U.S. Water Prize Winners Webinar Series: Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 2:00 - 3:00 PM Eastern

Click here to register and join us for the live event!

Participants of this webinar will earn credit for one Professional Development Hour (PDH)

Webinar Overview:

Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission are two 2012 U.S. Water Prize Winners profiled in this webinar series. Sponsored and administered by the U.S. Water Alliance, the United States Water Prize is a celebration of sustainable solutions that advance holistic, watershed-based approaches to water quality and quantity challenges.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission:

In this webinar, Michael Carlin, SFPUC Deputy General Manager, will discuss the SFPUC’s “one-water” approach – a method the SFPUC is taking to ensure that water is used multiple times by creating localized water cycles. The SFPUC is diversifying our water supply portfolio with new investments in water conservation and localized groundwater use; promoting and subsidizing developments to treat and reuse black water, grey water, rainwater, and sump water; and implementing storm water management using green infrastructure solutions. At the same time, our multi-billion dollar Sewer System Improvement program is grounded in our urban watershed framework to maximize the benefits of “One Water” management.

Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative:

The Salmon Falls River is the largest river system contributing to the Great Bay estuary that borders both states, and was recently identified by the U.S. Forest Service as being the most threatened in the nation with regard to a potential decline in water quality due to conversion of private forested lands to housing.

Kira Jacobs and Dave Sharples will discuss the importance of inter-jurisdictional partnerships to protect and sustain drinking water supplies. They will explain how the success of the collaborative relies on the “on-the-ground actions” of multiple local watershed and community groups, municipalities, and landowners. The groups use grassroots messaging and community organizing to implement actions town-by-own, property-by-property throughout the watershed. The Collaborative unites to protect forests, champion smarter development approaches, and reduce water pollution from existing and future land development.

Presenters:

Michael Carlin
Deputy General Manager and Chief Operating Officer
SFPUC
Michael Carlin was appointed as the Deputy General Manager and Chief Operating Officer in 2009. In that role Michael supervises the agency’s efforts in capital planning, emergency response, asset management, and other functions across the three business lines – water, power and wastewater. Prior to this position, Michael served as the Assistant General Manager for Water where he led the effort to diversify the water supply portfolio. He continues in that role leading many of the environmental initiatives including addressing the impact of climate change on the organization

Dave Sharples
Director of Planning and Community Development
City of Somersworth, NH

Dave Sharples is the Director of Planning and Community Development for the City of Somersworth, New Hampshire. As a municipal planner, Dave is intimately involved with the protection of water resources at the local level and staffs the City's Planning Board and Conservation Commission. He has been involved with the drafting, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of several local water resource protection ordinances that includes a Wetland and Riparian Buffer ordinance and Low Impact Development regulations. Dave received his Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Maine and his Master's degree in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tuft's University.

Kira Jacobs
Drinking Water Program
EPA Region 1, Boston, MA

Kira Jacobs works for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Office in Boston. She has been with EPA since 1997, where she first worked as the regional Pollution Prevention Coordinator. For the past 12 years, she has worked in the Source Water Protection program in the Drinking Water Branch. In this position, she works with New England water suppliers and communities to protect their sources of drinking water. Prior to EPA, Kira spent four years working for a national environmental engineering consulting firm based in New Hampshire. Kira received a Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University and a Bachelors degree in English from Bucknell University.

Click here to register and join us for the live event!