Sharing the CVWD Vision

It was great to see so many of you at the Hometown Country Fair and to have commemorated our 75^th anniversary in partnership with the CV Chamber of Commerce with our local Mary Dyer band filling the air with some great classics. I shared that the partnership between Water and the Chamber makes a lot of sense. After all, water is the silent foundation supporting every home, business and life in the Crescenta Valley that we are here to serve.

Our elected officials from Sacramento to Washington took time to emphasize the role of water in our community and lives.

We are proud they each spoke to your local water and wastewater utility’s vision of leading with innovation, efficiency and accountability. They are some of the most engaged and effective legislators and we thank them for their contributions that affect you directly. Congressmember Laura Friedman (CA-30) is championing a budget appropriations request in Congress for $1.3 million that will harness the latest PFAS-treatment technology for our local groundwater (this is in partnership with Glendale Water & Power). State Senator Sasha Reneé Pérez (SD-25) is authoring legislation that urges efficiency and more coordinated emergency management. Assemblymember Nick Shultz (AD-44) is authoring legislation sponsored by CVWD (Assembly Bill 1893) that empowers CalFIRE to provide grant funding for more helicopter-accessible infrastructure that CVWD used to incredible effectiveness in partnership with LA County Fire during last year’s fires. Our board vice president Jennifer Valdez and immediate past board president Jeffery Johnson shared how far CVWD has come during the tenure of its board members and its vision for the next 75 years. We appreciate very much that our elected representatives “go to bat” for the interests of CVWD and the community.

I thanked the professionals who make up CVWD. We have attracted some of the industry’s best professionals. We rigorously screen candidates to ensure they reflect our core values of humility and integrity and their stance is one of public service. They are disciplined and rigorous with our work and are the quiet heroes working behind the scenes. Jason Jose, engineering intern, Christina Kopelman, Capital Projects manager, and Ray Zhong, Operations and Technology analyst, demonstrated their daily sprint in the field by also sprinting in the fair’s 5K.

We invited Rae Ridgeway from Glendale Community College to share our partnership in future workforce investment, developing a utility workforce development program to invest in our community’s resources and future professionals at the same time. Lastly, we spotlighted the winners of our 75^th anniversary art contest.

Grades K-6: 

• • 3^rd place: Penh Walters, Mountain Avenue 6^th grade 
  • 2^nd place: Esther Uh, Mountain Avenue 4^th grade 
  • 1^st place: Blake Ngai, Mountain Avenue 5^th grade 

Grades 9-12: 

• • 3^rd place: Lena Reinhardt, CV High, 9^th grade
  • 2^nd place: Minseo Cho, CV High, 10^th grade 
  • 1^st place: Stella Um, CV High, 9^th grade

All of the entries were amazing and inspiring. The winning entries were displayed at the fair, and first place for K-6 and 9-12 scored externships with CVWD for some real-world work experience. Love it!

Please mark your calendars for the next installment of our Community Office Hours at the Montrose Library on Wednesday, May 20 at 6 p.m. Your participation matters and here is a concrete example. During the Jan. 21 library office hours, a resident noted that she understood the value of individual water budgets allocated to customers. She also noted that, as a lower water user, her water budget incentivized her less to be an efficient water user. In response, we determined whether a “water efficiency bill credit” would be viable. CVWD’s board of directors recently approved this water efficiency bill credit and all customers up to a defined threshold will receive this credit. 

The District made a commitment to the community several years ago to catch up on the backbone of the community’s infrastructure – pipeline. We replace pipeline utilizing contractors and an innovative in-house pipeline program that saves 40%-65%, and the program is accelerating this year and next year to honor our commitment. The projects are noisy and dusty, they impact traffic and they often face delays. However, they are necessary, we do them well and when all is said and done, your community has reliable access to a life-giving resource for generations to come. 

Our next office hours on May 20 will review what the next several years of pipeline replacement looks like.

Thank you as always for reading and continuing the dialogue. 

James Lee, General Manager

CVWD