An Interview with John Barelli, Founder of WaterSurplus
The sustainability story of WaterSurplus began before it became a trending topic. The concept of recycling and redeploying idle water treatment assets has been the core business model of the Illinois-based company since 1999. CEO John Barelli saw an opportunity to deploy recycled surplus water and wastewater treatment systems to the farthest corners of the globe to address water filtration demands and solve emergency, short- or long-term filtration challenges. Today, the vast majority of the company’s business involves new and rental equipment, but WaterSurplus still maintains the largest marketplace of surplus and used water treatment equipment, membranes, and resin.
The company’s case studies illustrate its ability to not only respond to customers’ operational needs but also deploy equipment to address emergency situations such as the following natural disasters.
In the summer of 2024, the firm responded quickly to a natural disaster in Louisiana. Lower than normal water volumes flowing down the Mississippi River led to a saltwater surge moving north from the Gulf of Mexico. This so-called salt wedge put at risk many water treatment systems that were designed to draw in and treat fresh surface water from the lower Mississippi River. In coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers and other organizations, WaterSurplus deployed and held in reserve enough state-of-the-art reverse osmosis (RO) filtration systems to produce more than 4 million gallons of potable water per day to address the crisis.
In response to the September 2024 Hurricane Helene disaster, the University of North Carolina, Asheville called upon WaterSurplus to help restore essential water treatment services to reopen their campus to UNCA’s 1,600 students. Extensive flooding had caused significant disruption to water infrastructure in western North Carolina. The company sent an advanced mobile water treatment system, in collaboration with Onsite Water Management, LLC, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The system, when connected to the campus’s water distribution network, provided up to 280,000 gallons of
potable water.
Another area of focus for the company is providing rapid response water treatment equipment for municipalities that identify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their water supply. Despite the urgent desire to stop delivering PFAS contaminated water, the lead time for the capital equipment that removes PFAS is typically more than three years. In anticipation of this crisis, WaterSurplus spent the last several years investing in the development of a fleet of mobile PFAS treatment systems that can be rented for temporary use or purchased for permanent use and can be delivered within a matter of weeks.
The company recently sold a PFAS removal system to the city of Kalispell, Montana to treat forever chemicals detected at their Grandview Wells site, which surpassed EPA established limits. In August 2024, Kalispell Public Works Director Susie Turner said that the system can treat up to 2,000 gallons per minute.
“We’re able to keep our wells online, provide that treatment and not jeopardize capacity,” Turner said to the local news outlet, Daily Interlake. The paper had reported that in 2023, “officials detected forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, at the two Grandview Wells located near the Flathead Valley Community College, a residential community, and a park.”
WaterSurplus also has proprietary innovations to offer. To learn more, we spent time with Barelli to discuss the company’s innovative approach to supplying water filtration systems, and the innovations that keep them responding to the immediate needs of the industrial water and wastewater filtration marketplace.
International Filtration News: Give us a brief history of the company.
John Barelli: After working in water treatment at the beginning of my career, in 1989, I founded Pure Solutions, Inc., which served as a manufacturer’s representative company selling new equipment focused on water treatment for large industrial users. In 1998, sensing a void in the marketplace, we developed a market-wide sustainability strategy of repurposing surplus water treatment assets and renamed the company Surplus Management, Inc. Then in 1999, I ultimately rebranded the company as WaterSurplus.
We gradually began serving many markets, including the municipal market. As water quality and scarcity issues grew, water availability and water reuse became more important and, to us, more interesting.
Now, through thirty-five years of continued investment in the industry, we have established a foundation of consistent growth and more recently, rapid innovation with our excellent team of over sixty people working to replenish the world’s water and serve customer needs, collaborating with important industry partners where we have established key relationships.
Contaminants on the rise like iron, manganese, radium, and arsenic became pressing concerns, and then, of course, the big one – PFAS. We were fortunate to have already been working in this space when PFAS became a major issue. Recognizing the growing demand for solutions, we continued investing in the municipal sector, and over the last 10 years, we’ve been very focused in that marketplace.
Municipal Water Challenges
IFN: What common problems do new customers typically need solved or customized to their unique challenges?
Barelli: There’s definitely a common requirement of having to meet drinking water standards. As people drill wells and need more water, problems may arise – such as a well failing to provide water within standards. We often deal with common groundwater contaminants regulated by drinking water standards. One area where we excel is radium removal. Jim Groose, our municipal groundwater expert, has a lot of experience treating radium. Other issues include iron and manganese.
We approach projects by building relationships with engineering companies and municipalities. We take our time to understand the problem in its entirety and act like a consultant for our customers. Typically, we run pilot plants to ensure proposed engineering designs work as planned. Quite often, we learn things from the pilot that help the customer operate more efficiently and sustainably. By doing our research upfront, we can optimize our systems for customers.
Rise of Emerging Contaminants
IFN: Is there an increase in different kinds of contaminants over the last 10 years?
Barelli: For sure. There are various emerging contaminants we keep an eye on. Even existing contaminants behave differently over time. For example, someone might have a well where the iron level is within safe limits, but two years later, changes in well structure or water quantity push it out of compliance.
PFAS are now newly regulated, and that’s a dynamic issue. If a municipality has multiple wells and one is out of compliance, shutting it down can lead to PFAS appearing in other wells. It’s a complicated problem – not just from a chemistry and treatment perspective, but also in terms of hydrology, pumping, and water management. We work closely with government agencies, operators, and engineers to provide optimized solutions rather than just quoting to specifications.
Expanding Beyond Municipalities
IFN: Besides municipalities, what other kinds of customers do you serve?
Barelli: We have a strong presence in multiple industries. Food and Beverage is a big market for us – we do a lot with bottled water, carbonated beverages, and alcohol production.
Our expertise in filtration and membrane separation leads us to projects across different industries. We’ve built strong relationships with major beverage companies. If you treat them right, they keep sending you projects, and you build a pattern of success. The same happens in the municipal world – our good reputation keeps bringing in more projects from different communities and engineering firms.
PFAS and the Future of Bottled Water
IFN: With PFAS concerns, what is the state of plastic bottled water packaging?
Barelli: What we are seeing is a trend toward glass and aluminum cans in the beverage industry. A lot of drinks that could be in plastic bottles are moving toward cans. The canning sub-sector is very dynamic. The microplastic issue seems incredibly overwhelming, but it’s an emerging contaminant that might be even more regulated with time. However, at this time, our treatment methods don’t change based on packaging. The shift toward non-plastic options seems to be more about consumer awareness and brand positioning.
Product Innovation
IFN: Can you give us an overview of your innovations?
Barelli: Many of our innovations are rooted in improving efficiency. That can mean different things in different situations. It can mean less water to drain, fewer chemicals, a reduction in energy consumption, a smaller building to house the equipment, or fewer membrane elements and filtration media to the landfill over the life of the system. That said, our portfolio of IP falls into two major categories, filtration and reverse osmosis.
For filtration, we have developed a family of catalytic media, OxiPlus75TM, OxiPlus12TM, and SandPlusTM that improve efficiency in treating radium, arsenic, iron, and manganese. For reverse osmosis, our flagship patents are ImpactROTM and Nano-StackTM. NanoStack is a bio-inspired, superhydrophilic-coated membrane resistant to scale and fouling, which extends membrane life and reduces offline cleaning needs. ImpactRO is a revolutionary multi-stage brackish RO with several patented innovations, optimized to deliver the smartest and most efficient RO performance in the world. ImpactRO delivers up to 96% recovery, reduced energy consumption, significantly reduced membrane fouling, and increased system up-time. membranes, lengthening the time between offline clean-in-place (CIP) Occurrences, improving the recovery of flux after each CIP, and decreasing antiscalant consumption, water to drain, and energy use, and thereby, operational expenditures.
Rapid Response System
IFN: What does it mean to offer a PFAS Rapid Response System?
Barelli: It is interesting how we entered the PFAS market. We were already in the rental market and recognized that communities were struggling with PFAS compliance while waiting for regulations, permits, and funding. The lag time from identifying the problem to potential solution was significant.
Our first entry into the PFAS space was through temporary rental assets using an ion exchange resin to capture PFAS and quickly return the water to compliance. We were the first to bring PFAS solutions like this to Wisconsin and completed the first PFAS temporary rental in Canada. We even deployed one to a military base in California.
IFN: What is the company’s “rapid response” capability in emergencies?
Barelli: Our project in Kalispell, Montana, is a great example. They called us, and we had a system on-site within two to three weeks. Two weeks later, it was operational. So, in about five weeks, they had a solution. That requires a big capital investment – we stock specialized resin and keep equipment ready to deploy.
For some smaller communities, renting the system indefinitely makes more sense than building a permanent one. We offer that flexibility and work with customers to find the best solution for their needs.
Our approach is really driven by our core values – being proactive and resourceful. We aren’t necessarily a disaster relief company, but because we have such a large inventory of equipment and expertise, we can respond quickly when communities are in need.
For example, during the Asheville situation with the University of North Carolina, it wasn’t part of a strategic plan for disaster relief. But when we saw we had the right equipment to help, we jumped in. That mindset is what guides us – being ready and willing to help where we can.
Ongoing Research and Development
IFN: What research projects are you currently working on?
Barelli: We are conducting a lot of PFAS research, testing different media and pilot programs. Every pilot is essentially a research project because each scenario presents unique challenges. Additionally, we recently completed a grant-funded study with the Bureau of Reclamation on ImpactRO and NanoStack for groundwater contaminants in high-recovery RO applications. Another major project is with Orange County, California, a leader in water reuse. They are testing our NanoStack membranes and seeing great results with lower pressure and energy use.
We’ve also just patented NanoScopeTM, a predictive monitoring system integrated into our ImpactRO. NanoScope detects membrane fouling up to 15 times faster than traditional RO monitoring systems, allowing proactive interventions. With over 30 installations, we continue collecting data to improve performance.
IFN: You mentioned your large inventory a few times. How important is that to your ability to respond quickly in these situations?
Barelli: It’s absolutely critical. Our rental fleet, combined with our ability to build and customize systems quickly, is what allows us to respond in days or weeks, not months. For example, in April and May of 2024 two tornados hit the town of Minden, Iowa. One destroyed the town’s only water treatment plant. We had filtration systems on the road within 48 hours. Without that inventory, the people of Minden would have been without clean water for much longer. It’s all about having the resources on hand and mobilizing them immediately.
IFN: Can you talk a bit more about how that project unfolded?
Barelli: That one hit close to home – both literally and figuratively, Minden is only a few hours away from our headquarters in Illinois. The first of two tornados ripped through the small town and took out their water treatment plant. The Iowa Rural Water Association (IRWA), in partnership with the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, reached out to us for help. Our VP of Municipal Water, Jim Groose, was on the phone with our mobilization team throughout the weekend. Because we had the right equipment ready to go, we loaded a filtration system onto a truck and had it there within days of the storm. The contractors connected it quickly, despite a second tornado hitting the town and within a week or two, they had potable water flowing again. It’s one of those moments where you see directly how your work impacts people’s lives.
And an interesting note about that project is that they are still deciding whether to purchase that system for permanent use or commission a new system. But either way, it’s a win. If they return it, we can redeploy it to another town. If they buy it, they have a great long-term solution. It’s about flexibility – helping communities when they need it but also making sure our assets are ready for the next call.
IFN: Why is sustainability such an important value for your company?
Barelli: For us, sustainability is practical and intelligent business. It’s not just about ESG or reducing our carbon footprint – though those are important. It’s about efficiency. Reusing and repurposing equipment reduces waste and costs. For example, if we can take a system from a closed facility and repurpose it for another company at a fraction of the cost, that company can invest the savings into job creation or innovation. Sustainability isn’t just good for the environment – it’s good for businesses and communities.
IFN: Talk more about how repurposing assets creates opportunities beyond cost-savings.
Barelli: One of the things people often overlook is that repurposing assets drives innovation. We’ve worked with a lot of startups and innovators who needed water treatment systems for pilot projects. Instead of spending millions and waiting months to build something new, they came to us and got what they needed in weeks for a fraction of the cost. That means they can test their ideas faster and bring solutions to market sooner. So, sustainability, for us, isn’t just about conserving resources – it’s about accelerating progress.
IFN: How do you see water treatment challenges evolving?
Barelli: They’re accelerating – faster than people realize. Groundwater depletion is a real and growing problem. We’re seeing more communities fall out of compliance with water quality standards because their water sources are shrinking and becoming more concentrated with contaminants. At the same time, climate change is driving more extreme weather events – floods, droughts, hurricanes – that disrupt water supplies. All of this is pushing demand for innovative solutions like water reuse, mobile treatment units, and advanced filtration systems.
IFN: Do you think that public awareness is keeping pace with the urgency of the problem?
Barelli: Not yet. Water tends to be invisible until there’s a crisis. People don’t think about it until it’s gone. But I do think awareness is growing – especially after events like the Mississippi salt wedge or the recent wildfires in California. People are starting to understand how fragile our water systems are. But there’s still a lot of education needed.
Water issues are global, but they’re also local. Every community faces its own challenges –whether it’s scarcity, contamination, or disaster recovery. That’s why we take a flexible, solution-oriented approach. Sometimes that means providing emergency equipment after a tornado. Other times, it means helping a company reuse its wastewater to reduce demand on local supplies. Our goal is always the same: solve water problems and help communities thrive.
