Uncle Tilo grew up in the Midwest and remembers harvesting rainwater on his family’s dairy farm up thru the mid 1970’s. He is a graduate of the South Dakota School of Mines, with a degree in Geological Engineering, and enjoyed a career in Arizona that combined both consulting and contractor skills. Some of his first projects while working for a civil engineering firm in Phoenix involved groundwater studies and the subsequent cleanup of fuel spills at gasoline stations. This eventually led to his being licensed as a well driller in Arizona for a period of 10 years. His focus on groundwater issues also moved him to later specialize in storm water management where he worked with state environmental agencies during most of the 1990’s to set standards for the protection of groundwater across the desert Southwest.
In 2009 he left the engineering work behind and moved to the Big Island of Hawaii. The calling was to return to “community”, and most of the next 5 years was dedicated to assisting in the maintenance department at a retreat center in the Puna District. Tt seems fitting that his engineering skills should again be called upon to work with water quality issues. There is a large demand for using rain catchment systems as a potable water source, both in Hawaii and around the world. So, 2017 brought Uncle Tilo’s Water Catchment business into existence to fill the need for clean water education, maintenance and water disinfection.
