Key Takeaways A diverse workforce is important because it increases productivity and engagement and creates an organization that better represents the community it serves. During the hiring process, understand the value of word choice, disseminate job postings to underrepresented communities, and assess potential areas of bias. The interview process should emphasize the value that a candidate can add to an organization and not how a candidate would be a good cultural fit. To recruit a diverse workforce, ensure that all qualified candidates will feel welcomed to apply for a job opening and have a clear understanding of all job expectations.

Research indicates that inclusive teams and gender-diverse companies are more productive and more likely to outperform their peers. Understanding inclusive language, not only regarding race and gender but also as it applies to people with disabilities, is key to fostering an employee's sense of feeling included or excluded. To promote diverse and inclusive work environments, water professionals must use appropriate and respectful language as a way to check personal biases.

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As Texas cities experience an increase in incidents associated with water quality contamination, the need for publiceducation and engagement increases. The discussion in this paper identifies, based on publicly available data, three of the most common incidents in Texas related to drinking water and environmental contamination: boil water notices (BWNs), sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), and lead in drinking water. Trends observed from 2011 to 2016 indicate a sharp upward increase in the incidents of such events. Increased frequency of incidents that threaten water quality often erodes public trust in the city and utility, thus making it more difficult in the long term to get public support for increased investment in water and wastewater infrastructure. The recommendations in this study focus on how to manage communications when events associated with water quality create a public relations challenge for city and utility leaders. Citation: Mulki S, Rubinstein C, Saletta J. 2018. Texas' water quality challenge and the need for better communication in an era of increasing water quality contamination events. Texas Water Journal. 9(1):108-119. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v9i1.7059.