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Hillary Jenkins currently serves on the Board of the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District. She was appointed in July 2024 to fill a spot vacated by the passing of District Director Colonel David E. Raley, USAF (Retired).
Jenkins, who holds a doctorate in Earth and Ocean Sciences from Duke University, is a professor of hydrology and the Hedco-endowed chair of environmental science at the University of Redlands. She teaches students about water quality, treatment, distribution, and storage. Her areas of expertise include Hydrology, Geology, Paleoclimatology, Isotope Geochemistry, and Remote Sensing.
As a local groundwater expert, she has spent the last decade measuring groundwater in our local Santa Ana Watershed and maintains a large network of wells in hundreds of acres of wetlands in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Jenkins serves as project advisor to the National Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and numerous conservancy agencies. She is also a Board Member of the Santa Ana Watershed Symposium Committee and the Headwaters Resiliency Council and a reviewer for the Safe Clean Water Program of Los Angeles.
She moved to the Inland Empire in 2014 and lives in North Redlands with her husband and daughter.
Jenkins's campaign has raised $184 as of Oct. 19, 2024.
Melody Henriques-McDonald, President of SB Valley Water Conservation District Board
Richard Corneille, SB Valley Water Conservation District Member of the Board
Responses provided by the candidate were edited only for grammar or spelling.
I care deeply about protecting the water resources of our community. My top three priorities are clean water, sustainable solutions and community engagement.
Clean water means protecting our local aquifer from pollutants to reduce contamination and minimize treatment costs.
Sustainable solutions include promoting the capture and storage of surface water during wet years to recharge our groundwater which will secure a sustainable and affordable water supply.
Lastly, I prioritize community engagement, which means I want to collaborate with businesses, state and federal agencies, elected officials, and community members to ensure we optimize our water use in the long term.
This is a fascinating question because it implies that these two things are mutually exclusive – in other words, that extracting water to help people comes at the expense of protecting the local environment.
One of the reasons I am so passionate about serving on the Water Board is because I believe we can do both – serve the needs of our community while providing a net benefit to the environment.
Innovative methods like recharge ponds enable the Conservation District to add water back into the ground, which improves water quality, reduces pumping costs, and prevents wells from running dry. This recharge, when coupled with habitat monitoring, has actually shown that not only are local species not harmed by these changes, they experience a net benefit!
If I am elected, I will work toward innovative solutions like these that help us reframe the conversation so that the answer is not an either-or but a resounding both!
Website: Hillary Jenkins for Water Board District 2
Social media: Instagram
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