Zone 7 Board Race: Incumbents Leading

LIVERMORE, CA — The three incumbents in the race for a four-year term on the Zone 7 Water Agency board of directors are still in top place as of Wednesday afternoon. Because the three candidates with the four highest vote counts will be appointed to the seat, that means the board is likely to remain mostly the same. Voters were allowed to choose up to three of the four full-term candidates.

The only addition will be Pleasanton resident Catherine Brown, a former EPA environmental scientist, who won handily for the two-year seat to complete the term of former Director Olivia Sanwong, who resigned to join the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors.

With 100% of precincts reporting, the results Wednesday morning are as follows, according to Alameda County:

Full-term

• Laurene K. Green: 7,796 (32.33%)
• Kathy Narum: 6,076 (25.20%)
• Sandy Figuers: 5,906 (24.49%)
• Alan Burnham: 4,336 (17.98%)

Short-term

• Catherine Brown: 8,753 (81.02%)
• Seema Badar: 2,050 (18.85%)

Zone 7 supplies water to over 250,000 people in the Tri-Valley, and also sells water wholesale to Cal Water, the Dublin San Ramon Services District, and the cities of Livermore and Pleasanton. It also supplies non-potable water for agricultural use, manages flood control, water safety, and more. Board members are responsible for setting policy and developing long-term strategic plans related to water supply and security.

Here’s a bit more info about the winners:

Laurene Green: Green is a water resources engineer who joined the board in 2020. She helped Zone 7 obtain a $16 million grant to treat PFAs, which is most of the $16.3 million cost. She helped usher in and secure financing for the zone’s first PFAs Treatment System, with more to come. She advocates finishing the treatment systems; advocating for more funding for treatment systems and flood protection; expanding storage, supply, and reliability projects; and finalizing the zone’s Flood Management Plan.

Kathy Narum: Narum served nine years on the Pleasanton City Council, and was tapped as a temporary replacement for Sanwong. On the Council, she served on the Water Subcommittee, Tri-Valley Water Roundtable, the CityZone 7 Liaison Committee, and the Water Rates subcommittee. She advocates current projects to remove PFAs now and forever, diversifying water supply and adding additional storage, finishing the Flood Master Plan, and maintaining good fiscal health.

Sandy Figuers: Board President Sandy Figuers has been on the board since 1988. He left for a few years but returned in 2008, and has been there since, according to an interview with Pleasanton Weekly. He is a groundwater geologist who advocates technical research in order to expand the water supply. Figures told The Weekly he wants to continue researching the east side of the Livermore Basin for more ideas on how to get clean water from the ground.

Catherine Brown (two-term): Brown is a 30-year environmental scientist for the EPA who specialized in groundwater treatment. She has also served on the city of Pleasanton’s Energy & Environment Committee for the past four years, according to her campaign website. She advocates technical expertise in managing with PFAs, groundwater management, flood control, and surface water supplies.