Keynoting the Water Education Foundation’s Executive Briefing March 23 will be Frances Spivy-Weber, who is retiring from the State Water Resources Control Board after 10 years.

During that time, there have been a plethora of changes for the State Water Board, including its assumption of drinking water safety regulations and a stepped-up enforcement regime aimed at protecting the environment and other water rights holders.

The State Water Board has been the gatekeeper during California’s historic drought, pounding home its message of ever more vigilant water conservation. The result, Spivy-Weber said, is that conservation has gone from a peripheral part of the overall picture “to something that’s actually integrated into water supply planning.”

Prior to being appointed to the State Water Board, Spivy-Weber served as the executive director of the Mono Lake Committee since 1997, and she has been at the center of some of the state’s most-pressing water issues such as the Bay-Delta, expanded use of recycled water and water use efficiency in her role as a member on a variety of committees and boards.

Among other topics, Spivy-Weber will address at the Briefing is the State Water Board’s Feb. 8 decision to extend its emergency water conservation regulation, a move that generated considerable backlash.  

Spivy-Weber is retiring as the state’s groundwater management system begins to take shape under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 and efforts continue to bolster surface water flows and increase the overall water supply. The various management decisions, she says, have put the state on a sustainable course.

“The whole positioning of the state in having enough water for its people for the future and for its economy is positive,” she said.

Spivy-Weber’s presentation will kick off a day of day of lively discussions about key water issues from Delta flows to Colorado River drought contingency plans to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Check out the draft agenda.