Photo of Mike McFadden

Mike McFadden

Senior Drinking Water Specialist

Through my experience operating water systems, I have come to appreciate how dedicated utility staff are to ensuring that communities have safe drinking water. Whether I’m providing technical assistance or conducting a compliance inspection that may call out an issue, I have great respect for all who strive to protect human health under whatever site-specific challenges they may be working with.


Mike McFadden is a senior drinking water specialist and licensed water/wastewater operator with over 25 years of experience in operations, maintenance, management, and technical assistance, with a focus on navigation and implementation of Safe Drinking Water Act and related state and local requirements. Having initially served the challenging but rewarding role of water treatment operator early in his career, Mike developed a passion for providing safe drinking water to his community. He continued that path at several municipalities in progressive roles, from treatment supervisor to utility director. In these roles, he emphasized optimizing systems to outperform minimum standards and led teams of operational and support staff to achieve award-winning status.

In recent years, Mike has supported the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by providing technical assistance to struggling water systems, with a focus on training operators and managers in using best management practices to return systems to compliance. He is an SDWA-credentialed inspector and has led inspections of various large, small, disadvantaged, and tribal community water systems for most EPA Regions.

Mike holds a B.A. in geo-environmental science from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, certifications for drinking water and wastewater in Pennsylvania, and is a certified Associate Safety Professional through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. In his downtime, family hiking and mountain biking top the long list of outdoor activities he enjoys.