Happy New Year!
Obviously we’re far from our traditional “New Year’s” celebration on the calendar – but, July 1, 2022 signified a new FISCAL year for CalDesal. Some of you may have seen the new fiscal year for CalDesal marked by communication of invoices for 2022-23 dues collections, but in addition to that communication, we also widely shared our annual member letter which can be found here.
 
In part, the annual member letter provides that Getting back to ‘normal’ has been our objective but has continued to prove slow and challenging during this most recent fiscal year. That said, we are optimistic that 2022-23 will fully welcome us back to in-person events and activities, and continued opportunities to make substantial progress on important policy, regulatory, legislative, funding, and permitting issues of interest to brackish and ocean desalination and salinity management objectives.
New Social Media Feature
We are very excited to announce a new feature to CalDesal’s ongoing social media outreach through the various platforms on which we’re active. We will soon begin to spotlight two CalDesal member organizations each month through our various social media channels.
 
We are looking for volunteer member organizations so we can have a chance to “brag” about our amazing members! We will need:
 
  •  Organization logo
  •  Brief written content about your organization
  •  Brief written content about your interest/involvement in the California desalination community
  •  Contact name and information
 
Please send to: Executive Director Glenn Farrel – glennf@caldesal.org, CalDesal Outreach Communications Committee Chair Stacy Taylor – stacyt@mesawater.org, and CalDesal Outreach Communications Committee Vice-Chair Sharene Gonzales – sharene.gonzales@acwd.com 
CalDesal Elections
It’s election season everywhere – even at CalDesal! CalDesal holds elections for its 13-member Executive Committee and the four officer positions that are a part of the Executive Committee every two years in December of even-numbered years. A representative from each of our 28 Regular Members will be eligible for consideration to be elected to the Executive Committee and Board Officer positions, and will be encouraged to cast their vote at the Board meeting held later this year during the ACWA Fall Conference in Indian Wells.
 
If you are interested, please contact Glenn Farrel at glennf@caldesal.org or at (916) 216-1747. Also, stay tuned for more information about the nomination and election process and procedures in the coming weeks.
Legislative Update
Over the course of the 2022 state legislative and congressional sessions, CalDesal has stepped up its engagement. In recent weeks, the CalDesal Executive Committee approved adoption of CalDesal Legislative Committee recommended positions on several bills:
 
  • AB 2016 (Bauer-Kahan) – Desalination study legislation – SUPPORT
  • SB 1347 (Hueso) – Renewable hydrogen study – SUPPORT
  • S. 4231 (Feinstein) – STREAM Act – Federal funding authorization – SUPPORT
  • H.R. 7612 (Levin) – Desalination Research Advancement Act - SUPPORT
 
CalDesal continues to be actively engaged in helping to shape state and federal legislation in a meaningful way to ensure positive, transparent, and accountable outcomes that help advance California’s desalination opportunities and environment.
 
CalDesal has also communicated with legislative leadership, budget leadership, and the Governor’s office regarding its recommendations for water resilience investment using state budget surplus funds. The CalDesal recommendations focus on encouraging investments in ocean and brackish water desalination infrastructure, workforce development, and renewable energy integration for desalination operations. CalDesal remains engaged through the Summer as the Legislature works to shape a final spending package for the State Budget during August, which is the last month of the 2022 state legislative session.