Newsom reappoints Turlock woman to board that will make key decisions on river flows
Dorene D’Adamo of Turlock will serve four more years on the State Water Resources Control Board, which deals with river flows and other key issues.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the reappointment, subject to confirmation by the state Senate. D’Adamo, an attorney, first was named to the five-member board in 2013.
The board oversees California’s complex system of water rights and is part of the response to the now three-year drought. It also deals with drinking water quality, notably a recent grant to provide free bottled water to users of tainted wells in Stanislaus County.
The board has stirred controversy with its plan to roughly double reservoir releases to aid fish in the lower Stanislaus, Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers.
“The challenges facing our communities, farms and ecosystems are daunting, and exacerbated by climate change and three consecutive years of drought,” D’Adamo said in a news release. “But we also have tremendous opportunities to become more resilient by diversifying our water supplies, improving drought and flood-control preparedness, restoring ecosystems and assuring access to safe drinking water for all Californians.”
D’Adamo served on the California Air Resources Board from 2009 to 2013 and has worked for lawmakers on water, agricultural and environmental policy. She was assistant director for legislation for the California Youth Authority and legal counsel for the Assembly Committee on Public Safety.
The water board has a new chairwoman, Nichole Morgan, a civil engineer who used to be on its staff. The other members are Joaquin Esquivel, who has worked in state and federal water policy; Sean McGuire, also a former engineer for the state board; and Laurel Firestone, an attorney previously with the Community Water Center.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 11:53 AM.
