from Mark Goldschmidt, President
Altadena Heritage
Altadena Heritage will be hosting a public forum, "Altadena’s Water Future," to try to clarify issues of water supply, water quality, handling of storm water, and mandated compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act as they impact Altadena.
We have lined up a panel of important water people for this round-table event:
- Chris Stone, LA County’s Water Resource manager;
- a representative from the Roads division of County Department of Public Works, to be announced;
- Tim Brick of the Arroyo Seco Foundation and former chairman of Metropolitan Water District;
- Rich Atwater of the Foothill Municipal Water District.
- Other local water purveyors including Pasadena have been specially invited to attend, and most are sending representatives.
Our goal is to increase Altadenans’ knowledge of, and involvement in, today’s water issues, including water security and water quality initiatives such as Clean Water, Clean Beaches Act (designed to put LA County in compliance with Federal regulations. It was recently dropped, but is sure to reappear).
We will focus somewhat on Altadena's position at the top of the inhabited watershed, but will also address the general situation in Southern California. We want everyone to understand local opportunities for management: capture, recharge, and treatment.
We also want to clarify who is responsible for what in Altadena, including oversight of public works projects.
The County has many laudable “best management practices” and low-impact development guidelines on the books, which, for a variety of reasons are not followed in all new projects.
We would like to understand the County's process and overall goals, and we hope our panel will clarify interrelationships (or lack of coordination, as the case may be) among local water companies, Foothill Municipal Water District, the County, and the State of California.
With people representing several jurisdictions in the same room at the same time, this is a great opportunity to get your water questions answered.
Please join us at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive on Monday, September 23, a t7 PM. The public is invited and there will be no admission charge.
