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CUWCC Group 1 Members Join the Water Cooler
Central Basin invites water agencies that are members of the California Urban Water Conservation Council (CUWCC) to contribute regularly to the Water Cooler. Here, Matt Lyons from the Long Beach Water Department kicks things off by explaining how blogging will help open a much-needed dialogue about water conservation among the state’s water agencies (also referred to as “Group 1 Members” within the CUWCC.)
Welcome! This blog will support us in facilitating an online dialogue among CUWCC’s water agencies about policies related to conservation; hopefully leading to something resembling consensus among these agencies on important issues.
Importance of Group 1 Communication: Proposals at the CUWCC become “law” when a majority of both Group 1 (water agencies) and Group 2 (environmental groups) approve recommendations. There are 35 members of Group 2; there are over 200 members in Group 1. Communication and consensus within Group 2 appears to be fairly close; the opposite is true within Group 1.
Why this matters: 2008 promises to be a very busy year for statewide water conservation policy; from DWR’s AB1881 (model landscape ordinance), to AB1420 (basically denying state funds to water agencies not in compliance with CUWCC’s “Best Management Practices” or BMPs), to the CUWCC’s aggressive agenda to revamp many of the BMPs in 2008. Without an open dialogue, water agencies are put at a high disadvantage with respect to shaping important conservation policies.
CUWCC will not help: CUWCC will not facilitate open communications. Recent examples of this include (a) the CUWCC distributed a letter from Group 2 members in support of revising BMP 11, but did not extend the same courtesy to Group 1 members opposed to BMP 11; (b) CUWCC repeatedly refused to share with Group 1 Members important information critical of proposed changes to BMP 3; (c) CUWCC is now forming committees to aggressively revise many BMPs, but apparently has chosen NOT to invite a majority of Group 1 members to join the committees –those excluded water agencies will NOT have voting rights in these committees.
So, in order to help create better, more feasible water conservation policy, please read our postings on the Water Cooler; forward our link to others in the industry, and utilize this blog yourself to communicate with your fellow water agencies.
Thank you,
Matt Lyons
Long Beach Water Department
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February 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am (Reply)
Isn’t the BMP 3 convener a Group 1 member this year? Won’t this help to open up considerably the dialogue?
Rick Hydrick
San Juan Water District
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm (Reply)
The CUWCC convenor is from a water agency, Lynn Florey, Sonoma County Water Agency. But I am not sure that will translate into a more open discussion of BMP 3. In one of the last meetings of the Utililty Ops committee leading up to a plenary session where BMP 3 was going to be discussed, most of the Group 1 members (water agencies) supported having an open panel discussion of the issues; the Group 2 members in the committee were opposed, so the CUWCC staff decided an open discussion would not take place. It’s unclear to me what the power of the convenor is; also, I have not had a discussion with Lynn about BMP 3 and don’t, therefore, know her position on it.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm (Reply)
….additionally, it looks like the BMP 3 issue will be rolled into one of the five new CUWCC committees that will be looking at groups of BMPs; in otherwords, responsibility for BMP 3 will be shifting to a brand new committee. We’ll see who chairs that committee and what their preferences are. These are the committees that apparently the CUWCC only invited a fraction of the Group 1 members to join.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 pm (Reply)
I received the “Best Management Practices (BMP) Update” email from CUWCC on January 24. This was the email that announced the five committees.
I volunteered to join the Landscape committee before their February 15 deadline, and recently received confirmation (after asking) that I’m “on the list”.
Do some Group 1 members not receive CUWCC email updates? If so, are they contacted through any other means?
Also, do we have a running tally of who has volunteered for what committee, to ensure adequate Group 1 representation?
Justin Scott-Coe
Monte Vista Water District
March 4th, 2008 at 12:07 pm (Reply)
Good questions. With respect to invitations to join the new CUWCC committees, I have been told by the executive director of CUWCC that all group 1 members have been contacted and invited to participate. I don’t know if it’s through email or some other means.
With respect to the membership of the committees, apparently that is still being worked out, so the general membership is not being told who the committee members are at this time.