipe that happens to disinfect the water going through it. It's a single point of installation, a single point of service. There's no head loss, there's no pressure loss" - Ron Blutrich

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/

Guest Resources Mentioned

ORIGINS OF ORDER: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution by Stuart Kauffman

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan

Clear Inc – Whole-Building UV Water Purification

Entamoeba histolytica Infection

CDC Household Water Treatment

EPA Guidance Manual: Filtration and Disinfection Requirements

WQA Guidance for Sanitizing Residential Treatment Systems

Application of Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes (UV-LED) to Full-Scale Drinking-Water Disinfection

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines on Water Treatment for Wilderness, International Travel, and Austere Situations

Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned

AWT (Association of Water Technologies)

Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses

Submit a Show Idea

The Rising Tide Mastermind

Water You Know with James

Question: What is the interaction called when chemicals react on a mole-to-mole basis that could possibly be considered the opposite of the Threshold Effect?

Events for Water Professionals

Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.

469 episodes