Some entrepreneurs start companies to chase opportunity. Jared Burma started Bristola to save lives.
Jared has spent his entire life in the wastewater treatment industry. Since he was 16, it’s the only career he’s ever known. But it wasn’t just years of experience that led him to launch Bristola. It was one terrifying moment inside a massive industrial tank that changed everything.
In 2019, Jared and his team were cleaning out a power plant tank. The tank had been neglected for decades. The sediment inside had built up to dangerous levels: 30 feet of compacted sludge buried underground, with only 20 feet of the tank visible above the surface. The only way to clean it using traditional methods was to dig a hole and start removing the waste from the bottom up.
But something went terribly wrong.
As Jared’s team blasted water into the tank to break up the sediment, they unknowingly created a ticking time bomb. Water pressure built up behind the mass of sludge, unseen and unstoppable. Then it happened: a sudden, deafening roar, like a freight train barreling toward them. The sediment was collapsing.
Jared was halfway up a ladder training a new worker when he realized the worker had frozen in panic. Worse yet, his safety lanyard had snagged on the ladder. The wall of sludge was coming straight at them. Jared had seconds to react. Holding his breath, he reached down, yanked the tangled lanyard free and pushed the worker up the ladder. Had they been even one second slower, they wouldn’t have made it out.
“That’s a life-changing experience you don’t ever want to be a part of again,” Jared recalls. “I knew right then there had to be a better way to clean these tanks.”
That moment ignited Jared’s mission. He set out to find a way to clean tanks without putting human lives at risk. The problem wasn’t just the dangers of traditional methods; it was the fact that
tanks often go uncleaned because shutting them down is nearly impossible. Cities can’t stop wastewater flow. Farms still need to process manure. Chemical plants can’t afford full shutdowns.
Jared realized that existing “automated” tank cleaning systems had one fatal flaw: They weren’t truly removable. Anything left inside a tank would eventually break. If you couldn’t fix it without shutting down the entire operation, it wasn’t a real solution.
That’s how Bristola was born. Jared’s company developed cutting-edge, fully removable, remotely operated cleaning systems that eliminate the need for human entry. His robotic solutions allow tanks to be cleaned safely, efficiently and — most importantly — without the risk of another near-death experience.
Jared’s vision for Bristola doesn’t stop with innovation. It’s about changing industry standards.
Bristola’s goal is to make human entry into tanks obsolete. Jared wants to see robotic cleaning become the default method across wastewater treatment plants, power plants and industrial sites.
By continuously improving Bristola’s technology, Jared is setting new benchmarks in safety, efficiency and sustainability. His journey from a teenager in the wastewater industry to a founder redefining its future proves that sometimes the best innovations don’t come from boardrooms. They come from people who’ve seen the danger firsthand and refuse to accept the status quo.
Jared Burma isn’t just changing how tanks are cleaned. He’s ensuring that no one else has to make a life-or-death climb up a ladder ever again.