The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) has appointed Beverly Hills resident Barry Pressman, M.D., as one of its four vice chairs. Pressman has served on the MWD board since 2017. During his tenure he has served on various committees, including the five-year independent integrated resources review; Executive Committee; Finance, Affordability, Asset Management and Efficiency Committee; and the One Water and Adaptation Committee.
In this new role, Pressman will continue to serve on the Executive Committee and hold ex officio status on all other committees.
A practicing radiologist for 50 years, Pressman tells the Courier that he has always wanted to give back to the community. When he moved to Beverly Hills, he joined Team Beverly Hills, which was his first opportunity to “find out how things worked.” He was then appointed to serve on the Public Works Commission.
Southern California was facing drought problems during his time on the commission, bringing many water issues to his attention.
“I started going on MWD inspection tours and fell in love with water and the MWD. It’s an incredible organization,” Pressman said.
The MWD is a wholesale provider for 26 public water agencies—including the city of Beverly Hills—who then deliver those supplies to 19 million people across Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. It is the largest single contractor of the State Water Project, importing water from the Colorado River and Northern California.
Pressman stepped into his role as vice chair during what he said are “very difficult times,” given the stalling of Governor Gavin Newsom’s ambitious $20-billion Delta tunnel project. The Delta Conveyance Project aims to deliver water supplies from Northern California southward under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for 27 million Californians. Yet the Governor’s proposal to fast-track the project was stunted by California lawmakers, especially from the Delta cities, who have staunchly opposed the project. Proponents say the project is needed because the state faces a future of water instability.
“The MWD gets a great deal of its water from Northern California. Although we haven’t taken a position yet on the tunnel…it hit some bad waters just the other day,” said Pressman. “So, these are particularly difficult times for the MWD to look at its future and figure out how we’re going to guarantee the availability of affordable water for Southern California.”
Pressman applauded Beverly Hills for properly storing adequate water in case of an emergency.
“It’s a function of making sure that the water is available at each local level. And Beverly Hills has done a great job at storing and looking at its future and making sure it has enough locally stored water for an acute event.”
In fact, one of his main goals as vice chair is to ensure that the MWD is prepared, in the future, to supply sufficient water at a reasonable price for Southern California. Yet, inherent in that is maintaining a work environment that ensures keeping the employees who help the MWD achieve that goal.
“Our main mission is to supply affordable water with resilience and make sure it’s available, and done in an environmentally reasonable way. But how do you do that? You can’t do that without people,” said Pressman. “So, our big task is making sure our people are properly paid and properly managed and comfortable with their work environment. And that’s almost as big a task as making sure the water’s available.”
