By The Signal Editorial Board
The Santa Clarita Valley has a clean, safe and reliable water supply. When you turn on the tap, the clean water comes out.
This is due to the hard work and forethought of our current SCV Water Agency water board. That is why we are endorsing Bill Cooper (Division 1), Maria Gutzeit (Division 3) and someone who is ideologically aligned with them, Dirk Marks (Division 2), in the November election.
Under the current board, SCV Water has created a treatment plant to clean groundwater contamination, has almost four years of water reserves set aside to protect against drought and has worked to maintain some of the lowest water rates in Southern California.
Cooper is a long-time water professional, having worked for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for about 40 years. During that time, he held various posts including the Water Treatment Section manager overseeing the operations and maintenance of all five MWD treatment plants that supply about one-half of all the water to the 19 million people in Southern California. Cooper has managed some of the largest water treatment plants in the United States and was an adjunct professor at College of the Canyons, teaching the environmental technologies water treatment program.
Cooper served on the board of the Castaic Lake Water Agency — which preceded SCV Water —since 1993 and was president of the board for five years from 1996 to 2001.
Gutzeit is currently board president of the SCV Groundwater Sustainability Agency. She served as a board member of both Newhall County Water District and SCV Water from 2003-2020 and was instrumental in the formation of SCV Water.
Gutzeit is the owner and principal engineer at Compliance Plus. She has over 30 years’ experience in the environmental compliance arena. She began her career with Fortune 500 companies, including Amoco Oil, Waste Management of California and Anheuser Busch. After serving as a site environmental engineer for three Southern California facilities, she founded Compliance Plus in 1995. The company serves industrial clients in Southern California and the western United States.
We also endorse long-time water engineer Dirk Marks.
Marks has been director of water resources at SCV Water since 2018, and started with CLWA in 2008. Before that he was with the MWD for 18 years. He brings a wealth of experience in water resources management and planning — and a very specialized body of knowledge.
Let’s elect these three and keep our water safe and flowing.
