Providing Water Amid Fire
Malibu Lake and Paramount Ranch succumb to the Woolsey Fire.
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as Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) serves around 70,000 people in a biologically diverse mountain ecosystem northwest of Los Angeles, California. In November 2018, the district was hit by the disastrous Woolsey wildfire, which burned 66 percent of the district’s service area. The staff of the water district worked to maintain the functionality of its infrastructure while also providing water to firefighters. In this interview, Dave Pedersen, the district’s general manager, Dave Roberts, its resource conservation manager, and Mike McNutt, its public affairs and communications manager, speak with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about the Woolsey Fire’s effects on LVMWD’s service area, infrastructure, and local ecosystem.
Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you ended up in your positions.
district and have been with the district for 6 years now. I have a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in business administration with a specialty in finance. My professional background has always been in the public sector. I have about 25 years of public-service
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experience focusing on water management, flood control, and other public infrastructure. I enjoy the public-service element of what I do, and I fell in love with the water business about 15 years ago. I started my career with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. In 2010, I left the County of Los Angeles to work for the Irvine Ranch Water District, first as its director of water operations and eventually as executive director of operations. Most recently, in 2013 I came to Las Virgenes to be the district’s general manager. MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LVMWD.
Dave Pedersen: I am the general manager for the
Left to Right: Mike McNutt, Dave Pedersen, and Dave Roberts.
