Host: Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water)
Region: Bay Area
Openings: 1
Project Focus: Climate Adaptation, Water Management
Skills Needed: Community Engagement, Research, Data Collection, GIS Mapping, Communication, Detail-Oriented

Service Needs & Plans

Valley Water is a special district in Santa Clara County with a mission to provide water supply, flood protection, and environmental stewardship to the county’s 2 million residents. One Water is Valley Water’s long-range integrated water resources master plan that strives to better prioritize actions and plan improvements in watershed health and water resources management in a resilient and equitable way. The fellow would support two key aspects of the One Water planning process. These include developing a stakeholder outreach plan for West Valley and Lower Peninsula Watershed Plans, and identifying challenges and opportunities as the starting place for future priorities for these watersheds.

Like all public agencies, Valley Water faces wide-ranging challenges to deliver its mission to the community with limited funding and staff. To best prioritize actions, Valley Water needs a decision-making process to strategically allocate its limited resources towards actions that most effectively achieve its mission and service to the community. This process is developed through an overarching countywide guidance (i.e., One Water Framework) and specific watershed plans for each of the five watersheds it manages. Recognizing the risks to Valley Water’s operation posed by climate change, actions to address climate adaptation are also urgently needed and included within the One Water Plan and the separate Climate Change Action Plan.

The goals of the project are to:
1) Develop long-range master plans for water resources management in Santa Clara County’s Lower Peninsula and West Valley watersheds, complete with identified priority actions. These watersheds are highly urbanized, and many creeks and streams are constrained to narrow corridors, offering a unique set of planning challenges and opportunities.
2) For each watershed plan, develop an equitable stakeholder engagement strategy and methodology to identify challenges, opportunities, and potential watershed management actions
3) Ensure close coordination with other Valley Water plans such as the Water Supply Master Plan, Capital Improvement Program, and Climate Change Action Plan.

Project Description

Project 1: Develop Stakeholder Outreach Plans for West Valley and Lower Peninsula Watersheds
1. Overarching goal of the project – To develop a long-range integrated water resources master plan that identifies key priority actions at a watershed scale to develop future priorities for Valley Water to support the community’s flood risk reduction and stream stewardship needs. This component of the project with fellow support will develop a stakeholder outreach plan for two watersheds.
2. Role – Help to plan and conduct stakeholder outreach to better understand the community and the challenges it faces. This work will improve Valley Water’s connection with disadvantaged and underrepresented communities, civic leaders, and local municipal government staff.
3. Desired project outcomes with Fellow support – Written stakeholder outreach plan and inclusive process that takes a variety of viewpoints into account for watershed planning.
4. Addressing resilience challenges – The fellow would assist Valley Water in better understanding water resource challenges impacting disadvantaged and underrepresented communities by tracking available data and reaching out to the community to directly listen to their concerns. Building equity into One Water planning through extensive stakeholder engagement is a key component and this fellow will ensure a more robust, inclusive process.

Project 2: Identify Challenges and Opportunities for West Valley and Lower Peninsula Watersheds
1. Overarching goal of the project – To develop a long-range integrated water resources master plan that identifies key priority actions at a watershed scale to develop future priorities for Valley Water to support the community’s flood risk reduction and stream stewardship needs. This component of the project with fellow support will identify challenges and opportunities for two watersheds based on existing conditions information and extensive coordination with a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, planners, biologists and water resource specialists. This also builds on input received from the stakeholder engagement task.
2. Role – Analyze watershed data through coordination across the agency with multiple disciplines, including water supply, water quality, flood risk reduction, stewardship, climate change, and environmental justice.
3. Desired project outcomes with Fellow support – Comprehensive assessment of water supply, flood protection, and natural resources opportunities and challenges across the watersheds. Specific outcomes include written analysis, lists of opportunities and challenges, metrics and targets data and graphics, and mapping.
4. Addressing resilience challenges – The fellow will support Valley Water’s watershed planning in part by building resilience into its plans. This means considering how to be resilient when it comes to integrated planning for flood protection and stewardship, how to address future climate impacts and looking at consistency with Valley Water’s Climate Change Action Plan, and how to work with land use agencies when it comes to future development and pressures on the natural environment.

Desired Skills

– Apply water resources principles, practices, concepts, and standards to planning
– Analyze, interpret, summarize, and present technical information and data in an effective manner, including geographic information systems
– Conduct water resources and natural resource research projects, evaluate alternatives, make sound recommendations, and prepare effective technical reports.
– Practices for conducting stakeholder engagement and effective communication
– Organize and prioritize multiple tasks in an effective and timely manner; organize own work, set priorities, and meet critical time deadlines.
– Office practices, methods, and computer equipment and applications related to the work.

Organization & Community Highlights

1.The workplace culture and environment for Valley Water as a whole and specifically for the One Water Plan project is one of teamwork, multi-disciplinary collaborative brainstorming, inclusivity, and diversity. I find that we are a technical organization, but it is a combination of technical skills and soft skills that really make the team and result in a successful project. The organization has shifted to be more flexible with virtual work and in-person work as a result of the pandemic. We have also come to realize we can better engage a larger swath of the community if we are more flexible in the types of engagement we offer.
2.Serving with Valley Water has been the highlight of my career. I have stayed for nearly 21 years now because I learn something new every day and this is precisely because as a special district, we are responsible for so many different types of activities (water supply, flood protection, environmental stewardship, climate change actions). Because of the myriad of work we carry out, we are ideal for many types of careers including engineers, planners, biologists, accountants, resource specialists, and project managers; and a fellowship may be the perfect way to try it out.
3. San Jose, California is an interesting place to live and work for me because of the diversity and also the varied landscape. Though it is one of the largest cities in California, we have significant open space, trails, and natural resources surrounding us. Only 30 minutes from the coast, two hours from the snow, and one hour from all that San Francisco has to offer with events, sports, and tourist spots.

Remote or On-Site Placement

Hybrid