Securing Small Water Systems in LA County

Project Summary:
Los Angeles County is home to over 200 small water systems, many of which face growing threats from drought and wildfires. Through our project—conducted in collaboration with faculty from the Luskin Innovation Center and a team of 12 MURP students—we identified approximately 10 systems that are critically at risk. As one of the project managers, Leila helped lead a detailed cost analysis of potential mitigation strategies aimed at ensuring continued access to safe, clean water. Our findings will inform future investments and resource allocation by the LA County Department of Public Works and Stantec.

2. IMPORTANCE: Briefly explain why your project is important and/or why you chose this particular effort.

This project is important because it supports long-range planning for water resilience in Los Angeles County, where climate change is intensifying the frequency and severity of droughts and wildfires. By identifying small water systems in critical risk and analyzing cost-effective mitigation strategies, the project helps local agencies proactively invest in infrastructure and policies that ensure reliable access to clean water for vulnerable communities.

3. IMPACT AND REACH: What were the measurable outputs and outcomes of your project to advance sustainability? Who did your project reach? Be specific.

The project directly informs our clients, LA County Department of Public Works and Stantec, on where to allocate resources. Given that this was done by a group of UCLA students, we ensured that the research methods were detailed enough to be repeated, and the data we provided was comprehensive (i.e. a ranked list of all systems at risk for fire and drought in LA county, not just the top 10). The data and methodology used mimics the CA Drinking Water Quality Needs Assessment, and is specific to Los Angeles County, providing valuable and current resource for the county.

4. COLLABORATIONS: How did you bring others into the effort in productive ways? If there is a client, provide background about that client.

I’m working with Greg Pierce and Edith Guzman as the primary POC’s, along with Stantec and LA County DWP. I’m working with 12 other MURP students to bring this all together, along with another student who is also a co-PM with me. We had weekly touch points with our industry experts (Greg & Edith), alongside constant communication with the client as needed.

5. YOUR ROLE WELL DEFINED: What is the nature of your contributions to the project? Please be especially clear if submitting as a group. (Examples: Did you lead a team? Manage a particular aspect of the project?) If the project was related to a job or required school assignment, how did you go above and beyond required tasks to demonstrate leadership?

My leadership role in the project is to act not only as a research contributor, but also as a project manager, overseeing efforts on this work over its 6-month duration.

As a PM, I needed to do the following: managing the project’s components, deadlines, inter-personal relationships, stakeholder relationships, conflicts, meeting schedules, social components, deliverables, etc. In addition, I needed to understand the overall project topic well (this is actually a new topic for me to learn about), how our 3 sub teams are working together, how the research analysis intersects between the 3 teams, work to create a cohesive narrative, etc. As a MURP capstone student, I also am a research contributor on one of the sub-teams conducting the consolidation analysis (i.e. creating final recommendations) for the client with my MURP colleagues.