(Atlanta – June 7) The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s governing board today elected Gwinnett County Commission Chair Charlotte Nash as its new chairman. Her election comes at an important time, as metro Atlanta finds itself in the midst of a cyclical drought and ongoing litigation over shared water resources.
“We can be rightfully proud of our region’s track record of water stewardship,” said Nash, who joined the Metro Water District’s governing board in 2011. “We’re using less water today than we were a decade ago, even though our population has grown by more than a million. However, we must keep pushing forward as we strive to better protect and conserve our water resources.”
Nash succeeds Dallas Mayor Boyd Austin, who served the maximum two terms as chairman. Citizen member Katie Kirkpatrick was re-elected as vice chair and citizen member Birdel Jackson was re-elected as secretary/treasurer. All three will serve three-year terms.
The Metro Water District, staffed by the Atlanta Regional Commission, was established by the Georgia General Assembly in 2001 and includes 15 counties and 95 cities. The Atlanta region is the only metropolitan area in the country with more than 100 jurisdictions implementing a long-term comprehensive water management program that is required and enforced.
Nash, a lifelong resident of the Dacula-Harbins community in Gwinnett, has served as chairman of the Gwinnett Commission since 2011. Prior to running for office, she was president of a consulting firm specializing in governmental and public strategy and management. Nash worked for Gwinnett County for more than 27 years until she retired in 2004, serving as county administrator, director of financial services, budget director, and grants manager.
Nash currently serves as secretary of the Atlanta Regional Commission Board and a member of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority. In 2015-16, she served as president of ACCG, Georgia’s county government association.
Kirkpatrick has served on the Metro Water District board since being nominated by the Speaker of the Georgia House in 2008. Kirkpatrick serves as senior vice president of policy, innovation, and entrepreneurship for the Metro Atlanta Chamber. In this capacity she oversees two departments of the Chamber’s work, with one focused on public policy and government affairs, and the second focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and higher education.
Jackson is the retired president/CEO of B&E Jackson & Associates, a civil engineering firm he started in 1988. He is a former vice president of ACEC, Georgia and 1997 Engineer of the Year. In 2002, the Georgia Engineering Alliance awarded Jackson a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the engineering profession.
About the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (Metro Water District)
The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District is dedicated to developing comprehensive regional and watershed-specific water resources plans to be implemented by local governments in the 15-county metro Atlanta region, which includes Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Paulding and Rockdale counties. These plans conserve public water supplies, protect water quality and recreational value of the waters and help minimize potential adverse impacts of development on waters in and downstream of the region.
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