Cheryl MacKelvie

YLWD Rapid Fire Response Kudos and a job well done to the Yorba Linda Water District (YLWD), which was swift to respond and provide assistance during the Blue Ridge Fire that broke out in Orange County last week. YLWD’s award-winning Marc Marcantonio Heli-Hydrant supported aerial firefighters battling the blaze. The Heli-Hydrant was strategically placed in [...]

What California can Learn from Cape Town About Water Policy Senator Robert Hertzberg penned an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle this week that highlighted a number of approaches to potentially addressing future water shortages. Some of the suggestions included working collaboratively with agricultural users to more effectively use and reuse ag waters, incentivizing conservation [...]

Microplastics Health Effects Webinar Series There are two webinars left in the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP)’s five session webinar series that runs every Monday starting on October 19 to November 16, during which microplastics experts from around the world will summarize current knowledge and discuss the latest findings regarding microplastics toxicity. Representatives [...]

Save the Date! CASA Winter Conference Goes Virtual Join us on January 27-28, for CASA’s 2021 Virtual Winter Conference. As we look ahead into the upcoming new year, CASA is pleased to offer an exciting virtual program to facilitate discussion, strategy, and networking with a key theme in mind: “Moving Forward”. Be sure to keep [...]

Governor Newsom Establishes Broad Environmental Goals Through Executive Orders Governor Gavin Newsom has issued several Executive Orders in recent weeks focusing on climate change mitigation and the environment. Some of these initiatives have the potential to impact California’s wastewater community. Earlier this month, the Governor signed an Executive Order, EO-N-82-2020 which directs state agencies to [...]

President’s Executive Order Establishes USEPA Water Subcabinet Last week, the President signed an Executive Order (EO) on “Modernizing America’s Water Resource Management and Water Infrastructure.” The EO establishes an interagency federal Water Policy Committee, or Water Subcabinet, to better coordinate federal agencies’ water resource management and infrastructure policies and actions. The Subcabinet will be co-chaired [...]

USEPA Releases Financial Impact Tool The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has released the Water Utility COVID-19 Financial Impact Tool which can help drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater (“water”) utilities assess the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the utility’s cashflow. This tool leads water utilities through questions that can determine how their revenues, expenses, [...]

CASA Members Selected as Representatives on ELTAC Congratulations to Josie Tellers with the City of Davis and Sushmitha Reddy with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency on their respective appointments to serve as representatives on the Environmental Laboratory Technical Advisory Committee (ELTAC), an advisory body to the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP). ELTAC provides technical and [...]

USEPA, CDC Boost Efforts to Detect Virus in Water Follow the link below for an article on USEPA’s efforts to continue analyzing wastewater in an effort to identify covid infection trends. The story reports that USEPA will be bolstering its efforts with the CDC and HHS to develop detection methods and analysis tools using wastewater. [...]

Microplastics Health Effects Webinar Series The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) is hosting a five session webinar series every Monday from October 19 to November 16, during which microplastics experts from around the world will summarize current knowledge and discuss the latest findings regarding microplastics toxicity. Representatives from the State Water Resources Control [...]