State of the District (Autumn, 2025)

SLVWD is a public utility with roughly three dozen employees providing water to about 8000 customers across the SLV, overseen by a five-person elected Board of Directors.  FSLVW is a local citizens’ group that believes it is important for members of our community to be well-informed about this vital local resource.  Happily, the past four months have been amongst the most encouraging that we have witnessed in quite some time.

Thanks to our winter rainfall over the last two years, the SLV is projected to have an adequate supply of local water, at least until the next drought.    However, getting this water to our homes and businesses across our mountainous terrain remains a formidable undertaking.  Furthermore, this challenge has been compounded in recent years by a relentless series of additional disruptions:

• Emergencies tied to long-deferred infrastructure maintenance

• The 2020 CZU Fire and subsequent severe winter storms

• New state mandates

• No permanent General Manager and an exodus of SLVWD senior personnel

In parallel, a major rate increase and restructuring in 2024 and the subsequent unsuccessful Measure U campaign to nullify this called attention to substantial differences in local community views of SLVWD.  In the face of all the above developments, our reliable access to water has been increasingly under threat.

Then, on July 1, 2025, things began to turn around, beginning with the hiring of a new General Manager who has brought stability and leadership to the district.  Jason Lillion served for 17 years as Director of Operations for the Indian Well Water District, and already in his first four months at SLVWD, he has demonstrated a rare combination of technical expertise, strategic vision, fiscal prudence, commitment to staff support and development, and a strong sense of responsibility to the SLV community as a whole.

One of Jason’s immediate top priorities was to establish a fully-functioning and highly qualified senior staff team, utilizing both recruiting and internal development.  Not only was he able to achieve this in his first few months, but he was able to demonstrate how these additions and upgrades will actually save SLVWD hundreds of thousands of dollars (by reducing SLVWD’s reliance on high-priced and/or under-performing contractors).

Another of Jason’s top priorities was to develop a coherent plan for dealing with SLVWD’s aging and undersized infrastructure (pipelines, water storage tanks, pump stations, treatment plants, and high-tech monitoring and communications capabilities).  He set his senior staff to work assessing critical infrastructure based on measurable criteria, health and safety concerns, population affected, age of system, chance of failure, and consequence of failure.  Jason also began developing plans to ensure appropriate ongoing attention to: resilience and emergency preparedness, water quality and treatment readiness, operating efficiency and automated metering, sustainable finance and affordability, and transparency and accountability.

Despite these positive steps, there will still inevitably be bumps in the road ahead.  Our water system spans terrain shaped by rivers, fault lines, wildfires, and winter storms.  We have small pressure zones, tank sites tucked into hillsides, narrow roads, and limited access routes.  We also have communities with different histories, needs, and expectations—from long-time residents to new families, from small water systems seeking consolidation to neighborhoods rebuilding after disaster.  All of these challenges will require a sustained effort for SLVWD to navigate effectively.

The bottom line is that we are all dependent on the success of SLVWD.  However, this success also depends on all of us.  We have a shared responsibility both to understand the challenges that SLVWD is dealing with and to play our own part in protecting our local watershed.  FSLVW is continuing to support these efforts as part of our ongoing commitment to our community.