MWD Chief Gastelum to Step Down

Ronald Gastelum announced Tuesday that he plans to retire as president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California after five years of guiding the agency through controversy, cutbacks and an ambitious search for water to accommodate the region’s growing needs.

Gastelum, 58, said he would leave his $297,000 a year post Dec. 31. He said he had no specific plans for the future.

“It’s been a good run, and now it’s time to move on,” Gastelum said.

MWD board Chairman Phillip Pace praised Gastelum for helping the Los Angeles-based agency face “more factors of uncertainty” than during any time in its 76-year history.

Among those factors are a devastating drought in the Western states and a decision by the federal government to bow to demands from other states to reduce California’s overreliance on the Colorado River.

Under Gastelum, the MWD was a party to a historic agreement divvying up Colorado River water. The agency also enhanced conservation and recycling efforts, launched desalination and storage programs, and tried to make peace with its largest and unhappiest member agency, the San Diego County Water Authority.

Water officials from Washington to El Centro said Gastelum brought a civility to the bitter arena of California water disputes. As water wholesaler to local agencies serving 17 million people in six counties, the MWD is central in nearly any discussion of water in California.

Bennett Raley, the top official in the Bush administration on Western water matters, said Gastelum would be remembered for helping prepare Southern California for a cutback in water from the Colorado River and helping Nevada and California end their decades of squabbling.

Steve Hall, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies, said Gastelum’s temperament was different in the high-stakes world of water where feuds are common and interagency grudges are slow to die.

“He didn’t have any ideology,” Hall said. “He just wanted to find practical solutions.”

But Tom Graff, regional director of the California branch of Environmental Defense, said many environmentalists were alarmed that under Gastelum, the MWD had increased its water purchases from Northern California.

“As a person, he was a competent and cagey leader,” Graff said. “He did tilt to the L.A. view of things instead of the Orange County-San Diego view of things.” Graff defined the latter view as a preference for local water projects rather than seeking water from Northern California.