2002 Award Recipients

This year the 12th Annual California Water Policy conference will honor those individuals, public and nonprofit agencies, and private companies who have made major strides toward regional or local self-reliance.

Richard Atwater - Inland Empire Utilities Agency

Effective management of locally produced organic materials - animal manure, biosolids, and green waste - is one of the most pressing environmental challenges facing California. In the Chino Basin, the problem is particularly acute: the basin has the largest concentration of dairies in the world, with 350,000 cows that produce over one million tons of manure annually. The salts released by the manure impact local water supplies for the 1,000,000 people within the Basin and the more than 3,000,000 people living downstream in Orange County. In addition, methane emissions from the manure are a significant source of global warming gasses.

The Inland Empire Utilities Agency -- a municipal water district located in west San Bernardino County that provides wastewater services and distributes wholesale water supplies within the Chino Basin - led a two-year collaborative planning effort with local community leaders, the dairy industry, and regional state and federal agencies to develop an integrated (multiple benefit) strategy for treating, recycling and reusing the organic materials produced within the Chino Basin. This innovative watershed strategy will provide significant water and air quality improvements, enhance the reliability of local water supplies, generate clean renewable energy and recycled organic materials, provide significant local economic benefits and contribute to enhanced wildlife habitat within the Basin.

The Chino Basin Organics Management Strategy was developed under the leadership of the Agency's General Manager, Rich Atwater. In less than 12 months following the adoption of the strategy, the Agency -- in partnership with the Milk Producers Council, Synagro Technologies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service and the California Energy Commission -- constructed and brought on line California's first regional anaerobic digester to treat cow manure. This project will ultimately produce over 1 megawatt of clean, renewable energy.

The Organics Management Strategy demonstrates the value of "closing the loop" in resource management. In the Chino Basin, cow manure is being processed to generate methane gas that, in turn, is being used to power a regional desalting facility whose function is to clean up the salts and nitrates that originally seeped into the groundwater basin from cow manure!

The methane gas produced by the facility will be used to operate a groundwater desalinization plant that will generate over 8,000 acre-feet of clean drinking water annually for use by 20,000 families living in the communities of Chino, Chino Hills, Ontario and Riverside County.

Nettie Drake

Panoche Silver Creek in Western Fresno County and Eastern San Benito County has a long history of erosion produced sediment which is transported by flood events from higher elevations in the watershed to the alluvial fans lower in the basin. These sediments contain potentially toxic amounts of boron and selenium that can have harmful effects on crops, wildlife, and water quality. During flood events, sediment reaches the Mendota Pool on the San Joaquin River and impacts the city of Mendota. Besides degrading water quality in the San Joaquin River, this sediment also damages irrigated cropland, roads, irrigation and water district facilities, and the city of Mendota.

For several decades attempts have been made to resolve the problem of erosion-sediment and flooding by various agencies and organizations in this 450,000 acre watershed. Many studies were conducted, but little was accomplished in practical application until the formation of the Panoche Silver Creek Coordinated Resource Management Program (CRMP). Beginning in 1995, this program has been lead and coordinated by Nettie Drake.

Among the programs that have been or are being implemented under Nettie's leadership are: 1) development and implementation of a watershed monitoring program, 2) removal of invasive plant species and planting of native trees, shrubs, and grasses, 3) redirecting of tailwater flows and 4) implementation of best management practices upstream of the California Aqueduct. The CRMP is also completing an assessment of the Little Panoche and Cantua Creek Watersheds under a contract with the CALFED Drinking Water Quality Program.

Nettie, who lives on a cattle ranch in Squaw Valley in Eastern Fresno County, is a graduate from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. She was hired through a grant from EPA and from the beginning she was able to move the Watershed Program from just discussions and studies to actual practical applications.

Nettie's strong leadership and outstanding work ethic has helped to form a landowner lead steering committee supported by a strong technical advisory committee. She has shown the ability to work with landowners, agencies, and organizations in order to implement conservation practices on the land. Also, because of her vision and knowledge of conservation needs of the Watershed, Nettie has been able to obtain a number of grants to assess the watershed and assist landowners in the establishment of best management practices. She has done all these things by establishing a strong network of support for the CRMP.

AB 1493

Of all the environmental crises that we will face in the coming decades, certainly none offers the same potential for catastrophe as global climate change. While its implications are vast, its incremental impacts are almost too difficult to measure. But because this is a cumulative problem, the actions we take today are critical. Of all the bills passed and signed into law this year, AB 1493 stands out clearly as the most visionary and courageous. Assemblymember Fran Pavley was the first champion of a law requiring state to take action on reducing the carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, a major source of greenhouse gases.

What does this bill do? It does not prohibit SUVs, "SOVs" (single-occupancy vehicles), or trips to the corner store. It does not raise taxes, fees, or gasoline prices. It does not lower vehicle weight or speed limits. But it does require auto manufacturers to use their technological ingenuity to improve fuel efficiency by 2009. That is certainly not a year too soon.

Meanwhile, the nation and the world have sat up and have taken notice of California's giant leap forward. As the country's largest market for cars and trucks, California's decision will help shape automotive technology for the future, and hopefully begin to turn back the atmospheric tide.

AB 1493 was very much a team effort. Nothing as important - and controversial - as this bill could have made it through the legislative process intact, without a strong and determined team effort to make it happen. Many organizations and individuals contributed to this great victory. Some of you in this audience tonight played a part in this success.

Tonight, however, we recognize those elected officials and the organizations that were truly indispensable to this victory. These are the people who were relentless over the past two years in convincing their colleagues that AB 1493 was the right thing to do. Without their efforts, there would be no California law today addressing climate change effects.

For this monumental act, both symbolic and pragmatic, we honor Assemblymember Fran Pavley, Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, and Governor Gray Davis. And for standing with them at every step of the way, we must also share this award with the Blue Water Network, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club.

CALFED Watershed Work Group

Since the inception of the CALFED Watershed Program in 1998, it was recognized that in order to build a successful watershed program that covered the majority of the state, an open and collaborative process would be needed. The word went out on the street, the people came, and the Watershed Work Group was born. The original instructions from CALFED called for identifying 30 individuals to represent different interests on the Watershed Work Group. However, within the first few minutes of the kick off meeting, Martha Davis, co-chair of the Watershed Work Group, declared that the Work Group was open to anyone interested. Since then over 400 individuals have participated in the Watershed Work Group. Represented interests include tribal, agricultural, urban, environmental, environmental justice, local government, recreational, fisheries and wildlife, universities, businesses, among others.

The original goal of the Watershed Work Group was to provide guidance in the development of a Watershed Program Plan for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. However, over time multiple benefits for both CALFED and stakeholders grew... New relationships were built, existing ones were strengthened, trust between agencies and stakeholders grew, and awareness of watershed issues increased. … Today, the Watershed Work Group continues to provide a forum for information exchange and communication, foster collaborative partnerships, and promote local self-reliance of water resources through improved watershed management.

The Watershed Work Group meets once a month and is co-chaired by Martha Davis (Inland Empire Utilities District) and Robert Meacher (Plumas County Board of Supervisor); John Lowrie is the CALFED Watershed Program Manager. For more information regarding the Watershed Work Group and the CALFED Watershed Program visit the website at www.baydeltawatershed.org

Sonoma County Water Agency

A key to regional self-sufficiency is in understanding how water conservation and recycling can play important roles in a region's water supply picture. Many wholesaler water suppliers claim to have fully integrated plans with conservation and recycling playing center stage roles. But the fact remains that of all the wholesalers in the state, Sonoma County Water Agency is the first to make a 100% sweeping commitment on behalf of their retailers. The Agency plans and implements regional water conservation programs for its eight retail water contractors, and has developed a self-sustaining funding mechanism to support water conservation programs. The retail water agencies of the Sonoma County Water Agency are the Cities of Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sonoma, Cotati, Rohnert Park, and the water districts of Forestville, North Marin, and Valley of the Moon. The Agency also supplies water to several other districts and municipalities including Marin Municipal Water District and the Town of Windsor.

The regional nature of the program is preserved through a collaboration at a policy level of an eight member Water Advisory Committee, and program implementation level through the North Coast Water Conservation group. Each group is comprised of representatives from each water contractor. The Water Advisory Committee includes city and district managers, council and board members and senior level staff. The North Coast Water Conservation group includes conservation coordinators and specialists, and is an information clearing-house for current issues, regional program coordination and events.

The Agency has required that all eight of its retailers join the California Urban Water Conservation Council and commit to implementing the 14 Best Management Practices of urban water conservation. In so doing, Sonoma County Water Agency becomes the first region in the state to have 100% membership in the Council. After ten years of conservation in California, this is an achievement indeed.

Sonoma's regional goal is to have its water contractors collectively achieve a combined yearly water savings goal of 6,600 acre-feet of water by the year 2015. A Water Conservation Plan was developed by the Agency and is used as a guide to achieve the 6,600 acre-feet savings goal. Most importantly, the Agency's commitment to achieving these water savings was solidified by reducing the contractual water entitlements of each contractor to reflect these savings. What an incentive to make sure conservation happens!