User:Denisehader/sandbox

Urbans Aqua
Urbans Aqua is a wholesale distributor of water treatment equipment and supplies- residential and commercial water softeners, filters and specialty equipment; ion exchange resin, activated carbon, filter media, control valves and parts, fiberglass tanks, pumps, etc. Urbans Aqua does not sell to the general public; the company is strictly wholesale. www.urbansaqua.com

Urbans Aqua, legally established in 2017, is owned by Michael Urbans and his sister, Denise Urbans. On September 30, 2017 Urbans Aqua successfully acquired Michael Urbans’ “business territory” from Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company.

Background
Denise and Michael have extensive water treatment backgrounds. Denise founded Res-Kem Corp. in 1983 and later, its sister company General Water Services. Michael Urbans joined the company in 1984. Res-Kem Corp. was a distributor of filter media, ion exchange resin, activated carbon; designed and assembled residential, commercial and industrial water treatment equipment. General Water Services owned and operated a resin regeneration plant in Aston, PA. General Water provided portable DI Exchange Tanks (SDI- service deionization) used to purify boiler feed and production water.

In 2010 Res-Kem and General Water were sold to Nalco Chemical Company which was later acquired by Ecolab. Denise left Nalco in 2013. As indicated above, Michael left Nalco in 2017 as part of the acquisition.

The nature of Michael’s business never changed after the sale of Res-Kem in 2010. Continually active in a variety of roles with both companies, Michael accumulated extraordinary residential and commercial water treatment knowledge. In the industry, he is often considered the go-to guy for difficult water problems. His devotion to his customers and the water treatment industry hasn’t wavered. So rather than starting over from scratch an acquisition was pursued to assure continuity for the customer base and vendors.

Michael has been an active member of the Water Quality Association since 1989. He was on the WQA Board of Directors and is a life time member of the President’s Club having recruited more than 50 companies for membership. Michael is on the Board of Directors of the Eastern Water Quality Association (EWQA) and has served many terms as President. In April of 2018 Michael received the prestigious WQA Key Award.

Denise is a past recipient of the Water Quality Association (WQA) Regents Award and its first female president. Denise was elected to the WQA Hall of Fame in 2015. WQA is the leading industry trade group. Denise continues to be among its most active members. She is on the board of directors for the Water Quality Research Foundation, an independent research foundation. 

Bob Hader, CWS-1 joined Denise as co-owner of Res-Kem and General Water Services one year after its founding to grow the industrial equipment business. After more than 40 successful years in the industrial water treatment equipment industry, January 2015 Bob retired from Res-Kem LLC, a division of Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company. He is actively involved with Urbans Aqua as a technical resource.