By David Hoffman

Answer: Lots, as it turns out.

If you mean building astonishing, eye-popping water projects, that is. No kidding.

For Teddy Roosevelt — yes, the president for whom teddy bears are, in fact, named.

The same 26th president who, among other things, also established the federal Bureau of Reclamation in 1901. Its purpose: to reclaim — with the damming of rivers like the Colorado and the vast irrigation it would later enable — huge tracts of now-farmable land in the previously arid 17 western states. A huge Blue New Deal, turning lands that had hitherto been derided as “the Great American Desert” into the fertile plains of an American garden of a New World Eden.

Too far-fetched to compare with young Oliver Uz? I don’t think so.

First of all, Oliver was actually only 15 when, with his business partner (his three-year-older brother), he founded Nova Ponds, right from the beginning as a full-service design-and-build residential and commercial contractor for the construction of outdoor garden and backyard ponds throughout Northern Virginia.

Fast-forward to three months ago, when Nova Ponds’ business was flourishing so much that Oliver absolutely needed a real office and showroom hub. So he bought and converted a small, one-room, truly “ramshackle” shack for that purpose, situated directly across from Advent Lutheran Church, at the corner of 23rd Street and Arlington Ridge Road.

Now updated and spiffy with new hardwood flooring, it’s where young Oliver meets prospective customers and coordinates all operations and three full-time managers from behind his desk. He’s such a constant whirlwind of endless energy and bustling activity that this reporter grew weary just watching him in action.

“We build and maintain, and repair and upgrade, any and all ponds. And we also stock fish, mostly koi and goldfish, all over the Northern Virginia region, including Loudoun and Prince William counties,” Oliver told this reporter earlier this week.

“The only real differences are determined by the site-specific details and the size and scope and purposes of each project. If you build it well, then they will come,” he adds. He does. And they do.

Some onlookers just might be reminded of the peaceful lullaby sounds of running water in nature — with water circulating ceaselessly and mirthfully, like that of Pan with his playful flute in a rustic, woodsy pond — like those found everywhere in nature, with their constantly evocative music and soothing magic.

Bigger projects have beckoned recently. Like the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., where the overdue renovation of a 60-by-80-foot pool required Nova Ponds to install an entirely new replacement filtration system to save the koi and goldfish from the certain destiny of a grim, watery demise.

For more information, go to novaponds.com,