Moderator: David Nahai, President, David Nahai Companies
Panel: Felicia Marcus, Stanford University Fellow, Water & the West
Mark Gold, Director of Water Scarcity Solutions, Natural Resources Defense Council
Richard Katz, LADWP Commission President
Barbara Romero, Executive Director, LA Sanitation and Environment
Liz Crosson, Chief Sustainability Resiliency, Innovation Officer, Metropolitan Water District
Responder: Zakir Hirani, Vice President Water Reuse Practice Leader, Stantec
Utilizing recycled water is pivotal for broadening local water sources and fortifying the state's long-term water resilience. Newsom's August 2022 Water Supply Strategy (WSS) establishes objectives for recycling a minimum of 800,000 acre-feet of water annually by 2030 and 1.8 million by 2040. This will involve redirecting wastewater discharges that are now going to the ocean. This panel will discuss the criticality of adjusting water habits and what California, and more specifically, what SoCal's water future will look like. It will also explore other avenues for readdressing our dependence on imported water - stormwater capture, aquifer remediation, and conservation.