When I spoke Friday to Alex Ruiz, the San Diego Water Department’s assistant director, I asked about the source of incorrect information the city has been citing when explaining why it’s not pursuing a more equitable water cuts plan.
Ruiz told me that he had based his statements about the Irvine Ranch Water District’s approach to water cuts on a presentation that one of the district’s officials gave last fall to local water agencies.
From my story:
Ruiz said he was 20 minutes late to the presentation. He did not recall how much of the presentation he’d watched nor the presenter’s name.
Ruiz did remember that the presenter was a woman. It’s clear that he didn’t catch much of the presentation if he was 20 minutes late.
Fiona Sanchez, conservation manager at the Irvine Ranch Water District, said she gave two presentations here last year. She wrote in an e-mail:
One was at a full-day conservation rates workshop sponsored by the Urban Water Institute in August. IRWD was featured as a panel, and I probably spoke and answered questions for about 15-20 minutes (three other panelists from IRWD also spoke and responded to questions).
I gave a presentation mostly to [high-ranking local water agency officials] at the San Diego County Water Authority on September 17. I covered most of the same material and responded to questions for about 45 minutes to an hour.
(The water authority says that the latter presentation happened Sept. 3.)