Sam Nakhleh
Chemical engineer. Forty years designing membrane and biological systems that clean water for cities, factories, and buildings no sewer could reach.
Background
Sam Nakhleh is a chemical engineer who spent more than thirty years developing microbial and chemical membrane applications for municipal, industrial, and home water and air purification. At Dow Chemical — which at the time owned FilmTec and Nalco — he led the development of hydrophilic membranes, the technology at the base of the global desalination industry today.
He then founded EPS, an integrated design and engineering firm that built custom treatment and recycling systems for demanding clients, from IBM's semiconductor operations to New York City Sanitation, and designed separation systems for small molecules used in aerospace components. Much of that work was wastewater recycling for buildings where a sewer connection was impossible or where high-clay soil ruled out septic systems — including buildings sited on top of landfills. It included obtaining regulatory approval for recycling systems in homes, apartments, and commercial buildings. Sam sold EPS about twenty years ago; it is now part of Veolia.
He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Manhattan College and an MBA from Michigan State University.
Why fire
After moving to San Diego, Sam watched the Laguna fire destroy twenty homes worth ten to twenty million dollars each, and then watched the fire chief tell reporters that no preventive options existed — that it was climate change and would happen again. To an engineer who had spent a career building closed water systems for buildings that had no water infrastructure, that was not an acceptable answer. ARMS is his response.
Why water
Sam's view, formed over decades of analyzing what actually arrives at the tap, is simple: utilities are required to test for a few dozen contaminants, industry produces thousands, and the pipes between the plant and your house are old. He built AquaReject as the last step — a point-of-use membrane that rejects what the system upstream did not catch, and a $250 lab-analysis reimbursement so that customers can verify it on their own water.
MBA, Michigan State University