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Worked at Louisville Water since 2023
You may not always notice the bass line in a song, but it is essential. The same is true for drinking water. Casey LaFollette is a Louisville Water rock star who helps keep both the music and Louisville Pure Tap® flowing.
By night, LaFollette plays bass in a local cover band. By day, she works in the lab at the Crescent Hill Water Treatment Plant. As a scientist, she studies water from the Ohio River to help the Louisville Water team determine the best treatment methods before that water ever reaches your faucet.
“We are looking for things that are not supposed to be there,” LaFollette explained.
Through the Source Water Protection Program, she monitors potential threats to water quality — including herbicides, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and taste-and-odor compounds. River conditions are influenced by rainfall, runoff, barge traffic, and seasonal changes.
“The river can be very humbling at times. It can change from day to day,” she said. “We’re looking at things that can be spilled, things that could be produced by algae, or things that can be from runoff.”
That vigilance matters. When water leaves the treatment plant and goes to homes and businesses, there’s no bringing it back.
“Once the water leaves (the treatment plant), you can’t recall it,” LaFollette said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates levels of foreign substances in public drinking water, but many of Louisville Water’s standards are more stringent than what state or federal laws require. Our scientists perform more than 200 tests a day not just for safety, but also for taste, smell, and overall quality.
“We’re doing a lot of tests we aren’t necessarily required to do, such as tests for taste-and-odor compounds that can be produced by microorganisms in the river. But I don’t want stinky water at home either,” said LaFollette. “We’re known internationally for the quality of our water.”
LaFollette did not originally picture herself working in water quality. She loved science and math and pictured a career in the healthcare field, but she realized early on that patient care wasn’t the right fit. Instead, she enrolled in the bioengineering program at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville. The program offered a way to bridge her interests in science and problem-solving without being in a hospital setting.
That path eventually led her to Louisville Water and to a role where she now uses those same analytical skills to protect a vital resource for the entire community – safe, clean, and high-quality water.
“You’re taking care of the people at your house and one million other people around here. So, it’s a lot of responsibility. But I mean, it just feels good,” LaFollette said proudly.
As a woman in STEM, LaFollette hopes to inspire the next generation of scientists. She had this advice for young girls who want to work in a lab one day:
“You can do it. You are worthy of a seat at the table, regardless of what you look like. Share and advocate for your ideas, do your homework, and don’t ever give up.”
When she’s not helping produce some of the best tap water in the country, LaFollette and her husband, Joel, are cheering on the Cincinnati Bengals and the Louisville Cardinals on the football field. The couple also shares a love of music. LaFollette plays bass for the local band, The Leftovers, while her husband plays drums in a different band.
“And when we’re not playing, we’re watching someone else play,” LaFollette said. “The music festivals that come here, Louder Than Life and Bourbon and Beyond, that’s Christmas for us.”
In many ways, her two worlds are not so different. Both require focus, consistency, and attention to detail that others might overlook. In a band, the bass anchors the sound. In the lab, LaFollette helps anchor the treatment process.
And the best compliment she says she can receive about the water she helps protect – No one notices.
“I kind of like that people don’t think about their water. You don’t have to think about your water. You just turn the faucet on, and there it is,” LaFollette said.
Being able to turn on your tap without thinking twice is something often taken for granted. LaFollette knows what our customers expect, and she’s one of many working hard to make sure Louisville Pure Tap delivers all the high notes with quality and taste.
Just like bass players, scientists are not always in the spotlight, but their impact is undeniable.
