By @Dane Wadlé
Over 50 representatives from state and federal legislative offices recently attended CSDA’s Virtual Special Districts Tour, this year highlighting the need for partnership in funding water infrastructure for firefighting. This annual event showcases how local special districts are leading the way on issues of critical statewide concern.
CSDA’s Virtual Tour brought together public officials from throughout California as well as from Washington D.C. to discuss challenges faced in both urban and rural areas, and to consider opportunities to partner with special districts in meeting those challenges.
The first presentation highlighted the work of the North Tahoe Fire Protection District, North Tahoe Public Utility District, and the Tahoe City Public Utility District to solve the critical infrastructure need in their high fire risk region.
The Tahoe Basin experienced catastrophic impacts from the Angora Fire in 2007 and the Caldor Fire in 2021. Those incidents demonstrated their rural communities did not have the infrastructure to provide necessary fire flows in response to large events. The three special districts detailed how they work together through the Tahoe Water for Fire Suppression Partnership to find solutions and advocate with state and federal officials.
The second presentation showcased the collaboration between the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District and the Sacramento Suburban Water District. Sac Metro Fire has responded to significant fires recently and is reliant upon water districts such as Sacramento Suburban to provide the water to combat those fires. The water district faces increasing costs for pipeline repairs and groundwater well installations. These costs make it more challenging to keep up on the needed infrastructure replacement to protect public health and safety.
The Virtual Tour concluded with a request from all districts for funding assistance from the state and federal government. Special districts intend to carry forward this advocacy work through their respective lawmakers as well as through the National Special District Coalition (NSDC), of which CSDA is a founding member. NSDC has made this issue a priority initiative. At the state level, SB 470 remains a key opportunity in 2024.
The complete Special Districts Virtual Tour and tour packet can be found on the CSDA website csda.net/SpecialDistrictsTour.
CSDA thanks all the attendees and the tour hosts for highlighting this issue. Please reach out to the CSDA Advocacy Team with any questions by emailing us at advocacy@csda.net.
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