3rd Annual Cal Desal Conference, October 6-7, 2014 — Featuring Education Session II – Obstacles and Alternatives to Desalination Implementation

3rd Annual Conference
October 6 & 7, 2014 – Portola Hotel& Spa, Monterey, CA
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This session seeks to better examine the reasons and obstacles as to why desal cannot be done quicker. What are the obstacles? 1) Regulatory processes 2) Public attitude/politics/public policies/political structures. Who is having success and why? Public projects – city government vs. retailer/wholesaler, and possibly private projects. 3) Financial – raising money for these projects.

 

Click here for the full conference schedule.

Moderator Kevin Thomas  
is Vice President and Environmental Services Manager at RBF Consulting (a company of Michael Baker International). Over the last 29 years at RBF, Kevin has focused on environmental compliance and regulatory permitting for major capital improvement projects, having managed the CEQA/NEPA compliance and/or permit feasibility tasks for over 20 desalination projects throughout California, including brackish and ocean desalination. Mr. Thomas has also presented at several major desalination conferences held by The Seminar Group, MSSC, CA/NV AWWA, AMTA, ACWA, and the Orange County Water Association and serves on various professional association committees including the CA/NV AWWA’s Desalination Committee and MSSC’s Salinity Summit Planning Committee. Kevin currently serves as the Chair of CalDesal’s Regulatory Working Group, and is presently working on ten coastal and brackish desalination projects in California.

Panelist Rich Svindland 
is a Professional Engineer with over 24 years of experience in the water and wastewater fields working both as an engineering consultant and an owner. He currently serves as a Vice President and Director of Engineering for California American Water and Hawaii American Water with overall responsibility for the planning, design and construction of over $400M in capital projects. His areas of expertise include civil, sanitary, structural, mechanical and hydraulic design, preparation of contract documents, and construction management for all types of water and wastewater projects.
  Rich spends most of his time on two large Design-Build projects on the Monterey Peninsula. These projects are the Carmel River Reroute and San Clemente Dam Removal project which is an $83M project that ultimately removes a silted in dam and restores fish passage and the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project which is a $277 to $320M project to replace over 70% of the service area’s water supply with a new 9.6 or 6.4 MGD desalination plant, over 20+ miles of main, increased ASR capacity and potentially a groundwater recharge component.  Rich was named the 2003 Engineer of the Year in Industry by the Kentucky Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He received his Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Kentucky.

Panelist Rick Longinotti  
founder of Santa Cruz Desal Alternatives, worked as an electrical contractor for 20 years, during which time he attempted to guide clients about energy efficiency. Santa Cruz Desal Alternatives successfully advocated that the City of Santa Cruz put their desalination project on hold and investigate other water security strategies. The City set up a stakeholder committee to spend a year to develop recommendations for the City Council. Rick is currently serving on that committee.

Panelist Peter Eccleston 
is a Principal Engineer with GHD’s Water Group with over twenty years’ professional experience in the delivery of water infrastructure projects.  This experience has spanned all phases of the project development and delivery cycle, including investigation and feasibility studies, planning, approvals, concept and detailed design, tendering, evaluation, construction management and commissioning. Peter has managed, and contributed to a range of multidisciplinary project teams responsible for the permitting, design and delivery of water infrastructure and large scale desalination projects within Australia, Asia and the United States.
Most recently Peter has been a Technical Advisor to the Owner for the procurement, design and construction of the Carlsbad Desalination Project. He was Project Director for the feasibility and procurement process investigation of a 100MGD desalination plant in Mexico, and a technical advisor to the State for the 110MGD Victorian Desalination Project, one of the largest PPP projects ever undertaken. Peter was also project team leader and Technical Advisor to the owner for the 66MGD Sydney Desalination Project, from the initial feasibility study stage, and EIR, through to commissioning and sale of the operating plant.

Panelist Shawn Dewane  
currently chairs Mesa Water District’s Public Information Committee. He has served on Mesa Water’s Executive, Audit Ad Hoc, Finance, and 50th  Anniversary Ad Hoc Committees and as liaison to Independent Special Districts of Orange County, the City District Committee, Orange County Business Council and Southern California Water Committee. In November 2010, Director Dewane was elected to the Orange County Water District (OCWD)
Board of Directors as the representative for Division 7, serving Costa Mesa and parts of Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach and Westminster. For OCWD, Director Dewane is Chair of the Administration and Finance Issues Committee and the IT Ad Hoc Committee; he is Vice Chair of the Property Management Committee; and he serves on the Governmental Organization Task Force Ad Hoc Committee, the Retirement Committee and the
Visitor Center Ad Hoc Committee. He also serves as OCWD’s liaison to Orange County Business Council and Orange County Council of Governments. Director Dewane is currently Chairman of CalDesal, a nonprofit organization devoted to the responsible development of Ocean Desalination as a new regional water source. He also serves as Executive Vice President of the
Water Advisory Committee of Orange County. Additionally, he is a former member of the Association of California Water Agencies and, having attended numerous annual conferences, he is familiar with the issues faced by water agencies. Professionally, Director Dewane owns Dewane Investment Strategies (www.DewaneiS.com) — an independent branch office of Raymond James Financial Services in Newport Beach — which provides sophisticated investment planning, estate planning and tax planning advice to individuals and institutions. The Registered Representative published the article, “Profitable Knowledge,” profiling Director Dewane’s professional work in its October 1998 issue. Director Dewane recognizes that clean affordable water is fundamental to our civil liberties and key to the economic development of our community. He is working to increase the local and regional water supply, preserve local and regional water rights, and promote fiscal responsibility and transparency in government.

Panelist Norm Groot 
started in Agriculture by pulling weeds at his Dad’s nursery when he was five. After receiving a degree in Business Accounting at the University of Southern California, he went into the family business as the Treasurer, working for 14 years to expand the business, and then for Monrovia Growers for 17 years. His nursery work experience includes finance, technology, logistics, and production planning. Norm currently serves as Executive Director for Monterey County Farm Bureau, serves on the Board of Directors for the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce as the Chair-Elect, participates on the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee, serves on the Monterey Peninsula Taxpayers Association Board of Directors, and is a member of the Monterey County Integrated Waste Management Task Force.
CalDesal 2520 Venture Oaks Way, Suite 150, Sacramento, CA 95833
Phone: (916) 239-4099
Fax: (916) 924-7323


Yes, We Take Onsite Registrations!


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~$350/members~


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Questions?

Call
(916) 239-4099

Thank You to Our Sponsors

When
Monday, October 6 –
Tuesday, October 7,2014

Where
Portola Hotel & Spa
2 Portola Plaza
Monterey, CA 93940
(888) 222-5852

What
CalDesal’s 3rd Annual Conference!  Don’t miss out on great education and a chance to interact with others in the industry!  

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