Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 615 is my conversation with Florida Keys residents Rich Vanek and Donnie Connor, who co-founded a smart pipeline monitoring startup designed to protect waterways by catching sewer and water-line failures before they turn into environmental disasters. We get into how the technology works, why aging infrastructure in places like the Keys puts fragile waters at risk, and how two locals decided to build a solution rather than wait for one.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · stream the full episode.
Rich Vanek and Donnie Connor are Florida Keys residents who co-founded a smart pipeline monitoring startup. Their company protects waterways by detecting sewer and water-line failures before they become environmental disasters.
Their startup uses smart pipeline monitoring technology to detect sewer and water-line failures early, before leaks and breaks can pollute surrounding waterways. The goal is to catch problems while they are still fixable rather than after the damage is done.
The Florida Keys sit in a fragile marine environment where a sewer or water-line failure can quickly become an environmental disaster. Rich and Donnie explain why aging infrastructure in sensitive areas makes early detection so valuable for protecting the water.
The technology monitors pipelines for signs of failure so that sewer and water-line problems can be identified and addressed before they release contamination into waterways. In the episode Rich and Donnie walk through the approach and the problem it is built to solve.
As Florida Keys residents, Rich and Donnie saw firsthand how infrastructure failures threaten the waters they live around, and they decided to build a technology-driven solution. Hear the full story of how the company came together in the episode.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 615 with Rich Vanek & Donnie Connor is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Megaphone. This is an audio episode.
I live and fish in the Keys, so a conversation about protecting these waters always gets my attention. What grabbed me about Rich and Donnie is that they are locals who did not just complain about the threat aging infrastructure poses, they built technology to do something about it. I wanted to hear how two residents turned that concern into a real startup.
Press play on the audio version of this episode to hear the whole conversation in their own words.
Rich and Donnie founded their company around a specific threat: sewer and water-line failures that can quietly pollute fragile waterways. They explain why aging infrastructure in sensitive places like the Keys makes this such a serious problem. Listen to that part of the conversation in the episode.
The whole idea is to catch failures before they become disasters. Rich and Donnie walk through how their monitoring technology detects problems early and why early detection changes everything for water quality. Hear how the technology works in the episode.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · stream the episode.
The Keys are surrounded by a fragile marine environment where a single failure can do outsized damage. Rich and Donnie talk about what is at stake for the water, the wildlife, and the people who depend on it. Listen to their perspective in the episode.
Rich and Donnie did not have to be the ones to solve this, but as residents they decided to build the solution themselves. They get into what it took to turn a local concern into a company. Stream the full conversation to hear it.
What I love about this one is that it is conservation through engineering. Rich and Donnie are not just raising awareness, they built technology that prevents the kind of failures that quietly damage the waters I care about.
Living in the Keys, I do not take clean water for granted. The work these two are doing is exactly the kind of practical, local problem-solving that actually protects fragile places.
Stream the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Megaphone.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Rich Vanek · Donnie Connor · Florida Keys · smart pipeline monitoring · Tom Rowland Podcast · waterway conservation
Rich Vanek and Donnie Connor are Florida Keys residents who co-founded a smart pipeline monitoring startup focused on protecting waterways. Their company uses monitoring technology to detect sewer and water-line failures before they become environmental disasters, an effort driven by their firsthand experience living around the fragile marine environment of the Keys.
Subscribe to get the latest episodes, show notes, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.