As a six-term elected board member of Newhall County Water District and an advocate for sustainable planning in the water community, Lynne Plambeck has devoted much of the last twenty years to ensuring that her community has a healthy and sustainable water supply through protection of our local watershed.
Under her purview, the Newhall County Water District’s new administration building was constructed to LEED silver standards and the water agency increased testing for water contamination from an expanding pollution plume. She has been an outspoken advocate for protecting floodplains and ground water recharge areas as well as sustainable ground water use. She has served as both the President and Vice President of her Newhall County Water District Board, representing a strong viewpoint for the public and the environment.
Lynne first ran for the water district in 1993 upon learning that, although the proposed Elsmere landfill would be sited in the headwaters of this district’s recharge area, the water agency was not opposing the landfill. After her election, and with the help of her colleagues, the district changed its position and opposed this unwanted project. She has also consistently opposed the CEMEX mine in the eastern watershed due to its potential impact on water supply and water quality in our community.
Lynne’s non-profit background includes serving on many local and statewide boards that promote good water planning including the Association of California Water Agencies and its ground water committee. xShe is currently president of Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE). She is a Board member of Public Officials for Water and Environmental Reform, a statewide organization dedicated to ensuring sustainable resources for California and participates regularly in the Southern California Water Dialogue. She managed and often wrote the Signal’s “Environmentally Speaking” column for some eight years.
She has received several awards for her conservation work, including the Carla Bard Advocacy Award (2001), the Truman Volunteer of the Year Award, the Sierra Club’s National Service Award in 2007, the Weldon Heald Conservation Award (2005 - Angeles Chapter’s highest award) for her work on the Santa Clara River. In 2011, she received the Planning and Conservation League’s award for Water Policy Advocacy and the Roosevelt Award in 2014 for her government service to the SCV. The Signal newspaper included her in their 51 most influential people in Santa Clarita in 2004 and 2006.
She owned and operated a small recycling business in Burbank for almost 25 years and has recently retired to devote more time to her public service work