James P. McMahon
Jim McMahon launched Sweetwater LLC in September 2002 after an extensive
search for a business that he could operate from his home. Jim has worked in the environmental field since 1974 when he launched one of the first recycling collection programs in the country in Seattle. Jim worked in recycling for 15 years launching several successful business ventures and establishing the first intentional variable collection rate structure in the country until 1987 when he took a one year sabbatical in the French West Indies. Upon his return to the states Jim moved to Denver where he began working as a freelance writer and sought a way to work with rivers since he had long been attracted to flowing water. In 1995 he got a chance to launch The Nature Conservancys Mackinaw River Project in Illinois. Then in January 1999 he was able to return to the West when he accepted a position with Grand Canyon Trust working on the Virgin River in southwest Utah.
Jim has authored an essay reflecting on the development of recycling entitled Closing The Loop in the book The Next West published by Island Press in 1997. While living in Denver he wrote policy papers and opinion editorials on western land use issues as a senior fellow for Independence Institute a non-profit think tank. He has also published numerous articles editorials and short fiction. Jim holds a BS in Ecology from the University of Illinois and coursework toward an MA in Deep Ecology from Naropa Institute in Boulder CO. For the past five years he has studied the ancient energy healing methods of the Quechua Indians of Peru with the Four Winds Society located in Park City. In addition Jim has been researching his Irish roots and intends to expand his business to Ireland. Jim has a passion for learning and is always up to something.
He has a son Emrys and a daughter Jacqueline. He works his log home overlooking a trout stream in the mountains of southern Utah. Life doesnt get any better than this.
Much of this countrys water is no longer fit to drink or to be more accurate is not healthy to drink. Weve unwittingly polluted our water supplies with a wide variety of chemicals many of those unregulated and all still present when the water arrives at your house. The problem originates with the fact that we use our water both as a waste disposal system and as the source of our drinking water.
"There is no such thing as pure water. The notion of pure water is an oversimplification meant to lure consumers into buying products that do not perform as suggested. I was reading an interesting note in the October (05) issue of Smithsonian magazine about harvesting icebergs as a source of pure water. That started me thinking that the entire concept of pure water is misleading and needs to be cleared up," says James P. McMahon, ecologist and owner of Sweetwater, LLC.
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