About Integrated Regional Water Management
Regional collaboration can promote a more efficient, comprehensive, and effective approach to water resource management while being responsive within a regional context to the needs of individual communities and jurisdictions. In addition, as State funding is becoming more oriented toward regional planning, it is in the Greater Los Angeles County Region's best interests to develop an IRWMP to successfully compete for future funding opportunities. The Greater Los Angeles County Region IRWMP will serve as the blueprint to facilitate this type of regional cooperation.
Today, local agencies, organizations, cities, and county government are working together to implement the strategies and achieve the goals set out in the Plan as approved in December 2006. The strategies and goals provided for in this Plan are inclusive and provides opportunities for cost effective solutions to address the water resource needs of the Region.
The Region's IRWMP was developed under the following framework:
- Each sub-region has a steering committee which serves as the sub-regional decision making-body with input from a broad stakeholder group.
- A Leadership Committee then provides overall guidance to the steering committees and the region-wide planning effort.
- The Leadership Committee is comprised of sixteen voting members consisting of the Chair and Vice-Chair of each Sub-regional Steering Committee (ten members) and a representative of each of the five broad water management areas. The sixteenth member is the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, which acts as the Chair of the Leadership Committee.
- The overall Program Manager for the IRWMP planning effort is the Los Angles County Flood Control District. The District is also the recipient of grants for the planning effort and responsible for managing all aspects of the grants.
- West Basin Municipal Water District has the fiscal and accounting responsibilities for the non-grant funds, the planning effort and for paying the consultant that has been hired to facilitate the planning effort.
The 2006 Plan was funded by Proposition 50, Chapter 8 grants administered by the State Department of Water Resources, totaling $1.5 million, and generous contributions from local governments and agencies.