Walter J. Bishop

General Manager
Walter J. Bishop

Walter J. Bishop has been the General Manager of the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) since 1992. The District serves more than 550,000 people in the central and eastern parts of Northern California’s Contra Costa County.

Mr. Bishop is well known for his active leadership role in state and national water issues. At a national level, he has served an important role in shaping drinking water policy. He currently is a member of American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) Organizing for the Future Committee, and is Chair of its Information Technology Subcommittee.

In 2004, he was elected Chair of the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF), the largest research organization dedicated to drinking water. He served on the AWWA Board of Directors and Executive Committee during his three-year term as the AwwaRF Chair. He has been a two-term member of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, which is chartered by Congress to advise the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on national drinking water policy.

Mr. Bishop formed and then chaired the Leadership Center at the University of North Carolina School of Business for five years. Mr. Bishop has been honored with: the AWWA Management and Fuller Awards, the American Public Works Association’s Charles Nichols Award for Leadership and Innovative Management, the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies President’s Award, and the American Association of Environmental Engineers Magazine Featured Diplomat. In 1999, under his direction, CCWD was awarded the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), an organization in which he was later elected Fellow status. He was also honored with the ASCE Award for Achievement in Environmental Engineering/Government Service in 2003.

Mr. Bishop was one of the key urban negotiators in the CALFED Bay-Delta program. He was a member of the Delta Drinking Water Council and the MTBE Research Advisory Council. He is a former Board member of the Association of California Water Agencies, Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, Water Environment Research Foundation, Vice President of the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, and Chair of the California Urban Water Agencies. In addition, he serves on numerous national and statewide boards and industry organizations.

Under Mr. Bishop’s leadership, CCWD’s $450 million Los Vaqueros Reservoir Project was permitted, designed and completed; the first major reservoir to be permitted and constructed in California in more than a decade. Also, CCWD has invested over a billion dollars in new and upgraded facilities to meet the needs of one of the fastest growing areas in California.

Mr. Bishop continues to be a tireless advocate for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s ecosystem and water quality.He is leading a statewide call to action to fund and build key projects in the Delta to promote sustainability and improve the water supply. Working with elected officials at the state, regional and local level, as well as agencies and community organizations, projects identified as part of this effort would protect the 23 million Californians dependent on the Delta for water supply, prepare for emergency situations, restore the Delta ecosystem on which endangered fish species depend, and improve drinking water quality and supply reliability.

Mr. Bishop is a registered civil engineer in the state of California, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Duke University and a Masters in Public Administration from Pepperdine University. He started his career in 1973 as an engineer for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in Washington, D.C.

In 1975, he went to work as an engineer for the Ventura Regional County Sanitation District in Southern California. From 1983 to 1992, he worked for the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Northern California.

October 2007