SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented the prestigious Clair A. Hill Water Agency Award for Excellence to Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) for its French Meadows Forest Restoration Project.
Placer County Water Agency’s French Meadows Forest Restoration Project aims to improve fire resiliency in the American River watershed by treating more than 22,000 acres of federal forest through ecologically based fuels management, meadow restoration, and prescribed fire. In 2019, more than 1,000 acres of forestland was treated to improve watershed health. The project is successful due to a collaborative public-private French Meadows Partnership. Partner agencies that contribute to project funding and expertise include PCWA, Placer County, Tahoe National Forest, The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at University of California, Merced.
“The French Meadows Restoration Project is a wonderful example of a local water agency collaborating with private and public partners to address the urgent need to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire in California’s headwaters,” said ACWA President Steve LaMar.
ACWA’s Clair A. Hill Water Agency Award for Excellence is an annual award program that recognizes outstanding achievements by public water agencies. The winning agency has the honor of awarding a $5,000 scholarship to a deserving student in the name of Clair A. Hill, founder of the consulting engineering firm Jacobs.
The award, sponsored by Jacobs, was presented during ACWA’s 2020 Virtual Summer Conference where approximately 900 local water officials are virtually joining programs and panel discussions on a variety of key water issues.
The other finalists for this year’s award were:
- Inland Empire Utilities Agency’s Renewable Energy Project: The first-of-its-kind battery storage system that is integrated with on-site solar and wind technologies.
- Marin Municipal Water District’s Biodiversity, Fire and Fuels Integrated Plan: The goal is to minimize wildfire hazards and maximize ecological health of the watershed lands.
- City of Roseville’s Aquifer Storage and Recovery Groundwater Recharge Project: The transfer of additional surface water supplies to recharge the city’s groundwater basin.
For more information about ACWA’s awards programs, please visit www.acwa.com/about/awards.
ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose more than 450 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com
Contact: Heather Engel, Director of Communications |C (760) 217-0627