By Mary O’KEEFE

Getting water to our homes seems simple enough: It snows in the Sierra Nevada, melts, comes down here and goes into a reservoir then to our local water district. We turn on the faucet and there it is … simple, right? Well, no, it is considerably more complicated and the person is retiring who has been working hard on all of the complicated issues bringing water from the Sierra to our faucets.

For over 25 years, David Gould has been with the Crescenta Valley Water District – CVWD – and, as of Dec. 31, will be retiring. Gould is the director of Engineering and Operations for CVWD. This means he is the boots on the ground, both literally and metaphorically, for all things water.

According to CVWD, Gould’s responsibilities included managing the water supply and distribution system and wastewater system, and overseeing capital improvements, water quality and maintenance of facilities. In addition, he prepared and presented to stakeholders the annual capital improvement program budget, represented the activities of the CVWD to local government and agencies and promoted CVWD to the community.

He had to make sure the wells were working and when a pipeline broke had to not only make certain it was repaired but also investigate why the break happened and what needed to be done to either repair or replace it.

“When I started [at CVWD] it was myself as senior engineer and a technician. Now we have three engineers, two technicians and one inspector,” he said. “When I started we would [lay] about 1,000 feet of pipe a year now we are up to a mile [annually].”

Gould played a major role in getting a $4-plus million grant to increase the district’s local water supply through new groundwater wells and the installation of a bioremediation nitrate removal treatment plant and prepared a local hazard mitigation plan.

Under his watch CVWD was able to undertake many projects including drilling two new wells and creating a groundwater basin study – something that had not been done in years.

Gould said one of the biggest challenges he has faced, though, is getting the public more involved with the water district and what it does.

As most water districts have found, the majority of the population seems to pay the closest attention to its water district when rate hikes are presented.

Gould would like the public to be more involved so it would learn what financial issues the district faces prior to rate increases, including all the new regulations districts are required to deal with and how they have to plan for natural disasters like earthquakes and fires.

There is also the issue of climate change. CVWD is working on a plan that includes ways of capturing water to keep the storm waters in CV instead of letting them flow into the ocean.

“Our groundwater is reduced,” he said. “Ten years ago we were able to get 2.7 million gallons out of the ground; today [we get] 1.6 million out of the groundwater.”

CVWD General Manager Nem Ochoa said Gould was a strong advocate and facilitator of storm water capture and groundwater replenishment to ensure that local water supplies are available to the community for future generations.

“[David] was responsible for managing capital projects that replaced over $100 million worth of aging infrastructure in the region to ensure reliable water and sewer service to the Crescenta Valley for now and in the future,” Ochoa said. “He has always wanted what is best for CVWD and the community it serves. This was apparent by his extraordinary commitment and dedication to CVWD, fueled by a strong passion for public works and public service.”   

Gould said when he retires he will miss the people he works with at CVWD but will still be around for about six months as the district finds his replacement. Brooke Yardd will be acting interim director of engineering and operations.

Gould does hope to have time to travel with his wife Elizabeth.

“[Elizabeth] is excited about me retiring,” Gould said. He added the CV community has shown him what “community support” means and wants the district to continue in that vein.

He has a family member who works with indigenous people at Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah who he may be working with using his expertise in water resource management. Gould would also like to be an advocate for seniors by helping them plan for the future. He said he has seen seniors in the area who find themselves alone after family moves away. He would like to do something to help them plan for that type of issue.