PWQA Annual Convention: New President Ready to Take Action

By Ken Steitz, MWS, CI

The 58th Annual PWQA Convention was held October 6-9 at the Pacific Palms Conference and Golf Center, City of Industry, CA, and attended by over 300 individuals and 50 exhibitors. Educational sessions organized by C.F. ‘Chubb’ Michaud, MWS, were timely and informative. The networking, golf tournament and exhibits all contributed to a very memorable event.

As I take the reins as President of PWQA, I offer these thoughts on the organization and its future, as well as assessment of the convention. There is much to do and many hurdles exist but together, we will continue to ensure the viability of our industry in the state of California.

Drought. Water conservation. Salt. Regulations. Restrictions. Bans. Change. All important water quality issues affecting us. It is an exciting time to be in the water improvement industry. The opportunities we are afforded in our various businesses are tremendous. I’m excited about stepping into the President’s role and I’m honored to serve with our dedicated Board of Directors.

I’d like to encourage all of our members to attend our Sacramento Legislative Days in the spring and to be vigilant in looking at the agendas of your city councils, boards of supervisors and water control boards for items that affect our businesses. It is critical that our members keep your association abreast of issues in their regions, so we can address them quickly with real facts and real science.

The Legislative Update, from David Loveday of WQA and Pete Conaty of Conaty and Associates, provided legislative status on bills and regulations from Washington, DC to Sacramento. In order to defend and advance our industry, we must be timely and strategic in addressing issues at the state, regional and local levels. We will be working on promoting legislative and administrative regulations to continue to expand our industry as an affordable and reliable solution to many of our commercial, industrial and residential water quality problems.

Our new Executive Committee is made up of Immediate Past President Cliff Fasnacht, Vice President John Miller and Secretary/Treasurer Melodie Bullock and myself. New PWQA board members are John Ridgley, Freddie Vidal, Sean Caughron and Mike Baird. Again, thank you for this opportunity. I will serve the association during the next 12 months to the best of my ability. I look forward to working together to make PWQA and our industry even better than it is now.

About the author
Ken Steitz is President of EcoWater of Central California, headquartered in Fresno, CA.  He has earned the WQA Master Water Specialist and Certified Installer designations and is a former Fresno City Councilmember. Steitz holds a BA degree from the University of Hawaii, Manoa.