Tri-County Water Infrastructure Summit in Southern California Finds Common Ground by Moulton Niguel Water District May 5, 2023 Member Submitted News COSTA MESA – In the first of its kind meeting, leaders and experts from Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego County water and regional agencies convened in Orange County to discuss how to work together to address the mounting crisis facing regional water sources and California’s water infrastructure. On April 14, 2023, the Water Infrastructure Networking Summit (WINS) brought more than 250 local, regional, and state water officials, and business and community leaders to discuss funding opportunities and challenges facing water and wastewater infrastructure. The event included a keynote speech and panel discussion in which several themes emerged, including the need for deeper collaboration, improved community engagement, and streamlining of processes to cut down on project delays. Board Chair for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Adán Ortega kicked things off by emphasizing the historic moment that California and the west face when it comes to water and infrastructure. “The Colorado River’s steady decline over the last 20 years has left us with a footprint of climate change that is unmistakable,” Ortega said. “This means that we have assets and infrastructure built for a different time that we need to leverage for the new world that we now find ourselves in. Our forebearers built our conveyance, treatment, and organizational structures based on a set of assumptions and standards that are now outdated. Going forward we are challenged with building a new class of infrastructure for conditions we find in this new world.” Agencies Must “Row in the Same Direction” Former Los Angeles Mayor and current Infrastructure Advisor for California, Antonio Villaraigosa served as the keynote speaker and set the tone for the day, highlighting his experience advancing infrastructure projects in Los Angeles and beyond. Villaraigosa emphasized that in order to secure more resources, agencies must “row in the same direction” – a theme that echoed throughout the event – to help maximize the amount of resources we can secure from state and federal sources. “Get everybody in the region that’s impacted by this together and now you’re talking about a formidable coalition,” Villaraigosa said. “That’s why the seeds of what you’re doing here are so important. You’re not going to do it with San Diego by themselves, Orange County by themselves or even LA County by itself. When you all go in together, you can all get more resources.” Villaraigosa outlined several ways he was able to speed up large infrastructure projects by reducing the number of departments to streamline permit processes while breaking down silos to ensure better agency communication. “When you can accelerate projects and put people to work, you’re able to convince people: ‘wow, my money does have a dividend at the end of the rainbow’ and we show that the state can be a little more business friendly,” Villaraigosa said. “The most important thing you’re doing today is that all of you are coming together. If you want more resources and more investment – you’ve got to row in the same direction.” Mega Panel Highlights Climate Emergency, CEQA, and Need for Streamlining and Collaboration Following Villaraigosa’s remarks, a mega-panel of 14 regional leaders and water policy experts from throughout the state engaged in a vibrant discussion about water and how to use this crisis moment in California to make progress. Joone Kim-Lopez, General Manager & CEO of Moulton Niguel Water District, skillfully moderated the panel and began the discussion with a lightning round on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Panelists discussed whether CEQA should be reformed and the best options for protecting the environment while still moving projects forward. “There is a climate emergency,” Chief Executive Officer of California Forward, Micah Weinberg said. “We need to be able to build and we cannot and that’s a problem.” “The reality is CEQA has become a weapon in moving any project forward,” Mayor of Fontana, and Chair of Southern California Water Coalition, Acquanetta Warren said. “I get environmental justice and worker rights, but we have a community that needs outreach, needs jobs, needs infrastructure projects so we can be safe. We’ve got to have a happy medium and we don’t have it today.” “The fact that any water infrastructure project would be held up by CEQA should be alarming. Not to mention it being really [unfortunate] to be an obstacle at a time when we’re experiencing a housing crisis,” Chief Policy Officer for the Building Industry Association of Southern California, Carlos Rodriguez said. “I think what we’re going to hear from all panelists today is we need to streamline the process, we need to bring projects online sooner, General Manager of Orange County Water District, Mike Markus said. “If we could have some sort of reform on CEQA, particularly on the legal end, that would be helpful, but we must do what’s right for the environment. Unfortunately, CEQA has been used as a weapon to defeat some projects that people don’t like.” “The good work CEQA was created for is now slowing other justice-centered projects – it’s slowing down affordable housing, bridge housing for homeless. So, these regulations are holding up other worthy projects that are helping our communities, so I want to reiterate just because we want reforms doesn’t mean we’re not for healthy, equitable communities,” Senior Vice President and Chief Policy Officer for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Patricia Bruno Torres said. Several panelists emphasized that proposed CEQA reforms often attempt to gut environmental protections. Acknowledging some of CEQA’s downsides, they emphasized that CEQA alone is not to blame for the challenges facing water infrastructure in the state. “It’s not all about CEQA,” General Counsel for California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Alf Brandt said. “It’s about breaking down barriers and building more collaboration so that it’s not just one agency by one agency, but all of us working together.” “There’s still a lot of issues – environmental justice – that workers are connected to, issues of equity with workers and the environment,” Council Representative for the Los Angeles/Orange County Building & Construction Trades Council, Ernesto Medrano said. “We just heard there’s precedent here if you can move legislation…so there’s an opportunity to get things done without gutting an important piece of legislation.” “This kind of coalition work leveraging our relationships across the board and throughout the ecosystem really matters,” Business Manager for San Diego County Building & Construction Trades Council, Carol Kim said. “CEQA addresses things that are real, which include environmental justice, equity, economic justice and if we are tackling those together from the beginning then we don’t have to deal with CEQA as much because it doesn’t become a problem.” There was widespread agreement for the need to streamline permitting processes and increase communication across agencies and departments to help speed up projects. “Look at what’s happening right now – this drought to flood. We’ve created flood agencies that don’t talk to water supply agencies, who don’t talk to sanitation agencies. We’re starting [to talk], but we’re going to have to do a lot more,” Brandt said. “We are one state – there needs to be more collaboration and more sharing, both physical and intellectual capital to make the system work,” General Manager for the San Diego County Water Authority, Sandra Kerl said. “Yes, we are divided by jurisdictions, but we can’t be on this issue and I think that’s where the solution lies.” “The other thing that gets in the way of projects a lot of the time is permitting,” Senior Assistant General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Anselmo Collins said. “Especially with the lofty goals we all have – relaying clean, reliable water to all of our customers – we need a better way to get permitting done faster. And it needs to be concurrent permitting as opposed to sequential. But it starts with dialogue.” “Water rights is known for how long it takes to get through that process – it can take decades, Deputy Director of Water Rights with the State Water Resources Control Board, Erik Ekdahl said. “Look at the work we did in the Russian River during the drought – it’s because we allocated people a year before the drought was declared who worked with the stakeholders and the other watersheds. So, if we had those kinds of resources – which do take money – it does provide a better result.” Early Engagement on New Projects Key in Gaining and Advancing Project Support Toward the end of the nearly two-hour panel conversation, the focus turned to the importance of early engagement in the community to create greater buy-in and avoid costly delays. “It’s not just about educating the public and these community groups about the work you’re doing, it’s about listening to what they’re experiencing in their communities,” CEO of Heal the Bay, Tracy Quinn said. “If you want to avoid litigation, if you want to avoid public campaigns against your project, go into communities early on before you’ve built the project.” Quinn is also a board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Panelists also acknowledged the current crisis facing the state’s water resources and agreed that now is not the time to take their foot off the gas. “[Without the recent] atmospheric rivers, we were two or three months from a major crisis in the state of California,” Kerl said. “And we have got to come to terms with the fact that this state’s quality of life and economy is dependent on having sufficient water resources and if it takes 15-20 years to build a project that isn’t going to work.” “Coming out of this drought, I’ve seen unbelievable things come to fruition,” Chair of the California Water Commission, Matthew Swanson said. “The timing could be right politically to move the ball down the field.” As part of his comments, Swanson also gave on update on the major water storage projects getting ready to receive their final award hearing in the months to come. “The purpose of this panel discussion was to visually demonstrate and show the agreement we can reach when you put everyone together and in a little bit of a spotlight,” Kim-Lopez said. Nick Serrano, Deputy Chief of Staff to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and Vice Chair of the San Diego County Water Authority, delivered closing remarks and reiterated the need for action. “Water shouldn’t be political – we know water is essential. And so, we’ve come together here – now it’s time to continue to be together in the halls of Washington, in the halls of Sacramento to continue to fight for what we need to move our region forward,” Serrano said. The tri-county Summit was organized by eight Founding Sponsors, Moulton Niguel Water District, Orange County Water District, San Diego County Water Authority, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, California Forward, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Brownstein, and Cordoba Corporation. In addition, there were also 18 co-hosting agencies that helped sponsor the event: Yorba Linda Water District, South Coast Water District, Santa Margarita Water District, Municipal Water District of Orange County, Irvine Ranch Water District, Southern California Water Coalition, Building Industry Association of Southern California, Arcadis, Brady, Tetra Tech, Black & Veatch, Dudek, McCarthy, BizFed, Orange County Realtors, Frost, Brown, Todd, Alvarado, Smith, Faubel Public Affairs, and Best Best & Krieger. For additional information about the Water Infrastructure Networking Summit, please visit mnwd.com/wins. ###