THE INNOVATORS
The Voyager: An Affordable Response to Nitrate Contamination
Filtra's Voyager mobile water purification platform.
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any rural agricultural areas across the United States have issues with nitrate contamination in their groundwater but lack the funds to build a large water treatment plant. That’s where Filtra-Systems steps in. The Oklahoma-based company has created the Voyager, a mobile water treatment station that is more affordable than a full-scale facility. Small communities can buy one or more Voyagers to treat their water, or can enter into service contracts with Filtra, reducing their up-front costs even more. In this interview, Kent Foster, Filtra’s senior vice president of business development, speaks with Irrigation Leader about his company’s solution and why it makes sense for rural communities with nitrate contamination issues. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position. Kent Foster: I started as a manufacturing employee, went through trade school, became a welder, over time rose through the ranks of the shop, and in my early 20s, became a plant manager for Siemens Dematic. I oversaw its manufacturing facilities in Oklahoma and Texas and spent time in some of its facilities in California and Alabama. About 16 years ago, I went to work for Chickasaw Nation Industries, which has a manufacturing facility in Marietta, Oklahoma. Eventually
30 | IRRIGATION LEADER
I became the vice president of operations. Today, I’m senior vice president of business development for a company called Filtra-Systems, which is wholly owned by Chickasaw Nation Industries. We have manufacturing facilities in Marietta and in Tennessee, each about 120,000 square feet in size, and an engineering office in Farmington Hills, Michigan, right outside Detroit. We have about 165 employees in total. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about Filtra and its services. Kent Foster: Filtra-Systems is a solutions-based organization that provides turnkey engineering, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance services for filter systems. We’ve got over 40 years of industry experience, specializing in large custom-designed industrial filtration and separation products supporting the municipal, energy, industrial, and automotive markets. We have the ability to deliver mobile systems as well as modular systems. We have over 50 patented products, and we ship products to every continent except for Antarctica. Irrigation Leader: Who are your clients? Kent Foster: In the automotive industry, we serve as a tier-one and tier-two supplier to all the major automotive
