Xylem - Holland, Michigan

05/05/2026

It was 38F early Saturday morning but 19 people from Holland's Xylem location were out setting up water tables for the kick-off of the Tulip Time Festival! The 5K & 10K run through the City Of Holland, Michigan - City Hall is the first event of the festival and it's one of the largest in the state with about 3,000 registrations. Our 19 volunteers and families handed out water to thousands of runners as they went by. Our participation is now a tradition that began 10 years ago and it's one we look forward to! It's also a fun way to connect with colleagues we don't normally see each day, being spread across several locations. We even got to hang out with two healthcare professionals from Holland Hospital!

03/24/2026

The collaboration between Xylem, Holland, and the Hamilton Community Schools Experiential/Work Based Learning curriculum concluded with several outstanding presentations. Each group presented an idea in response to our Driving Question: *How can Xylem tell the world about what we do?*

To recap: Hamilton 6th grade class is divided into several groups, each of which partners with a local business to answer a Driving Question. This year's cohort included Holland Board of Public Works, K&R Truck Sales and Service, Cento Ani Custom Woodworking, Gentex and Xylem.

Ben Lundquist and Mike Stock got to judge the 5 small groups that presented the answer to Xylem's Driving Question. Each group was great but one truly stood out: Group Hydro! They performed a skit within their presentation, and had charts and graphs to back up their claim that Xylem should be on social media more! They even included sample posts! Ten out of ten!

Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce, City Of Holland, Michigan - City Hall, Ottawa Area ISD

03/06/2026

Introducing the new-not-new Xylem J-Press filter press! JWI => USFilter => Vivendi => Siemens => Evoqua => Xylem! Even if we change the labels that we wear that doesn't mean we change on the inside! We just took the wrapper off the brand new bad boy that had its debut at the ConExpo-Agg show in Las Vegas! It's the first time a filter press has been introduced to the world in a trade show, and it got to hang out next to a Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) unit, skidded bag filters, Godwin pumps and more - all part of a treatment train the press could be a part of IRL.

There's a reason why the names change but not the product: because we've been making great products for 50 years!

Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce, Hamilton Community Schools, Ottawa Area ISD

Carrie Weersing Gabrielse, Ron DeRade

02/06/2026

Our partnership with Hamilton Community Schools continues! The latest visit involved asking questions of a panel of volunteers about their jobs, the company, our solutions and more. It was all in support of the Driving Question they've been given: "how can we show someone what we do here at the plant, and show how this location sits in the global footprint of Xylem?"

The students were engaged and asked great questions. The panel consisted of people of many different roles from safety, technical writing, engineering, planning and more. The next visit will have the students broken into groups, and each group will develop a response to the driving question and a presentation to give to the Xylem group.

McKenzie Krauss, Mary Paas DeRade, Ron DeRade, Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce

01/20/2026

Last year our Charity of Choice for the Holland location was Paws for a Cause. Our last Popcorn Tuesday along with a couple of last-minute generous donations we were able to blast past the $1,000 mark and achieve a grand total of $1,103.31 for the year! Way to go!

01/16/2026

Xylem's Holland, Michigan facility is partnering once again with Hamilton Community Schools and its 6th grade Experiential/Work Based Learning class. Over 20 students toured the plant led by Ben Lundquist and Mike Stock, and were accompanied by their teacher Chole Pretzer. The students were fully engaged which was proven by one insightful comment by a student: Upon learning that the material that falls from between the plates of a filter press is called cake, and hearing that we had a big celebration with cake and ice cream when the facility made it's 10,000th filter press, a student called from the back, "Don't eat the filter cake!" Students asked lots of questions and even took notes!

The group is given a driving question which they will spend time answering as a group. This year's question is: "how can we illustrate to people touring the facility what it is we do as a company and make in our facility?"

12/23/2025

To see where some of our filter presses have ended up we can see some here - in the Oyster Creek chemical production plant. Who knew filter presses would be found there? It's a build-own-operate facility - Xylem owns the facility and equipment and we run the place! Check it out:

Customers benefit from Xylem’s solutions through a model known as Build-Own-Operate (BOO). In this arrangement, a customer can simply pay for the water that Xylem creates through its owned facilities in which it runs its equipment utilizing its own Xylem staff. This allows the customer to focus on...

12/19/2025

The main Holland, Michigan facility of Xylem held its annual catered Christmas lunch. It was catered by the always-amazing Saladino Smoke that gave us literally door-to-door service - or rather door-indoor service! It's pretty cool when a full-service catering rig can pull right into your building. The pulled pork, chicken, and brisket were all outstanding as were the sides. They even came back to serve our second shift, which was super above-and-beyond and gave that group some love. They really appreciated that! Pretty sure if Saladino Smoke were still parked in the building we'd still be lined up waiting for more!

We also voted on the 2026 charity of choice: Kids Food Basket

Happy holidays! Be sure to tag your family or friends!Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce, Ottawa Area ISD, Kids' Food Basket

11/24/2025

From the: Where-Does-Our-Stuff-Go Department, here is an image of our mobile filter presses on a job site in the Permian Basin - West Texas/Eastern New Mexico. Produced water sites treat and recycle "produced water" and the presses treat the sludge that is created from the Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) units on these remote sites.

Produced water treatment in the Permian Basin is big business for us. This is just one use for a filter press in one vertical market. But it's fun to see where our stuff goes once it leaves the plant! The spotless blue isn't quite so spotless after a few days on the job!

Pictured here are Michael Stoltz, (left) from our Acworth, GA location, and Mark Garton (right), lead sales for filter presses.

10/16/2025

41 years! Ever since Ronald Regan was President, Juan Castorena has built his impressive career at the Holland facility of what is now Xylem. Today marks his official retirement. His first day on the job he walked into a company called JWI. Since then the company has changed names several times: JWI > USFilter > Vivendi > Veolia > Siemens > Evoqua Water Technologies > Xylem. Ironically the locals still refer to the address as "the JWI building." But some of the very same equipment is still designed and manufactured here. What started as one product 41 years ago has blossomed into one of a global presence of manufacturing facilities (Holland being one of the two largest) 11 products and three local locations servicing customers worldwide. Juan was an essential part of that process because it was always our people - their integrity and attention to detail that set us apart. Thanks, Juan!

Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce, West Michigan Works, Ottawa Area ISD, Michigan Manufacturers Association