Panelists and Moderators
Panel 1 - Klamath Dam Removal: Stakeholders, Science & Sustainability
Richard Roos-Collins
Richard Roos-Collins is co-founder and Principal of the Water and Power Law Group PC based in Berkeley, California. He represents water districts and other public agencies, tribes, conservation groups, and renewable power generators in cases to enhance the sustainability of our resources. He specializes in multi-party settlements. He is general counsel for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, which is undertaking the largest dam removal in history. He serves on advisory boards for UC Berkeley Law and UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Policy. He is an Adjunct Professor at University of San Francisco Law School. |
Marianna Aue
Marianna Aue has worked as an attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel at the State Water Resources Control Board since 2007. Ms. Aue advises the Board primarily on matters concerning water rights, instream flow standards and water quality certifications for licensing proceedings under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. She also frequently advises and represents the Board on matters related to California Native American Tribes, including tribal consultation and Winters rights. Much of Ms. Aue’s work has been centered in the Klamath watershed, including advising the Board on water quality certification for the hydroelectric facilities on the Klamath River, on water rights actions and litigation in the area, and on drought emergency measures in the region. Ms. Aue holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, with a certificate in environmental law, and graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology. |
Curtis Knight
Curtis has worked for California Trout since 2000 and since 2014 he has been the Executive Director. Curtis leads a diverse and talented team that works to solve complex water issues while balancing the needs of wild fish and people. Previously Curtis worked at the The Nature Conservancy as a Project Ecologist on the McCloud and Sacramento Rivers. Curtis received a Master Degree in Aquatic Sciences from Utah State University in 1997. He lives in Mt. Shasta with his wife Amy and has two grown daughters. |
Hayden Richter
Hayden is a 2L at UC Law SF. Before attending law school Hayden studied Applied Human Nutrition and Nutritional Sciences at Cal Poly SLO, graduating in 2014, before having a career in professional fitness and real estate. His interest in environmental and conservation law comes from a deep love of hiking and fishing in the many beautiful areas of California, both coastal and inland. Hayden hopes to combine two sides of law with Intellectual Property and Environmental to help support America's expansive public land systems. |
Panel 2 - Water Rights Enforcement in California
Rebecca R. A. Smith
Rebecca Smith is a partner in Downey Brand’s Natural Resources practice, where she counsels clients on water rights, water supply, and environmental compliance under state and federal law. Rebecca serves on the board of the Water Education Foundation and is active in speaking and writing on water issues throughout the western United States. |
Andrew Tauriainen
Andrew Tauriainen is an attorney with the State Water Resources Control Board’s Office of Enforcement, representing State Board and Regional Board prosecution teams in water rights and water quality enforcement matters. Prior to joining the Office of Enforcement in 2011, he represented private parties and public entities in water, environmental, and land use matters. He graduated from McGeorge School of Law in 2001. |
Walter "Redgie" Collins
Redgie is CalTrout’s Legal and Policy Director; he joined our organization as a Staff Attorney in 2016. A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Redgie has worked for NextGen Climate on campaign finance and issues surrounding the Keystone Pipeline and The Nature Conservancy on water-related issues. Redgie’s expertise lies in California water law and is the lead for CalTrout for the Potter Valley Project while overseeing CalTrout’s Legal and Policy Departments. |
Jennifer Harder
Professor Jennifer L. Harder teaches water, environmental, and administrative law at University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law where she is co-director of the JD Water & Environmental Law Concentration and faculty director for McGeorge’s online graduate programs in water. She is co- author of Cases & Materials on Water Law (10th ed.), and in 2023-24 is serving in a fellowship with the Public Policy Institute of California. |
Racial Equity Discussion
Caryn Mandelbaum
Caryn Mandelbaum joined the CPUC's Legal Division in 2020 representing the Public Advocates Office in water and energy efficiency proceedings. Before joining the Commission, she directed the Water Program at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation supporting organizations dedicated to implementing 21st Century water management policies that green infrastructure, advance the human right to water, and sustain source waters. In coalition, these organizations secured landmark laws like the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and the Scott River case that extended the public trust doctrine to groundwater. They also hosted the Water Pavilion at the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, which attracted an audience of 400 to engage with water experts from five continents. Caryn has served on numerous municipal water advisory boards as well as the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council where she contributed to the revised Lead & Copper Rule of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Her leadership was recognized by USEPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power for breakthroughs in innovative urban water use. Caryn holds degrees from UC Berkeley and UCLA in Law and Urban Planning. She grew up in Southern California as part of an effusive South American community. |
Chelsea Tu
Chelsea is the Executive Director of Monterey Waterkeeper. Her vision at Monterey Waterkeeper is to ensure safe drinking water and coastal access for all communities. Previously, Chelsea worked as a senior attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, where she advocated for sustainable land use and infrastructure investments in low-income communities of color in the San Joaquin Valley. Chelsea also led climate justice advocacy at Public Advocates, and worked to protect freshwater resources, curb sprawl, and reduce toxins and pesticides at the Center for Biological Diversity. Chelsea received her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law, and received her undergraduate degree in environmental sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Chelsea also teaches the Environmental Justice: Race, Class & the Environment course at the UC Berkeley School of Law. |
Panel 3 - Water Rights: Clarifying the 2023 Water Board Arrowhead Spring Order
Kenneth Petruzzelli
Kenneth P. Petruzzelli has practiced water law since 2004. He is currently an Attorney IV with the California State Water Resources Control Board, Office of Enforcement, where he advises the Division of Water Rights, Enforcement Section, in water right compliance, enforcement, and policy development. In addition, he has represented the Enforcement section and acted as lead counsel in numerous investigations and enforcement actions involving reporting, drought curtailment, public trust, and more. Mr. Petruzzelli, most recently, was lead counsel in an investigation and enforcement action resulting in a cease-and-desist order issued to BlueTriton Brands, Inc., the corporate successor of Nestlé Waters North America. The order prohibited most of BlueTriton’s diversions from springs in the San Bernardino National Forest because the diversions required a water right permit and BlueTriton had no water rights for them. Before that, Mr. Petruzzelli, representing the Water Quality Control Board and the North Coast Region, Division of Water Rights, and acting in tandem with the Department of Fish & Wildlife, negotiated a settlement with Rhys Vineyards, LLC, who agreed to a cleanup and abatement order and pay $3.7 million in penalties for committing multiple violations of the Water Code, Fish & Game Code, and federal Clean Water Act while developing a hillside property that straddles the South Fork Eel River and North Fork Ten Mile River watersheds in Mendocino County. Approximately $1.89 million of the $3.7 million penalty funded two habitat restoration projects. Before joining the Water Board, Mr. Petruzzelli was an associate and then partner at O’Laughlin & Paris LLP. He has a law degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts and Science from the University of California, Davis in Exercise Physiology and Political Science. |
Rachel Doughty
Rachel S. Doughty has practiced environmental and land use law in California since 2008. She is managing shareholder of Greenfire Law, PC, which she founded in 2011. Rachel’s practice includes advising clients and litigating under public land management, and environmental statutes, as well as the California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act. She also helps clients gain access to information using FOIA and California’s Public Records Act and assists with legislative and regulatory drafting from time to time. On behalf of client Story of Stuff, Ms. Doughty, along with the State Water Board Prosecution Team and other complainants, proved that BlueTriton Brands did not have rights to water that it and predecessors (including Nestle Waters USA), have been taking from the San Bernardino National Forest for over a century, resulting ultimately in a cease and desist order from the Water Board in 2023. In addition to her work as a litigator, Rachel is a policy advocate in the areas of plastic pollution reduction, consumer protection, and forest management. Ms. Doughty co-wrote California’s law banning plastic microbeads in beauty products. Before Greenfire Law, Rachel worked at Paul Hastings, LLP; before that, she was an associate at Gary Davis and Associates and WildLaw. She earned her law degree from University of Virginia in 2004 and she also has an M.S. in Natural Resources (with a minor concentration in biogeochemistry) from Cornell University, and a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Tennessee. Prior to law school, she was a fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Wetlands Division. Ms. Doughty is a Super Lawyer (2023), and was recognized for her work on behalf of consumers with the Clay Award for Consumer Protection (Daily Journal 2023) and received the Award for Top Verdicts 2022 (Daily Journal). |
Paul Kibel
Paul Stanton Kibel is Natural Resource Counsel at the Water and Power Law Group. He is also Professor Emeritus of Water Law at Golden Gate University School of Law. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Boalt Hall Law School, University of California at Berkeley and Santa Clara University School of Law. Prior to joining the Water and Power Law Group, Kibel was a partner with the water and natural resource group at Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley LLP and worked for the California State Coastal Conservancy’s Office of Counsel and Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. He previously co-chaired the Natural Resources Subsection of the California State Bar Real Property Section and presently serves as a faculty advisor to the California Water Law Symposium and on the Advisory Board to San Francisco Baykeeper. Paul serves on the Executive Council of the International Association of Water Lawyers (AIDA) and served as a co-author for the Greening of Water Law guidebook AIDA prepared for the United Nations Environment Programme. His publications include the books The Earth on Trial: Environmental Law on the International Stage (Routledge, 1997), Rivertown: Rethinking Urban Rivers (MIT Press, 2007) and Riverflow: The Right to Keep Water Instream (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and articles on water law in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, Ecology Law Quarterly, Virginia Environmental Law Journal, New York University Environmental Law Journal, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law and Berkeley Journal of International Law. Kibel holds a LL.M. from Boalt Hall Law School, University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Colgate University. He is currently a Ph.D. in Law Candidate at the University of Manchester International Law Centre (in England) with a thesis focused on the interplay between fisheries and hydropower under international law and European Union law. |
Panel 4 - SGMA: A Decade in Review
Tina Cannon Leahy
Tina Cannon Leahy is an Attorney IV with the State Water Resources Control Board Office of the Chief Counsel where her primary duties include serving as lead attorney to the Groundwater Management Program implementing California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and assisting with the amendment, implementation, and defense of the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary. Before coming to the State Water Board, she was the Principal Consultant for the California Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee where, from 2010 through 2015, she served as the Assembly's water law and policy expert, including working as a principal technical drafter of SGMA. Prior to the Assembly, Ms. Leahy was Senior Staff Counsel at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and an associate attorney in private practice counseling clients and litigating water, environmental quality, and endangered species matters. In addition to her duties with the State Water Board, Ms. Leahy is a water law Lecturer in the University of California, Davis, Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources. She is also the Co-Chair of the Alumni Advisory Board for the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at King Hall, the UC Davis School of Law, and a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. |
Eric L. Garner
Managing Partner Eric Garner has practiced water law for more than thirty years at Best Best & Krieger LLP. He has worked extensively on groundwater matters. He has been involved in seven groundwater adjudications including the Mojave Groundwater adjudication and represented the lead parties in the Santa Maria and Antelope Valley groundwater adjudications. He has advised clients throughout California on groundwater issues and was involved in the drafting of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. He has worked on surface water issues throughout the state and has drafted water laws in South Africa, Trinidad and Pakistan. Eric co-authored “California Water,” “California Water II,” and “California Water, Third Edition,” and is an adjunct law professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. He has also been named a California Lawyer of the Year by California Magazine. He has twice been selected as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal and the Water Law Lawyer of the Year in Los Angeles by Best Lawyers. |
Sherri Norris
Sherri is the Executive Director of the California Indian Environmental Alliance. She grew up in West Sonoma County and now lives in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. She has eleven years of experience working as a Tribal health and environmental advocate at the local level and at international fora and has given hundreds of presentations and training on the cycle and health effects of mercury on environmental health, exposure-reduction strategies, solution development and opportunities for advocacy related to mining issues in California. She coordinates CIEA’s Tribal Self-Advocacy Program and is the primary contact for CIEA’s Tribal Engagement responsibility under the North Coast Resource Partnership. Sherri is a graduate of the Hopa Mountain Foundation, a Rockridge Graduate and a member of the Sierra Fund’s Blue-Ribbon Panel of mercury experts. She is additionally a recipient of the Mills College Brave-Hearted Women Award, Sierra-Funds’ Sierra Crest Award and the Davis-Putter Scholarship Award for Young Activists. |
Tien Tran
At Community Water Center, Tien Tran is a Senior Policy Advocate focusing on sustainable and equitable groundwater management. Previously, Tien served two board members at the California State Water Resources Control Board and was a Senate Fellow in Senator María Elena Durazo's office. Tien holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Yale College. |
Nick Gray
Nick Gray oversees workshops, conferences and tours of key water regions across California and the Southwest for the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit providing educational tools and platforms for engagement to help build sound and collective solutions to water issues since 1977. Prior to the Foundation, Nick was involved in both formal and informal science education as a classroom science teacher and the education director of a science center in addition to volunteering with regional science communication organizations. |