Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Water Hawk service ("Service"), operated by Salian Defense ("Water Hawk", "we", "us", "our"). By creating an account, signing in, executing an Order Form referencing the Service, or otherwise accessing the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you are accepting on behalf of a company or other entity, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that entity, and "Customer" or "you" means that entity. Otherwise, "Customer" or "you" means you individually.

These Terms incorporate by reference the Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Anti-Spam Policy, Data Disclaimers, Cookie Policy, and DMCA Policy. To the extent any incorporated document conflicts with these Terms, these Terms control unless the incorporated document expressly states otherwise.

1. The Service

We provide analytical access to municipal water utility intelligence and related outputs (the "Output"), including but not limited to readiness scores, dossiers, bid-corpus surfaces, lane benchmarks, regulatory pressure overlays, deal-scout signal, and quarterly reports. Output is opinion-based analysis derived from public records and aggregated contributor data. Output is not legal, tax, financial, investment, accounting, fiduciary, or engineering advice. The Service is continually improving; features, methodologies, scoring weights, surface layouts, and pricing may change at any time, with or without notice.

We are an analytical and intelligence service. We are not a water utility, a chemical supplier, an infrastructure developer, a broker, an agent, or a fiduciary for any party. We do not endorse or recommend any vendor, utility, or transaction. We do not negotiate on behalf of any party. We do not refer or counsel in connection with any procurement or investment decision. The Service is informational only; every decision based on the Output is the sole responsibility of the party that makes it.

2. Eligibility and Registration

You must be at least eighteen (18) years old and capable of forming a binding contract under the laws of your jurisdiction to use the Service. By registering, you represent and warrant that (a) you are at least eighteen, (b) the information you provide during registration is current, complete, and accurate, (c) you will keep that information current, complete, and accurate, (d) you are not located in a jurisdiction in which use of the Service or any feature of it is unlawful or restricted, and (e) you have not been previously terminated or banned from the Service.

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to accept, reject, suspend, or terminate any registration for any reason, including suspected fraud, prior breach of these Terms, regulatory or sanctions concerns, association with a previously-terminated account, or any other reason we deem appropriate. We may verify any information you submit and may request additional verification at any time.

3. Account Discipline

a. One natural person per account. Each account is held by exactly one natural person. Credential sharing is prohibited. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorized by you.

b. Multiple accounts permitted across distinct roles or organizations. A single natural person may hold separate accounts where each account legitimately represents a different organization or a distinct role (for example, a person who works at a municipality and also consults for a supplier may hold one civic-tier account and one chemical-pillar account, provided each account is paid for and used in connection with the represented organization's authorized work). Multiple accounts may not be used to evade per-customer rate limits, per-organization entitlements, or pricing tiers; that conduct is a material breach. Where any doubt exists, contact [email protected] before opening the additional account.

c. Concurrent use. Even within a single account, no more than one user may use the Service under the same credentials at the same time.

d. Security. You must keep credentials confidential, enable multi-factor authentication for any account with administrative privileges, and notify [email protected] immediately if you suspect a credential compromise. You are liable for any unauthorized use of your account until we receive that notice.

e. Vendor relationships not restricted. Nothing in these Terms restricts your relationship with third-party services, data sources, or vendors that you may use in connection with your business, including services that Water Hawk itself uses as data inputs (procurement portals, government bid aggregators, regulator databases, and similar). Your use of any third-party service is governed by that service's own terms; we make no warranty or representation about them.

4. Subscription, Payment, and All-Sales-Final

You pay the fees stated in the Order Form, your billing dashboard, or the published pricing page. Fees are exclusive of taxes; you are responsible for all applicable sales, use, value-added, withholding, or similar taxes. Subscriptions auto-renew on the same cadence and at the then-current rate unless canceled before the next renewal.

All fees and charges are non-refundable. All sales are final. This applies to monthly subscription fees, prepaid annual fees, addon fees, custom-report fees, Investment-Grade Report fees, and any other amount paid to Water Hawk, regardless of whether you used the Service during the period covered.

You may cancel auto-renewal at any time from the billing surface. Cancellation stops future renewals; it does not refund the current period.

If a subscription has a minimum term (such as the three-month minimum on certain paid tiers), terminating before the end of that minimum term does not relieve you of the remaining-term fees, which become immediately due as liquidated damages. You waive any right to dispute that charge through chargeback, payment-card dispute, or comparable mechanism.

Failed payments may result in immediate suspension. You will reimburse us for any reasonable costs we incur in collecting overdue amounts, including reasonable attorneys' fees and collection costs.

5. Service Availability

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." It is continually improving and may be unavailable from time to time for maintenance, upgrades, infrastructure migration, security work, or for reasons outside our control (third-party provider outage, network failure, force majeure event, and similar). Water Hawk does not warrant any specific uptime, latency, freshness, or refresh cadence, and does not refund or credit fees for any period of unavailability.

If you require formal uptime commitments, those are contracted separately in a Service Level Agreement attached to your Order Form.

6. Use Restrictions; Anti-Circumvention

The Service and all Output are licensed to you for your internal business use only. You agree that you will not do any of the following, directly or indirectly:

a. Redistribute the Output. You may not redistribute, resell, republish, sublicense, share, post, transmit, or disclose the Output to any third party or any audience outside your authorized internal users. Posting Output on a public web page, attaching it to an outbound deliverable, forwarding it to a person not employed by or contracted to Customer, or providing it to a vendor or affiliate that is not party to a separate Water Hawk subscription is prohibited.

b. Train AI on the Output. You may not use any Output to train, fine-tune, evaluate, benchmark, distill, or otherwise build, improve, or condition any machine-learning model, large language model, or other automated system. You may not provide Output to any third-party AI service through any input mechanism (prompt, fine-tuning corpus, retrieval-augmentation source, or otherwise).

c. Build a competitor. You may not use the Output to build any derivative product, dataset, scoring system, lane benchmark, or other deliverable that competes with the Service or that resembles the Service in a way that a reasonable observer would associate with us.

d. Remove or obscure attribution. Every Output is watermarked, including a visible diagonal watermark identifying the licensed user and a steganographic per-section fingerprint. Removing, altering, obscuring, defeating, or interfering with any watermark, attribution, copyright notice, anti-circumvention mechanism, or technical access control is a material breach. Each instance of confirmed watermark tampering or redistribution gives rise to liquidated damages of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per instance, in addition to any other remedy we have at law or in equity. You acknowledge that actual damages from leakage and redistribution are difficult to quantify and that this liquidated-damages amount is reasonable.

e. Scrape or harvest. You may not scrape, crawl, mirror, frame, copy, harvest, or programmatically extract data from the Service, including from any cached, archived, or downloaded copy. Automated access is limited to the use of our documented APIs under a separate written agreement.

f. Reverse-engineer. You may not reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive source code, models, weights, or proprietary methodology from the Service, except to the extent applicable law expressly disallows that restriction.

g. Share credentials. Account-sharing is prohibited per Section 3.

h. Tamper with the Service. You may not interfere with or disrupt the Service, the infrastructure that supports it, or any other user's enjoyment of it; introduce viruses, worms, time bombs, or other harmful code; attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account, system, or network; bypass rate limits or entitlement gates; or aid any other person in any of the foregoing.

We may, in our sole discretion and at any time, audit your use for compliance with this Section 6, including reviewing watermark traces from any leaked Output we discover and inspecting access logs. You consent to that audit as a condition of access.

7. Anti-Spam, Anti-Abuse, and Content Discipline

You may not use the Service or any communication channel we operate (including but not limited to outreach surfaces, comment fields, support tickets, and notification preferences) to:

a. Post or transmit any false, misleading, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, obscene, profane, racially or sexually offensive, or otherwise objectionable content.

b. Send spam, phishing emails, mass unsolicited commercial communications, or any communication that violates the CAN-SPAM Act, CASL, GDPR, or any other applicable anti-spam law.

c. Misrepresent your identity, your authority, your employer, or the source of any content you submit.

d. Harvest, collect, or assemble email addresses, contact information, or any personal data of other users.

e. Interfere with other users' use and enjoyment of the Service.

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to monitor and remove any content submitted to or through the Service and to terminate access for any user who violates this Section 7. We may report violations to appropriate authorities and may cooperate fully with law enforcement.

8. Customer Data; Aggregation

You retain ownership of any data you submit to the Service (including logged bids, watchlists, notes, scout configurations, contact uploads, and contributor submissions) ("Customer Data"). You grant Water Hawk a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, process, transmit, display, and create derivative works from Customer Data solely as necessary to (a) provide the Service to you, (b) maintain and improve the Service generally, and (c) incorporate Customer Data into de-identified, aggregated outputs that are subject to the safeguards described in the relevant contributor program documentation (typically: minimum-cohort threshold, concentration cap, and forward-time delay).

You represent and warrant that (i) you have all rights necessary to submit Customer Data and to grant the foregoing license, (ii) the submission and our processing of Customer Data does not violate any law or any obligation you owe to a third party, and (iii) Customer Data is reasonably accurate to the best of your knowledge at the time of submission.

We may retain Customer Data in backup and archival systems for the retention periods described in the Privacy Policy. On termination, we may delete or anonymize Customer Data per the Privacy Policy. Aggregated, de-identified outputs derived from Customer Data may persist in our corpus after termination.

9. Intellectual Property; Feedback

a. Our IP. Water Hawk, Salian Defense, and our licensors own all right, title, and interest in the Service and the Output, including all copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Output during your active subscription, solely as expressly permitted by these Terms. The license terminates the moment your subscription ends or these Terms are terminated.

b. Feedback. Any ideas, suggestions, modifications, requests, bug reports, feature requests, comments, or other input you provide to us regarding the Service (collectively, "Feedback") become the property of Water Hawk. You hereby assign, and agree to assign, all right, title, and interest worldwide in and to Feedback and any related intellectual property rights to Water Hawk, and you agree to reasonably assist us in perfecting and enforcing those rights. We may use Feedback for any purpose without compensation or attribution to you. You may continue to use Feedback for your own internal purposes.

c. Marks. "Water Hawk," "Salian Defense," related marks, and the V-shaped wordmark are our trademarks. You may not use them without our prior written consent.

10. Warranty Disclaimer

THE SERVICE AND THE OUTPUT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS," "AS AVAILABLE," AND "WITH ALL FAULTS." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WATER HAWK AND SALIAN DEFENSE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION:

• IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND QUIET ENJOYMENT;
• WARRANTIES THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS;
• WARRANTIES REGARDING THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, OR AVAILABILITY OF THE OUTPUT OR ANY DATA REACHABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE;
• WARRANTIES THAT THE OUTPUT WILL PRODUCE ANY SPECIFIC RESULT, REVENUE, BID WIN, INVESTMENT RETURN, OR OTHER OUTCOME;
• WARRANTIES THAT THE SERVICE OR OUTPUT WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS; AND
• WARRANTIES THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED OR THAT ANY SPECIFIC FEATURE WILL CONTINUE TO BE OFFERED.

OUTPUT IS OUR OPINION BASED ON IMPERFECT PUBLIC DATA AT A POINT IN TIME. IT IS NOT INVESTMENT, LEGAL, TAX, FINANCIAL, ACCOUNTING, FIDUCIARY, OR ENGINEERING ADVICE. CUSTOMER MAKES ITS OWN DECISIONS AND IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES.

Marketing materials, web pages, sales decks, one-pagers, blog posts, FAQ entries, demos, free-tier surfaces, and any other Water Hawk communication outside an executed Order Form are not contractual representations. You may not rely on them in any way that creates a contractual claim against Water Hawk.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF WATER HAWK, SALIAN DEFENSE, AND THEIR OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, AND LICENSORS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, IS LIMITED TO THE LESSER OF (A) THE FEES YOU PAID TO WATER HAWK IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($1,000) IN THE CASE OF NON-PAYING USERS.

IN NO EVENT WILL WATER HAWK OR SALIAN DEFENSE BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST OPPORTUNITY, LOST BID, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, REPUTATIONAL HARM, COST OF SUBSTITUTE PROCUREMENT, OR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM A DECISION YOU MADE BASED ON THE OUTPUT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

You acknowledge that the fees charged under these Terms reflect the allocation of risk in this Section 11 and that this allocation is a fundamental part of the bargain. The limitations apply notwithstanding any failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy.

12. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Water Hawk, Salian Defense, and our officers, employees, contractors, agents, and licensors from and against any claim, loss, damage, liability, fine, judgment, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs) arising out of:

a. Your or your users' use of the Service or the Output; b. Customer Data, your content, or anything you submit to or through the Service; c. Your breach of these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Anti-Spam Policy, or any law or third-party right; d. Any decision you make based on the Output, or any consequence of that decision; e. Your redistribution, resale, sublicensing, or unauthorized sharing of the Output; f. Any third-party claim that Customer Data or your use of the Service infringed a third party's rights or violated a contractual, fiduciary, or statutory obligation you owed.

We will reasonably notify you of any claim subject to this Section 12 and cooperate at your expense. You may not settle any such claim in a manner that imposes any obligation or admission on us without our prior written consent.

13. Termination

a. By us. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, fail to pay, attempt to remove a watermark, redistribute Output, share credentials, scrape the Service, evade rate limits, or take any action that exposes us to legal, regulatory, security, or operational risk. Termination does not entitle you to any refund. All sales are final.

b. By you. You may stop using the Service at any time by canceling your subscription from the billing surface. Cancellation stops future renewals; it does not refund the current period or the remaining-term liquidated damages on a minimum-term subscription.

c. Effect. On termination, your right to access the Service and Output ends immediately. Sections 4 (final-fee provisions), 6, 8 (aggregation retention), 9 (IP), 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16 survive termination.

14. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performance (other than payment obligations) caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic, epidemic, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor strike, materials shortage, government action, embargo, sanctions, internet outage, denial-of-service attack, ransomware event, hosting-provider failure, telecommunications failure, third-party software failure, regulatory action, or any other event not reasonably foreseeable or preventable by the affected party (a "Force Majeure Event"). The affected party will give the other prompt notice and will use commercially reasonable efforts to resume performance. If a Force Majeure Event persists for more than ninety (90) days, the unaffected party may terminate the affected portion of the Service without penalty (subject to the all-sales-final and minimum-term provisions).

15. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Mandatory binding arbitration. Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that cannot be resolved through good-faith negotiation within sixty (60) days will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by JAMS under its Comprehensive Arbitration Rules and Procedures then in effect, in Wilmington, Delaware, before a single arbitrator. The arbitrator's decision is final and binding. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each party bears its own fees and costs, except that the arbitrator may award reasonable fees and costs to the prevailing party.

Class-action waiver. You and Water Hawk waive any right to participate in any class action, collective action, mass arbitration, or other representative proceeding. Arbitration may proceed only on an individual basis.

Interim relief. Either party may seek interim or preliminary injunctive relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in New Castle County, Delaware to protect its rights or property pending arbitration. Seeking interim relief does not waive the right to arbitrate the underlying dispute.

Jury-trial waiver. Each party irrevocably waives any right to a trial by jury.

16. Changes; Notices; Miscellaneous

a. Changes. We may update these Terms from time to time. Non-material updates are effective on posting. Material updates are effective at least thirty (30) days after posting, and we will provide notice through the Service or by email to the account address. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date is acceptance. If you do not agree to a material update, your remedy is to stop using the Service before the effective date.

b. Click-through acceptance. By creating an account or accepting an invitation, you click-through-accept these Terms together with the Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and Anti-Spam Policy. We record your acceptance, the document version, the document hash, your IP address, and the timestamp.

c. Notices. Notices to us go to [email protected]. Notices to you go to the email address on your account. You are responsible for keeping your account email address current.

d. Assignment. You may not assign these Terms or any rights or obligations under them, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Any attempted assignment is void. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of our assets.

e. Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in force, and the unenforceable provision is to be interpreted to give effect to the parties' intent to the maximum extent possible.

f. No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of that or any other provision.

g. Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the documents incorporated by reference and any executed Order Form, constitute the entire agreement between you and Water Hawk and supersede all prior or contemporaneous communications, marketing materials, and proposals. Order-Form terms control over conflicting terms in this document only to the extent expressly stated in the Order Form.

h. Headings. Section titles are for convenience only and have no legal effect.

i. Language. The English version of these Terms controls.

j. Contact. Questions about these Terms: [email protected]. Privacy questions: [email protected]. Abuse reports: [email protected]. Billing: [email protected]. Security: [email protected]. All addresses route through Cloudflare Email Routing to the operator inbox.