The Water Summit is the Water Education Foundation’s premier event of the year, with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water issues in California and across the West.
The 2024 event will be held Wednesday, October 30, at The Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento and includes lunch and an evening reception to network with speakers and fellow attendees. Conversations will revolve around this year’s theme, Reflecting on Silver Linings in Western Water. Speakers and conversations will focus on the promising advances that have developed from myriad challenges faced in managing the West’s most precious natural resource.
Speakers:
Among the speakers are Julie Rentner, President of River Partners; Robyn Grimm, Chief Executive Officer of the California Water Data Consortium; John Bednarski, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Interim Assistant General Manager of Water Resources & Technical Services; Adriana Renteria, Tribal Liaison for the State Water Resources Control Board; Heather Bischel, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at UC Davis; Steven Springhorn, Supervising Engineering Geologist at the California Department of Water Resources; Victoria Johnson, HDR’s Global Equity Director; Eva Dominguez, Assistant Director of Self-Help Enterprises; and Chelsea Haines, Regulatory Relations Manager for the Association of California Water Agencies.
The Water Summit’s keynote address will be provided by Karla Nemeth, Director of California’s Department of Water Resources. Nemeth is focused on preparing California to adapt to more extreme weather under climate change by improving aging and green infrastructure, management of groundwater supplies and local water resilience.
You can view a draft of the full agenda here. Lively discussions will focus on topics such as:
- The pivot to a wider array of water management strategies including floodplain restoration, groundwater recharge & more
- The development of improved monitoring of water resources and greater access to data
- The progress toward more inclusive approaches to water decisions while navigating recent water management challenges
- The intersection of art, research & water
Now in its 40th year, the Water Summit is an ideal event for water district managers and board members, state and federal agency officials, city and county government leaders, farmers, environmentalists, attorneys, consultants, engineers, business executives and public interest groups.