AWWA Water Champion – Tarrah Henrie, Fremont, California

Tarrah Henrie is director of water quality for California Water Service. She is a 2024 recipient of the George Warren Fuller Award for the California-Nevada Section, which is given to members for distinguished service — emblematic of Fuller’s expertise and dedication — to the water sector.  She is a member of AWWA’s Inorganic Contaminants Research and Manganese committees.

Education/certifications: B.S., Environmental Soil and Water Science, Utah State University; M.S., Soil Science with a chemistry emphasis, University of California–Davis. D2 and T2 in California; Cross-Connection Control Specialist, Cal/Nevada AWWA.

Career Summary: I started with Cal Water in 2000 as a temporary water quality program assistant. I’ve been working on regulatory compliance and treatment challenges ever since, as I moved up the Cal Water ranks. I took a break from Cal Water and worked at Corona Environmental Consulting for several years, but then came back to Cal Water in 2021.

Job duties: They are pretty widespread. We have multiple water systems in California, New Mexico, Hawaii and Washington. The water quality departments from all those subsidiaries report to me, so mainly [I am responsible for] water quality compliance, treatment reporting for all of our subsidiaries, and cross-connection control. We have a state-of-the-art, state-certified laboratory here in San Jose, which I also oversee.

What does receiving the Fuller Award mean for you? I can retire happy now. I have dedicated my career to providing safe, clean water to our customers through water quality assurance and feel very honored to receive the Fuller award.

Are you seeing more women at higher levels within organizations in the sector? In water quality, I definitely am. When I started, there were already more women in water quality than in some of the other technical aspects of drinking water. In operations, it’s still ‘few and far between’ to see women in management; but in engineering and water quality, it’s pretty close to parity

What attracts women to water quality positions? I think some women can be drawn to water quality because it’s technical. At the same time, it also feels like you’re doing something good for the world. It has that aspect of “I’m helping people,” which makes it really gratifying.

What do you feel you’ve gained from being involved with AWWA? I really love the technical learning opportunities; but even more than that, I appreciate the opportunity to network with others in the water community, solve challenges and brainstorm together, and talk to other companies and cities about how they’re handling water quality challenges. That is an intangible benefit to all the AWWA interactions.

I’ve also held leadership positions in the Cal/Nevada Section and [at the association level] on the Inorganic Committee. I was also on the Technical Advisory Group for several years, so we really have a chance to influence policy on the backside to get our concerns heard by AWWA, and then we can take those to the regulatory agencies. It’s really a powerful way to have a conversation about regulations and their impacts and to do what’s most appropriate to protect the health and safety of our customers.

Describe your family and some of your shared family interests. I am married and have three kids. We also have a mini zoo at our house: We have four chickens, two bunnies, three indoor cats and one indoor-outdoor cat.

We [play] music together, and we’ve even recorded a couple little CDs, which we send out as Christmas cards. We like to hike and do other adventurous things, like river rafting and camping. I like to do all the activities that require a waiver.

What would people be surprised to know about you? People would be surprised to know when I went off to college, I had a discussion with my dad about becoming an artist. I was really enjoying my art history class at the time, and I really liked art. I still do. I told my dad that I didn’t know if I should major in engineering or in art history. My dad said, “Well, I’ll give you a hint. I would only pay for one of those degrees, and it’s not art history.” That’s how I ended up finally deciding on my technical path. It was parental coercion, which I now appreciate. I tend to keep a low profile on the art stuff, because it’s just a little unusual for a scientist to have that as an interest.