Transparency
Public data belongs to the public. We make water loss visible.
Our Story
How this started
My name is Kirin Ballem. I'm an 8th grader at Delbarton School in Morris County, New Jersey. I've spent the last few years reading the Wall Street Journal, following financial markets, and studying how industries work, including the ones most people never think about.
Water infrastructure is one of those industries. And the more I looked into it, the more I found the same thing everywhere: trillions of gallons of clean water lost every year, billions of dollars wasted, and the people paying for all of it, ratepayers like our families, with no way to see what was happening or demand anything different.
The data existed. The accountability didn't. So I built Project Watershed to create it.
What We Stand For
What we stand for
Mission
To end America's silent water loss crisis by making utility performance transparent, communities informed, and accountability unavoidable.
Vision
A future where every American ratepayer knows how their water utility performs, and no community pays for water that never reaches their tap.
How We Operate
Three pillars
Accountability
Utilities must answer to ratepayers, not just regulators.
Action
Every grade connects to a solution, not just a score.
Positioning
What makes us different
National scope
The closest existing model covers one state, built by one professor, with no plan to expand. We're taking it national.
Consumer-facing design
The industry already benchmarks utilities against each other, but keeps the data private. We publish it.
Water loss specificity
Other tools tell you if your water is safe to drink. We tell you if your utility is wasting it.
Accountability with solutions
A grade alone just creates noise. We connect every low score to funding and technical resources that can actually fix it.