State of the Sacramento River Watershed Forum
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sheraton Grand Hotel
1230 J Street
Sacramento, CA
Confirmed Speakers for this event
In alphabetical sequence by last name
Pablo Arroyave
Deputy Regional Director
US Bureau of Reclamation
Lewis Bair
Reclamation District 108
Paul Bartkiewicz
Partner
Bartkiewicz, Kronick & Shanahan
Paul M. Bartkiewicz is a founding partner in the law firm of Bartkiewicz, Kronick & Shanahan, Sacramento, California, which practices exclusively in the areas of water rights and public agency representation. He provides general counsel legal services to water agencies, and serves as special water counsel to a number of cities. He has participated as a speaker on numerous panels and continuing legal education programs discussing ethics for lawyers and public officials, public law, environmental law, water rights and water transfer issues. He co-authored the Delta Water Transfer Handbook - Guidelines for Water Transfers Through the Delta (1996). He has also written articles on water issues for California Law and Water Policy and the Land Use Forum. He was recognized as the Regional Water Authority’s Water Statesperson of the Year in 2005. He has been nominated for the American Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy and Resources Stewardship. He is currently the chairperson of the State Legislative Committee of the Association of California Water Agencies. He also serves on ACWA's Legal Affairs Committee and Continuing Legal Education Committee. He received his A.B. from the University of Massachusetts in 1972, and his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1975. He has received Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating for attorneys: AV® Preeminent™.
Lisa Beutler
MWH
Alf Brandt
Principal Consultant
Office of Assemblymember Jose Solorio
Alf W. Brandt serves the California State Assembly as an expert on water resource law and policy. In his position as the Principal Consultant for the Select Committee on Regional Approaches to Addressing the State's Water Crisis, he develops hearings, drafts water legislation, and assists the Chair, Assemblyman Jose Solorio, and other Assemblymembers on water resource legislation, drawing on his long history of experience in California water controversies. Previously, Brandt served as the Assembly's water resources consultant, at the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, where he played a critical role in the development of the 2009 Delta/Water Legislation.
Brandt has a long history in water policy debates. In 2007, he chaired the American Bar Association's 25th Annual Water Law Conference, where he has spoken on several occasions in the last decade. Prior to joining the Assembly staff, Mr. Brandt served at the Department of the Interior and on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. At Interior, he served as counsel and Federal Agency Coordinator for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, playing a major role in writing the 2000 Record of Decision. He also tried the just compensation phase of the controversial takings case by Central Valley agricultural water districts against the Federal Government for Endangered Species Act regulation of the State Water Project export pumps in the Delta during the drought in the early 1990's. See, Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage Dist. v. United States.
He earned his J.D. in 1988 from University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall School of Law), his B.A. Magna cum laude in 1983 from UCLA, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to the bars of California, the District of Columbia (inactive), and the Court of Federal Claims.
Peter Buck
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency
Colonel Thomas Chapman
District Engineer
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Colonel Thomas C. Chapman was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers in 1984. His initial assignments at Fort Knox, Kentucky were with the 522nd Engineer Company, 194th Armor Brigade and the 19th Engineer Battalion as Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, and Battalion Assistant S3. From July 2002 to July 2004 COL Chapman commanded the Philadelphia District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His most recent assignment was Assistant Corps Engineer for the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps' Italy, which included serving as Chief Engineer for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. He became the 29th District Engineer for the Sacramento District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, when he assumed command on July 16, 2007. COL Chapman holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the United States Military Academy and a master of science in civil engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger, Airborne, and Air Assault courses, the Engineer Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces where he earned a master of science in national resource strategy. He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia.
Mark Cowin
Director
California Department of Water Resources
Mark W. Cowin was appointed Director of the California Department of Water Resources by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, effective February 1, 2010. Mr. Cowin has extensive experience with California water resources management and has worked over 29 years at DWR.
As DWR Director, Mr. Cowin heads a Department that protects, conserves and manages the state's water supply, including operation of the California State Water Project. The SWP is the largest state-run, multi-purpose water and power system in the United States. It provides a supplemental water source for 23 million Californians and about 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland and directly sustains over $400 billion of the state's economy.
DWR forecasts future water needs, evaluates and inventories existing water supplies, explores conservation and storage options, and supervises flood management, including emergency response to floods. In recent years, with the passage of Propositions 1E and 84, DWR has the additional responsibility of administering over $5 billion in bond funding for the purposes of flood protection and ecosystem restoration.
Faced with the challenges of population growth and changing climate, DWR is taking an active role in the promotion of sustainable resource management through its implementation of grants and other programs. DWR also plays a major role in the management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and is committed to achieving the goal of a healthy, resilient Delta.
Prior to his appointment as Director, Mr. Cowin served as Deputy Director of Integrated Water Management for DWR. His primary responsibilities included overseeing DWR's flood management and dam safety programs, implementing Integrated Regional Water Management, coordinating DWR's efforts related to climate change, and updating and implementing the California Water Plan. In previous assignments, Mr. Cowin served for five years as Chief of DWR's Division of Planning and Local Assistance and was
responsible for the state's strategic planning for water management and for providing technical and financial assistance for water management to local agencies and communities. Mr. Cowin also served as an Assistant Director for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program where he was responsible for the Bay-Delta Program's water management planning activities. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University in 1980.
Stan Dean
Director of Policy and Planning
Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District
Stan is the Director of Policy and Planning for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District and the Sacramento Area Sewer District. Major areas of responsibility include long range planning, regulatory and legislative affairs, and wastewater source control. Previous Stan served as the Chief of the Treatment Division for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District and Manager of the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (SRWTP). Major areas of responsibility included operations and maintenance, engineering, laboratory, and administration. Prior positions at the SRWTP have included Engineering Section Manager and Biosolids Program Manager. Experience before that includes 10 years as a consulting engineer working on a wide variety of projects in planning and design of both wastewater and potable water facilities. Stan has a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from University of California at Davis and Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Tam Doduc
Board Member
State Water Resources Control Board
Tam Doduc serves as the civil engineer on the State Water Resources Control Board. Ms. Doduc most recently served as Deputy Secretary at the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), where she directed the agency's environmental justice and external scientific peer review activities. She also coordinated various environmental quality initiatives, and provided general oversight of children's environmental health programs.
Ms. Doduc began her career in 1989 as an environmental consultant. She then joined the staff of the State Water Resources Control Board and, later, the California Air Resources Board. From 1998 to 2002, Ms. Doduc provided technical and business assistance to environmental technology developers and manufacturers, serving in the Office of Environmental Technology and, later, as Cal/EPA's Assistant Secretary for Technology Certification. From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Doduc served as Cal/EPA’s Assistant Secretary for Agriculture, Air and Chemical Programs.
A licensed civil engineer, Ms. Doduc earned a Bachelor of Science in BioEngineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the California State University in Sacramento. She also earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dave Eggerton
Senior Deputy General Counsel
El Dorado Irrigation District
Board Member
SRWP
Dave is Senior Deputy General Counsel for El Dorado Irrigation District. He leads the District’s governmental affairs program and is a member of its executive management team. His legal practice includes water, environmental, public works, labor and public agency law. Dave represents the District and Sierra Nevada region through the Association of California Water Agencies, Regional Water Authority and Mountain Counties Water Resources Association. A graduate of the Water Education Foundation’s Water Leader Program and current Vice Chair of the Sacramento River Watershed Program, Dave understands and enthusiastically embraces the responsibilities of managing our precious natural resources. He is an ardent supporter of integrated regional planning and collaborative problem-solving to resolve longstanding disputes and achieve progress. Dave graduated valedictorian from U.C. Davis School of Law and received undergraduate degrees in English and Political Science from Texas A&M University. An agriculturist at heart, Dave spends most of his free time working beehives and bottling honey with his three children.
Katherine Hart
Board Chair
Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board
Kate Hart has been practicing law since 1997, and has been an attorney with Abbott & Kindermann, LLP since 2006. Her primary areas of practice are land use and environmental law.
Ms. Hart represents the firm’s clients in processing local land use entitlements. She has extensive experience with the California Environmental Quality Act, Subdivision Map Act, and Mitigation Fee Act. On behalf of private clients, she has processed subdivision maps, conditional use permits, rezoning amendments, general plan amendments, and variances, as well as negotiated development agreements, and public utility easements for residential, commercial and industrial properties. Ms. Hart has also reviewed General Plan updates and corresponding CEQA documents for agencies. She has defended both agencies and real parties in interest in CEQA and Mitigation Fee Act litigation. Ms. Hart stays current on CEQA and other land use law by blogging various cases on the Firm’s website and the California Development and Planning Newsletter, as well as teaching classes on CEQA and development agreements.
Prior to working at Abbott & Kindermann LLP, Ms. Hart practiced land use law for a short time at Trainor Robertson here in Sacramento, four years at Reed Smith LLP (formerly Crosby Heafey Roach and May) in the Bay Area, and for three years as a contract Deputy City Attorney for the City of Pittsburg in Contra Costa County. During her law school years, she had the privilege of serving as a judicial extern for Federal District Court Judge Edward Rafeedie in downtown Los Angeles and a Legal Intern at the California Environmental Protection Agency under Assistant Secretary Jerry Johnston.
Ms. Hart is a member of a number of professional organizations including the State Bar of California, the Environmental Law and Real Property Sections of the Sacramento County Bar Association, and the Building Industry Association. In addition to her membership in professional associations, Ms. Hart is a member of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Board of Trustees for the Sacramento Conservancy. Ms. Hart was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2005 and was recently reappointed to the Board in 2009. She served as the Vice- Chair of the Board for three years and now serves as the Chair of the Board. In 2006, Ms. Hart was asked to sit on the Board of Trustees for the Sacramento Valley Conservancy. Ms. Hart accepted the position and now serves as the Board’s Vice Chair. Additionally, she has served as the Board’s Chair of the Treasures of the Valley, the Board’s annual fundraising event, since 2008.
Ms. Hart attended Santa Clara University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in both Political Science and French, and a minor in International Relations in 1993. After clerking for a law firm for a year, she attended the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctor and Certificate of Governmental Affairs in 1997. While at McGeorge, Ms. Hart served as a Class Representative, was a Candidate for Moot Court Best Brief Competition and Moot Court Best Oral Competition, and a participant in the Trial Advocacy Program.
Butch Hodgkins
Board Member
Central Valley Flood Control Board
A 1972 graduate of Sac State, Butch has spent his entire career in the liquid side of public works. After 2 years with a private sector consultant, he joined Sacramento County Public Works as an assistant water resources engineer and spent the next 25 years working his way out of sewage and into clean water. In 1991, as a deputy public works director, he helped form a City-County Office of Water Planning and the Sacramento Water Forum. In 1993, he was appointed Executive Director of Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, SAFCA. He retired in 2004 and was appointed to the California State Reclamation Board (now the Central Valley Flood Protection Board) in September 2005.
He is a also an Ex Officio Trustee for the Sacramento River Watershed Program, an NGO that works to advance watershed based planning.
Bridgett Luther
Director
California
Department of Conservation
Bridgett Luther was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Director of the State Department of Conservation on September 1, 2005. In that capacity she directs a department of 435 with a budget of about $80 million. She refers to her department as that of “everything interesting,” which includes the Office of Mine Reclamation; the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources; the Division of Land Resource Protection; and the California Geological Survey.
Prior to that appointment, Ms. Luther served as the regional development director for Hands On Bay Area since 2004. In this capacity she managed fundraising and developed partnerships with a variety of public and private entities. Ms. Luther was previously national development director for Republicans for Environmental Protection from 2003 – 2004 and program director for the Trust for Public Land in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1999 – 2003. She also served as a member of the Regional Water Quality Advisory Board for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and the Mountain Island Lake Three County Advisory Board from 1999 – 2003.
Ms. Luther is a member of both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.
Ms. Luther earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University.
The Honorable Doris O. Matsui
Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui is proud to represent the city of Sacramento, Calif. and its surrounding areas. As an established and informed Representative, Congresswoman Matsui has emerged in Washington as a resourceful and influential advocate for the people of the Sacramento region.
Sacramento is the seat of government for the fifth-largest economy in the world, a prominent and powerful region that Rep. Matsui represents with strength and a vision for far-reaching policy. As a recognized leader in the Sacramento community and in Congress, Rep. Matsui is focused on applying federal resources to improve the lives of her constituents. As the fourth-highest-ranked member on the influential House Rules Committee, she brings the distinctive voice of the Sacramento region to Washington,
D.C.
A veteran of the Clinton Administration and a key member of the 1992 Presidential Transition Board, Congresswoman Matsui succeeded her late husband, Rep. Robert T. Matsui, in office, bringing a mixture of prominent experience with a true dedication to the issues that matter to the citizens of the Sacramento region.
In 2008, she was appointed to the powerful and exclusive House Committee on Energy and Commerce. As a Member of this influential Committee, she helps craft legislation to address the most critical challenges facing hard-working Americans today, ranging from health care coverage and clean energy, to commerce and consumer safety. In each of these areas, Congresswoman Matsui is committed to investing in a safe, healthy and sustainable future for Sacramento and the country.
Since taking office, Congresswoman Matsui has made increased flood protection a key focus of her work in Congress, successfully advancing legislation to upgrade and modernize the region's levee, dam and water management systems. Rep. Matsui played a central role in passing legislation that contained $700 million in authorized funds for local flood control projects. The reauthorized Folsom Dam Joint Federal Project will provide a historic amount of protection for Sacramento. In conjunction with
other flood control initiatives on both the Sacramento and American Rivers, Representative Matsui is building an impressive record of collaboration and innovation to protect her district from harmful flooding.
With rising gas prices driving more and more people to explore transportation alternatives, Congresswoman Matsui has worked to expand access to mass transit, and bring some of Sacramento's successful initiatives to the national dialogue. She is engaged in the planning and execution of an intermodal transportation center in Downtown Sacramento. This project will serve as a regional transit hub, and will improve air quality, ease roadway congestion, and strengthen Sacramento's Light Rail system.
As the region's population continues to rise, the Congresswoman's work to expand transit options for Sacramentans will help to make the area increasingly efficient.
Renewing her commitment to improving local and regional security, Congresswoman Matsui has led the fight to make the Sacramento region safe. After learning in early 2006 that many urban areas were ruled ineligible to receive funding from the Department of Homeland Security, Representative Matsui led the fight to add these cities--including Sacramento--back to the list of funding-eligible areas. In addition, Congresswoman Matsui has worked with Congressional leaders to preserve funding for AmeriCorps
programs, which organize and promote volunteers who perform vital community services around the country. The Congresswoman was named a Co-Chair of the National Service Caucus as a direct result of her support of these service-related initiatives.
Representative Matsui is an effective Congressional champion for proven and successful initiatives such as the National Children's Study. The Study is a comprehensive gathering of children's health data designed to provide the nation's medical establishment with the information and tools it needs to cure diseases like diabetes, obesity and autism. Representative Matsui has proven instrumental in helping to restore funding for this critical and revolutionary study.
Deeply committed to shaping policy for the Sacramento region, Rep. Matsui works closely with other powerful Members of Congress on the House Rules Committee to approve the flow of legislation to the House floor, and is charged with reviewing potential amendments to legislation before they are debated and voted on by Congress. As a result, Congresswoman Matsui is involved with each piece of legislation from beginning to end, shaping the terms of debate and working on a day-to-day basis with the
House Democratic Leadership.
Before coming to Congress, Representative Matsui served on numerous advisory boards, community organizations, and honorary committees in Sacramento and in Washington, DC. She was President and Chairwoman of the Board for the KVIE public television station in Sacramento, and she served in leadership capacities for the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento Children's Home, Meridian International Center, Arena Stage, and Woodrow Wilson Center Board of Trustees.
Congresswoman Matsui has maintained this commitment to civic involvement while serving in Congress. She was appointed by the Speaker to serve on the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents. The Smithsonian's Regents oversees the operating procedures of the Institution and manages its world-famous and ever-expanding collections. As the only Member of Congress to sit on the Smithsonian Regents' Governance Committee, Representative Matsui is responsible for oversight of the Smithsonian Institution,
as well as its nineteen museums, 144 affiliates, and nine research centers throughout the United States and Panama.
After growing up on a farm in California's Central Valley, Representative Matsui met her husband, the late Congressman Bob Matsui, while earning her Bachelor's Degree from the University of California at Berkeley. During President Bill Clinton's first term in office, she served as one of eight members of the President's transition board, and later became Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Public Liaison.
Congresswoman Matsui is the proud mother of one son, Brian, who is a practicing attorney in the Washington, DC area. She has two young grandchildren, Anna and Robby.
Mindy McIntyre
Principal Consultant
Senate Special Committee on Delta Stewardship and Sustainability
Megan Nagy
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Earl Nelson
California
Department of Water Resources FloodSafe
Robert Patterson
Assistant General Manager
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Robert Shanks
Chair
SRWP Board of Trustees
Lester Snow
Secretary
California Natural Resources
Lester A. Snow was appointed California Secretary for Resources by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Feb. 1, 2010. As a member of the Governor's Cabinet, Snow serves as chief advisor on issues related to the state's natural, historic, and cultural resources and oversees 25 departments, commissions, boards and conservancies. He also serves as chairman of the California Ocean Protection Council, Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the Stewardship Council.
Prior to his appointment, Snow, was appointed Director of the California Department of Water Resources by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on February 24, 2004. Snow has extensive experience as a water agency manager at the regional, State and federal levels.
Snow was Executive Director of CALFED, now the California Bay-Delta Authority, from 1995 to 1999, leading the coalition of State and federal agencies working to "fix" the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. He left CALFED to become regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation, a post he held for almost two years. At Reclamation, he led operations of the federal Central Valley Project in California. Immediately prior to joining DWR, Snow was a water consultant in the private sector.
Before heading CALFED, Snow spent seven years as General Manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. His prior experience included six years with the Arizona Department of Water Resources, including four years as Tucson area director.
As DWR Director, Snow heads a Department that protects, conserves and manages the State's water supply, including operation of the California State Water Project. The SWP is the largest state-run, multi-purpose water and power system in the United States. It provides a supplemental water source for 23 million Californians and about 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland and directly sustains over $400 billion of the state's economy.
DWR forecasts future water needs, evaluates and inventories existing water supplies, explores conservation and storage options, and supervises flood management, including emergency response to floods. In recent years, with the passage of Propositions 1E and 84, DWR has the additional responsibility of administering over $5 billion in bond funding for the purposes of flood protection and ecosystem restoration.
Faced with the challenges of population growth and changing climate, DWR is taking an active role in the promotion of sustainable resource management through its implementation of grants and other programs. DWR also plays a major role in the management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and is committed to achieving the goal of a healthy, resilient Delta.
Snow earned a Master of Science degree in Water Resources Administration at the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth Sciences from Pennsylvania State University.
Doug Wallace
Environmental Affairs Officer
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Doug Wallace has been the Environmental Affairs Officer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District since 1996. In this capacity, he serves as a senior policy advisor and is responsible for advocacy and outreach to the environmental community, urban and business interests, and other stakeholders on water issues. His areas of expertise include the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, climate change impacts on water resources, and water use efficiency.
EBMUD provides water supplies to nearly 1.4 million people in 20 cities and 15 unincorporated communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as wastewater service to nearly 650,000 people. EBMUD derives most of its water supply from the Mokelumne River on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, and also manages watershed areas totaling 45,000 acres in both the Mokelumne River basin and in the East Bay.
Jay Ziegler
The Nature Conservancy
