NBC4’s Conan Nolan talks with Adel Hagekhalil, the new head of Metropolitan of Water District. The MWD – the largest in the nation –provides water to 20 million customers all over Southern California. Nolan and Hagekhalil discuss the state of water supply and the controversial vote that got Hagekhalil to power.
State authorities approved an audit of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California over its handling of sexual harassment complaints, following allegations that leaders at the powerful water agency tolerated bullying and abuse of women in the workforce.
The audit was adopted during a hearing Wednesday afternoon of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and comes after a Times investigation earlier this year found a pattern of complaints from women enrolled in the district’s trades apprenticeship program.
Water officials in Las Vegas are backing a federal bill that could help pay for a California project that would leave more water in Lake Mead.
The 2021 California drought is as bad if not worse as the one in 2014, which endured for five long, dry years. As of Friday, 33 percent is in a state of “exceptional drought,” the most severe drought category given by the federal U.S. Drought Monitor.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors welcomed new Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Adel Hagekhalil at its June 24 meeting. Hagekhalil was greeted with applause and smiles during the meeting, and at a special reception that followed at the Water Authority’s San Diego office.
Board Chair Gary Croucher called Hagekhalil’s appointment a “prime opportunity” for MWD and the San Diego County Water Authority to benefit water users throughout Southern California, before the new MWD General Manager addressed the Board.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind words, water is about people, and I want to salute you for what you have done in San Diego [to create more local water supply],” said Hagekhalil. “We know how important water is to our economy, we know how important it is for our businesses – water is life.”
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors welcomed new Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Adel Hagekhalil at its June 24 meeting. Hagekhalil was greeted with applause and smiles during the meeting and at a reception at the Water Authority’s San Diego headquarters.
Board Chair Gary Croucher called Hagekhalil’s appointment a “prime opportunity” for MWD and the Water Authority to benefit water users throughout Southern California before Hagekhalil addressed the Board.
“Water is about people, and I want to salute you for what you have done in San Diego,” he said. “We know how important water is to our economy, we know how important it is for our businesses. Water is life.”
“My goal is to work on uniting all of us together,” Hagekhalil continued. “What worked for us the last hundred years will not work for us the next hundred years; we have changing climate, we have fire days, we have a lot of challenges before us — we need to come together.”
New Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Adel Hagekhalil sounds a unifying theme in addressing the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors on June 24 in San Diego. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
For Hagekhalil, the key is collaboration. “My commitment is to work for every member agency,” he said. “[MWD] would not exist if it were not for the member agencies that we work for — and that’s a shift that I’m going to bring forward. We are here to serve you, we’re here to bring you together and our strength is in our unity, coming together and trusting each other.”
Hagekhalil ended his remarks as he started, with the theme of unity to benefit the region’s water ratepayers and the agencies that serve them.
“I want to commit to you that you have a partner in Metropolitan, as I know you will be there for us as a region,” he said. “You will be working with us to build the future of this region as a whole, with everyone, every member agency, so every person from Southern California and across the state and the region will have affordable, safe, and reliable water that we can be proud of. Because none of us want to turn on the faucet one day and not have water.”
Thanks @adelh2o, for visiting the San Diego County Water Authority today. We look forward to collaborating with you on planning and projects that will increase local water supply reliablity for the Southern California region. #cawater #onewater pic.twitter.com/W2kQdWfs6f
— Tish Berge (@tishberge) June 24, 2021
On June 8, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors voted to approve Hagekhalil as the next general manager, replacing outgoing GM Jeff Kightlinger. Hagekhalil’s is the 14th general manager in the district’s 93-year history.
On June 8, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors voted to approve Adel Hagekhalil as the next General Manager. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
At the time, said Water Authority Board Chair Gary Croucher said: “Adel is exactly the kind of person and visionary leader Southern California needs, especially as we experience another period of sustained drought, to help guide MWD as it faces important near- and long-term planning decisions impacting its water supply resources and water rates and charges. In short, Adel brings exactly the kind of experience and leadership we believe MWD needs at this time, and we look forward to continued collaboration with him.”
“Adel’s selection sends an important signal that Southern California is planning to rely more on sustainable local water supplies in the future, while not abandoning our commitment to the Bay-Delta and Colorado River,” added Croucher. “These include Water Authority agency projects such as San Diego’s Pure Water Project, the East County Water Purification Project, and Oceanside’s Pure Water Project.”
Numerous San Diego County elected officials, labor, business, and community groups joined in writing letters of support for Adel’s appointment.
Much of Southern California’s water comes from Northern California, the Sierra snowpack, and the Colorado River. One of the agencies tasked with making that happen is the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), headquartered in downtown LA by Union Station. Nearly 19 million people across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties depend on MWD for at least some of their water supply.
Hundreds of MWD workers have a new incoming leader: Adel Hagekhalil. He’s the outgoing head of LA’s Bureau of Street Services. Before that, he was second-in-command at the city’s sanitation department.
Mechanical engineer Brent Yamasaki set out amid the recent blistering heat wave to take stock of the giant dams, pumps and pipes that support Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County, the largest storehouse of water in Southern California.
The reservoir, which he helped build 25 years ago, is 4½ miles long and 2 miles wide and holds back nearly 800,000 acre-feet of water — so much that it would take 20,000 years to fill it with a garden hose.
The Helix Water District Board of Directors June 16, honored East County student artists for their winning “Water Is Life” posters in an online awards ceremony.
Southern California students in kindergarten through eighth grade are invited to participate in their regional water agency’s Student Poster Art Contest to increase awareness about water conservation. This year, 231 students from 17 schools within the Helix Water District submitted their posters depicting how to use water wisely.
First Place – Sofia Cardenas Loera, Lighthouse Christian Academy, Lemon Grove, Grade 3
Second Place – Tiffany An, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 3
Third Place – Stella Stackhouse, Avocado Elementary School, La Mesa, Grade 2
Honorable Mention – Lucas Regimbal, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 3
Honorable Mention – Sanora Atoe, Lexington Elementary School, El Cajon, Grade 3
First Place – Kaylee Martin, Highlands Elementary School, Spring Valley, Grade 5
Second Place – Valeria Ramirez, St. John of the Cross, Lemon Grove, Grade 6
Third Place – Hannah Maass, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 8
Honorable Mention – Maddy Amezwa Cruz, Literacy First Junior Academy, El Cajon, Grade 8
Honorable Mention – Sarah Cervantes, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 8
Helix Water District 2020 winner Mina Saeed’s entry appears on the September 2021 calendar page. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Winners now move on to compete with other regional winners for the opportunity to appear in the 2022 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California calendar.
Helix Water District students have been successful in recent state competition. In 2021, art from Jose Sabedra, a fourth-grader from Bostonia Language Academy in El Cajon, and Mina Saeed, also a fourth-grader at Lexington Elementary School in El Cajon, appear in the calendar. They won the 2020 Helix Water District competition.
(Editor’s note: The Helix Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the metropolitan San Diego region.)
A cyber-espionage campaign blamed on China was more sweeping than previously known, with suspected state-backed hackers exploiting a device meant to boost internet security to penetrate the computers of critical U.S. entities.
Among the suspected targets was the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people and operates some of the largest treatment plants in the world.
