Looking back over all that we have accomplished in 2021 makes me thankful for the thousands of hard-working professionals who serve our region by ensuring safe, reliable water supplies each and every day.

I’m especially proud of the team at the San Diego County Water Authority – from my fellow Board members to our dedicated staff to our member agency partners – that works on countless complex issues from pipeline relinings to bond refundings. Everything they do is designed to support the long-term health of our regional water delivery system at an affordable cost, even in the face of ongoing challenges like the pandemic and supply chain issues.

This year yielded ample results from our collective efforts. Over the past 12 months, we:

• Returned more than $80 million directly to our member agencies from rate case litigation that also prevented hundreds of millions of dollars of additional overcharges that would have ultimately shown up on every water bill in the region.
• Met the region’s need for water as drought worsened across the West while promoting wise use of our most precious natural resource.
• Crafted a positive, productive relationship with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to collaboratively work on drought response and other pressing issues for the benefit of the entire state.
• Earned regional and national recognition for our work on climate adaptation, outreach and education, conservation, engineering, finance, and other efforts.
• Adopted a hold-the-line budget with a 0% percent increase.
• Secured $18 million in state funds to launch development of the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility, which could play a major role in preventing blackouts, harnessing the full potential of renewable energy, and generating revenue to offset water system costs.

There’s a lot more to our story that you can read in our FY2021 Annual Report. For now, I’ll wish you a wonderful holiday season and look forward to seeing you in 2022.

Happy holidays!