WHO?

• RECW can help any disadvantaged communities owned or operated by a Board of Directors or other similar groups that can legally provide a Board Resolution.
• Your community must be financially under-resourced, with burdensome water and wastewater system(s).
• Your community’s water or wastewater systems may be technically under-performing.

WHERE?

RECW serves communities in northern California. If your northern California community is unlikely to be serviced by county or municipal systems any time soon, RECW can provide your community with services.

RECW can meet with your community and work to transfer the burden of owning and operating the water and/or wastewater systems to the RECW non-profit utility at affordable rates.

WHY?

Under-functioning or aging water and wastewater systems pose environmental and public health threats to disadvantaged communities and present logistical and financial burdens to under-resourced communities.

HOW?

RECW seeks disadvantaged communities, that would like to be relieved from the financial burden of upgrading and operating their water and wastewater systems.

Mission

RECW was founded to provide water systems, wastewater operations, and capital projects services to disadvantaged communities in northern California. Because we are a small nonprofit with limited collaborators and infrastructure, our rates for water and wastewater are lower than the rates of for-profit utilities.

RECW’s mission is to assist communities in northern California to shoulder the burden of operating their water and wastewater systems on limited budgets.

RECW is funded entirely by grants from different sources, e.g. (USDA, private foundations, and state and private grantmaking organizations), serving to mitigate the problems of environmental injustice, pollution, and toxic water contamination.

RECW’s overarching goal is to provide affordable and sustainable clean water to disadvantaged communities.

Who We Are

RECW has approval from the CA Secretary of State to do business in CA and is registered with the California Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts. 

RECW has been approved as a 501 (c)(3) by the US Department of the Treasury.

RECW consists of three partners:

DC Kuhns, ABD Ph.D. from UC Berkeley:

DC has had a diverse business career, as an entrepreneur, developer of projects and companies, technology commercialization specialist, mergers and acquisition specialist, turn-around specialist, and a business and financial consultant, all in the fields of renewable energy projects and the recovery of renewable resources.

DC has been a principal involved with other partners in the ownership and management of four public companies on Wall Street. These companies include two unregulated electric power utilities, using wind, biomass, photovoltaics, and hydroelectric resources to generate electricity. He has also been an officer and a board member of a global wind development company, and an officer and director of a global photovoltaics manufacturing and distribution company.

DC has a BS from Georgetown University in Medical Sciences and a Ph.D., (ABD) from UC Berkeley’s School of Education.

John Schultheis, MBA and PMP: 

John has an extensive financial background in engineering & construction, cleantech and information technology, having served as a Vice President at Bechtel Corporation, a Vice President at a clean energy consulting company, a Vice President at two cleantech startups: a microturbine manufacturer and a utility scale solar development company, and a Partner in a development company focused on cleantech opportunities.  Most recently, John has also worked as Project Manager for ERP system implementations (Oracle and NetSuite).  John has a current PMP certification, a BS in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA, with an emphasis in Finance/Management from Golden Gate University. 

Ian Mill, CA General Contractor-Operations:

Ian has been a licensed general contractor in the state of California for over 40 years. His extensive experience in all types of construction includes work on residential and commercial water and wastewater systems, as well as sophisticated water filtration systems.  He has been involved in projects in diverse rural communities in California, including Contra Costa, Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, Marin, and Santa Cruz counties.

Clean Water Solutions (CWS)

RECW’s business model follows on the success of Clean Water Solutions, (CWS) the first and only non-profit water and wastewater utility licensed by the Delaware Public Service Commission, (analogous to the CA Water Board).

CWS Projects in Sussex County Delaware, currently Operating:

• Country Glen II
• Grants Way
• Sandy Ridge
• Morningside Village

History

Answering the call from Delaware’s USDA’s RFI for three collaborators to work together, creating an innovative way to assist disadvantaged communities operating their own water and wastewater systems, Clean Water Solutions (CWS) was created by a Triad of not-for-profit, 501 c (3) companies.

Spearheaded by DC Kuhns, then nonprofit EDEN Delmarva’s executive director, CWS raised grant funding of $365,000. CWS used this funding to “plant seeds” with the Delaware Public Service Commission, (DE PSC) the Delaware Assembly State Senators and Representatives, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, (DNREC), the USDA Office of Rural Development for Maryland and Delaware, and private foundations, including foundations under the Aegis of the Dupont Family in Delaware.

DE PSC awarded the Triad the first and only nonprofit water and wastewater utility license in the State. Utilizing the license, CWS acquired four (4) disadvantaged communities’ water and wastewater systems in the “hinterlands” of Delaware, beyond the reach of municipal or county water and wastewater projects.

In Delaware, using only grant funding, CWS ably demonstrated it could acquire, operate, and generate capital projects for refurbishment of community- scale water and wastewater systems. Now, we have brought our “proof of concept” from the state of Delaware to the state of California with an entity called Redwood Empire Clean Water, (RECW). RECW will now utilize the same business model in California.

RECW has developed innovative methods to provide funding and technical expertise in water and wastewater operations as well as ‘refurbishment’ of community-scale capital projects to disadvantaged communities, assisting them to rectify public health issues, created by broken or inadequate water and wastewater operations.

The Challenge

Unaddressed Problems with Water Systems in California

Recently, The California State Water Resources Control Board, (CSWRCB) has done an amazing job, creating millions of dollars annually under the SAFER Program (SAFER). One of the principal responsibilities under the SAFER Program is to appoint “Administrators.” Approximately $130 MM is available annually from the General Fund appropriations including general obligation bonds, and funding available through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, (DWSRF) for the approximately 5,000 publicly owned water systems (PWSs) as well as 2400 water systems, and domestic wells serving <500 citizens, under county jurisdiction (State Smalls). 

Starting in 2017, under the SAFER Program, the CSWRCB has created access to $130 MM annually. Some of this funding has been used. But because of a hiatus of two (2) years, much of the money is sitting unused. Only a few new “Administrators” have been appointed. Between 2019 and today only 13 administrators have been “proposed” or appointed. Meanwhile, as of January 1, 2023, more than 1,000,000 citizens have been denied their right to fresh, clean, water. California is the 7th largest economy in the World.  The right to fresh, clean water is a human right.

From a July 26, 2022 audit, acting CA State Auditor Michael Tilden stated: “Approximately a million people in the state of California lack access to safe drinking water.”  

Also stated in Tilden’s Report, “The State Water Board lacks the urgency to provide assistance for failing water systems…. For example, the time necessary for state water systems to complete applications for funding has increased from 17 months in 2017 to 33 months in 2021…This increases the probability for negative health outcomes for citizens served by failing water systems.”

In northern California counties, over 33% of State Smalls and domestic wells, under the jurisdiction of multiple northern California counties, have water or wastewater systems that are broken or failing, causing a public health hazard, and environmental problems. Fertilizer from lawns and farms, causing nutrient overload, flows into ditches and streams, eventually finding its way into the California Rivers and Bays.

Studies conducted by the CSWRCB shows that much of the nutrient overload in California Rivers and Bays is caused by dysfunctional community water and wastewater systems. This is a growing public health, and environmental injustice problem that imperils not only the citizens of the disadvantaged communities, but also tidal waters in the state of California. 

For-profit water and wastewater utilities have not come to the homeowner associations’ rescue, because:

• The expense for the repair and operation of these systems, by a for-profit water or wastewater utility is simply “out of reach” for disadvantaged communities’ budgets.
• For-profit utilities do not operate the disadvantaged community water and wastewater systems because it is economically infeasible. Larger utilities would have to charge more for water and wastewater services.
• The disadvantaged communities themselves may not be sufficiently creditworthy to receive loans from government or private financing entities.

RECW’s Plan: Solutions to Solve Problems for Small Water Systems in California

RECW’s proposal is to work with the 2,400 State Smalls under northern California counties’ jurisdiction. Among these, as of July 30, 2022, approximately 33% (815) small water systems are failing in their obligation to provide fresh, clean water. Some of these failing systems are in Solano, County, Sonoma County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, and Santa Clara County, and Mendocino County.

RECW will approach multiple county governments in northern California to resolve the problems with State Smalls, and domestic wells under each county’s jurisdiction. RECW’s mission is to persuade multiple counties’ governments to accept RECW’s technical assistance, utilizing RECW’s experience with sophisticated filtration systems, well-drilling capability, and operations and capital projects capability. 

Through due diligence, RECW has identified approximately 30-50 Designated Water Systems (DWS) in northern California counties having multiple annual violations during CA Water Board inspections. 

RECW is planning to send letters offering a FREE Assessment, on a case-by-case basis, to DWS in these underserved communities.

Using grant funding, from various grant making entities, RECW will provide a) water systems assessments, including solution strategies for repairs, b) funding for infrastructure projects, and equipment upgrades, through successful grant proposals, as well as c) ongoing operations, maintenance and budgeting strategies, utilizing multiple contracts with each community’s Designated Water System.

The final goal is to create physically and economically sustainable communities run by DWS’s

RECW’s Funding

RECW, as a nonprofit entity, will have access to funding resources, simply not available to for-profit companies. These resources are grants from private foundations, the USDA, and other California state and federal entities providing funding for the mitigation of environmental problems, and funding for environmental justice for disadvantaged communities.

2023-2025:
RECW has a unique plan for moving forward to meet the challenge of a large percentage of the 815 small water systems that are failing, serving their residents polluted water, in disadvantaged communities in California.

RECW’s plan involves the following steps:

• 2023: Creation of a 2023 budget to access start-up funding for RECW.
• 2024: Grant funding will come from the USDA, or other federal or state, public and private foundations.
• 2025: RECW will work with investment bankers to structure bond financing specifically for disadvantaged communities.             

RECW Goals:

• 2023: RECW will have two (2) water systems under its control.
• 2024: RECW will have eight (8) water systems under its control.
• 2025: RECW will have resources of $1.25 MM in Bond financing.

Contact Us

Become Part of the Solution

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