Chris Gargan and Joel Irving: Providing Global Screening Solutions at International Water Screens
filter out debris while preserving fish, and are designed to last. In this interview, IWS Vice President Chris Gargan and Sales Representative Joel Irving tell Irrigation Leader about IWS’s product line and how it is expanding globally to meet water challenges on nearly every continent. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions. Chris Gargan: I’m the son of the owner and am now the vice president of sales. I began about 15–16 years ago and have been enjoying it ever since. I work for my dad, Rich Gargan, who worked for his dad for 18 years before starting IWS. I appreciate the opportunity to get to travel to a lot of places I might not otherwise be able to. I absolutely love working for my dad and with my brother-in-law. We’ve been fairly successful at keeping roofs over all our heads and food in our mouths. Joel Irving: I grew up on a cattle and grain farm in Saskatchewan, Canada, and chased the professional hockey dream for about 15 years. I ended up in Bakersfield, California, where I met my wife, Monica, who is Chris’s sister and Rich Gargan’s daughter. Once the hockey career was over, I needed to transition over into another passion. Rich gave me the opportunity to learn about his company and where he wanted to go with it, which involved being more aggressive in Canada and the northern United States. I took on the challenge and worked out in the shop for about 6–8 months. Then he said, “Go,” and I said, “Where?” He basically told me to go somewhere and sell screens. I go into engineering firms and do presentations at trade shows. Like Chris says, it’s been a good transition for me because I still get to travel. That feels like what I used to do all the time. That’s exciting for me, and it’s been a great opportunity. Irrigation Leader: Were the skills that you learned growing up on a farm conducive to working in the shop at IWS? Joel Irving: Absolutely. I don’t think I had ever experienced heat like the heat of the shop here in Bakersfield, but I got through it. If you want to learn about your product and be able to sell it properly, you need to dig into the nuts and bolts and find out how it operates. That’s what I had to do, and I learned from the best—our service guys.
A pair of large IWS screens being installed.
38 | IRRIGATION LEADER | September 2021
Chris Gargan: We’ve been in business since 2003 with the objective of protecting pumps, irrigation pipelines, and irrigation systems by screening out debris. We manufacture what’s called a traveling water screen as well as troughs, conveyors, elevators, and many other bells and whistles. In the beginning, irrigation was our main focus, but we’ve branched out to many other industries, including wastewater treatment; irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF IWS.
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ne challenge that is common to irrigation districts and water users worldwide is the need to remove debris and other substances from water while also protecting fish and other wildlife. Screens that can filter out debris without harming fish are important tools for doing just that. International Water Screens (IWS) is a global leader in the design of fixed and moving screens. Its screens are custom built to customers’ needs, feature state-of-the-art features to
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the history of the company and its mission.
