Irvine Ranch Water District Board President Steve LaMar has joined the ranks of California governors, senators, environmental nonprofits and globally recognized brands in receiving the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Award from the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance (CCEEB) this week.
CCEEB was founded in 1973 by Governor Edmund G. Brown and others, with the mission to bring together perspectives of business, labor and public leaders for balanced and effective policy solutions. CCEEB’s Brown Award honors the “spirit of balance” promoted by its namesake who said, “Can we have economic growth and a better environment? We can and we must. …(Both) are inextricably tied together, and the decisions we make about one affect the other.”
Past recipients of the award include former Governors Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger; State Senator Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez; Representatives of the Environmental Defense Fund, Nature Conservancy and many other nonprofits; and other regulatory agencies and businesses.
Consistent with the spirit of the award, LaMar has dedicated his career to pursuing balance between economic growth and environmental protection through his many years as a water policy and planning expert with more than 25 years of experience on statewide business and industry committees, and environmental nonprofits.
“Steve LaMar played a key role in advancing one of California’s first Natural Community Conservation Plans, and serves as president of the Natural Communities coalition, a nonprofit responsible for protecting more than 37,000 acres of coastal sage scrub habitat and numerous threatened and endangered species,” the award program stated. “…Through his visionary leadership and enduring commitment to California’s water future, he has made a lasting impact on communities and regions across the state.”
He has participated in many major water policy forums and served on statewide task forces and advisory committees on drought planning, desalination, the California Bay-Delta, the California Water Plan and other water reliability and conservation issues. He consults for several of California’s most successful master-planned community developers and homebuilders, and has served as a policy leader with the California Building Industry Association for decades.
He has served on the IRWD Board of Directors since 2009. He is also a past president of the Association of California Water Agencies and the current president of the Natural Communities Coalition, a nonprofit implementing habitat restoration for over 37,000 acres of open space land in Orange County. He serves on the board of directors of the Southern California Water Coalition, the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance, and is IRWD’s representative on the Water Affiliates Group to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Two awards are presented each year. LaMar received this year’s honor as an individual. The second award for organizations went to the Port of Long Beach for balancing the promotion of jobs and commerce with environmental programs to significantly reduce air pollution and increase water quality in the harbor.
Pictured above, (l-r) California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, IRWD President Steve LaMar, State Water Resources Control Board Chair Joaquin Esquivel, and CCEEB President Tim Carmichael celebrate the honor at a celebration this week.
