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In a world growing ever thirstier, it's a good time to be in the water business.

 
With California deep in drought and its governor ordering urban areas to reduce water consumption by 25 percent, many Golden State businesses have turned to two Minnesota-based companies — Ecolab and Pentair — for help.

 
The firms have deep roots in products and services that are stingy with water, and they're finding growing demand in parched California.

 
Take the Clement Pappas juice plant in Ontario, Calif. Pentair a few years ago installed a system that takes waste water from the plant's production and cleans it up so it can be used for irrigation. It saves about 400,000 gallons of water a month, a huge bonus for an operation that gulps down as much as 3 million gallons of water a month producing juice and other beverages.
 

The plant, though, will likely need to find ways to save even more water, manager Philip Mitchell said.


 
"Plants like ours are under a lot of pressure," he said. "We're producing a commodity that's primarily water. You can imagine what it'd do to our business if someone came along and said, 'Hey, you got to reduce your water consumption by 20 percent.' We've got to come up with other creative ways to reduce the amount of water we're using."

Minnesota's pending groundwater challenge

 
Pentair was known primarily as a power tools manufacturer before it started buying its way into the water technologies business 20 years ago, making 11 acquisitions in less than a decade. In 2012, the company paid nearly $5 billion for the valve and flow control operations of Tyco International.

 
California was already one of the largest U.S. markets for Pentair water pumps, filters and related products. And business has been picking up because of the drought, said CEO Randy Hogan.  Requests for bids are up about 15 to 20 percent in that state, he added.

 
Farmers want pumps as they reach for more ground water. Municipal water systems want to increase capacity and efficiency. And Hogan says commercial and industrial firms want to recycle water.

 
"We're seeing an increase in activity in the industrial setting for water re-use, as well as municipal projects and even in the food and beverage business," said Hogan, who's a member of Minnesota Public Radio's board of trustees.

 
"They're basically cleaning it to a standard that they can use it over and over again," he said. "And it keeps them in production so they don't get curtailed in their business by the lack of water that's available from municipalities."

 
Pentair's water system at Target Field offers an example of one approach.

 
Rainwater falling on the field is routed to a cistern under the playing field. That water is then filtered so it's clean enough to irrigate the grass and wash down the stadium's lower decks. The system provides about half the water needed for those jobs.

 
While the technology is promising, there are widespread legal impediments to some water recycling. Most places in the U.S. prohibit reuse of residential waste water and rainwater.


 
Hogan, though, said he expects communities will change their attitude about so-called gray water systems that, for instance, use sink water to flush toilets.


 
"Places like San Francisco are considering requiring the use of a gray water system," he said.

 
 
Ecolab is also seeing growing opportunities in California to help power plants, oil and gas companies and other heavy water users treat, conserve and reuse water. Its products, for instance, can help a hotel cut water use by a third, said Emilio Tenuta, the company's vice president of corporate sustainability.

 
California cities and urban water agencies face state orders to reduce water consumption by 8 to 36 percent.

"They're going to start to look at their facilities in terms of what can they drive in terms of reduction that they haven't already," he said. Gov. Jerry Brown's order to cut water use "is going to really be a catalyst to getting it done sooner than later," he added.

 
   
Ecolab and Pentair won't say how much California could pump up sales and profits. But Mike Ritzenthaler, an analyst with the Minneapolis investment firm Piper Jaffray, says Ecolab's water business could rise significantly.

 
 
"Instead of 4 to 5 percent growth in North America, we might see 7 to 8 percent growth," he said. "Increased regulatory scrutiny, customer awareness of about this problem — that's all going to drive eyeballs toward Ecolab's products because they do exactly what they need."

 
Not everyone sees a bonanza. David Rose, an analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, says that if one is out there for companies like Pentair, it's still years away.

 
 
"In the long term, companies like Pentair can benefit from water reuse," he said. "It could be helpful. But I don't think it's something dramatic for them yet."

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With the Golden State deep in drought, businesses there are facing stiff pressure to conserve water. Some are turning to Minnesota-based Ecolab and Pentair for help.

Minnesota firms help squeeze water use in dry California

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