The U.S. Conference of Mayors Water Council met Oct. 14-15 in Pleasanton, Calif. Pleasanton Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, Co-Chair of the council, hosted the meeting. There were over 70 registrants.
The theme of the meeting was ?Water Supply, Public Health and Infrastructure: Challenges Facing the Nation?s Principal Cities and the Bay Area Delta Communities.? The featured speaker was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy is the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy is a well-known environment advocate who espoused that good environmental policy equates to a good economic policy. ?Protecting the environment is not about protecting the fishes and the birds for their own sake, but rather, it?s about recognizing that nature is the infrastructure of our communities,? he said.
Kennedy went on to discuss that the United States must wean itself from energy sources like coal and oil because of their potential harmful effects and embrace the country?s abundance of renewable energy sources.
The scarcity and shortage of water in California was covered by many of the presentations. Illustrative of this were the following presentations: ?Does Existing Policy Add Legal Instability to the Natural Instability of Water Supply?,? Jon Rubin, Diepenbrock Harrison; ?The Status of Water Recycling Programs in Southern California,? Mayor Mary Ann Lutz, Monrovia, Calif.; ?Securing Community Water Supplies: Design-Build-Operate Cost Efficiencies in Clovis, Calif.,? Dennis Burrell, CH2M Hill; and ?The Impact of Water Instability at the City and County Level,? John Gioia, Contra Costa Counties.
The meeting included a mayor?s roundtable hosted by Mayor Hosterman and her Co-Chair, Mayor Brian Stratton of Schenectady, N.Y. A networking reception was held at a local winery.
The Mayors Water Council was formed to assist local governments in providing high-quality water resources in a cost-effective manner. The council provides a forum for local governments to share information on water technology, management methods, operational experience and financing of infrastructure development.
