California Water Association
Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris represents California’s 73rd Assembly District, which includes the cities of Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Tustin. As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy, she has championed efforts to strengthen California’s infrastructure, protect natural resources, and make energy and water systems more affordable and sustainable. We invited Assemblymember Petrie-Norris to share her vision for addressing California’s water challenges including climate change, water resilience, and affordability. Below she emphasizes the importance of smarter coordination, fiscal responsibility, and long-term planning to build 21st-century infrastructure that serves both people and the planet.
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You’ve been a strong advocate for water resilience and coastal protection. What water policies or legislation are you most proud of?
AB 72, the Coastal Adaptation Permitting Act of 2021, established a coordinated and efficient process for coastal adaptation permitting. The bill kicked off a process to evaluate and implement a more coordinated and efficient regulatory review process for coastal adaptation projects. I’ve long believed that better coordination is critical. We can be smarter about our approach to climate mitigation and preparation – local communication and coordination is key. I followed this up the following year by securing $500 million for green infrastructure for coastal adaptation. All of this is well underway and will pay dividends for years.
As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy, what are your water and climate priorities for the next few years?
Above all else, climate change is real and is pushing our infrastructure and institutions to the limit – which is translating into an affordability crisis for everyday Californians. People across the state are experiencing fires, floods, droughts, astronomical rent prices driven by housing inventory scarcity and insurance rates, and increasingly unaffordable utility bills. While it is important that we keep an eye on the future by passing policies like SB 254 (2025) and AB 825 (2025) that begin to lower the future cost of investments in electrical transmission, these efforts will not address the immediate affordability crisis facing my constituents.
For the remainder of my time in the Legislature, it is my mission to deliver fiscal sanity to California wherever possible. This is likely going to take a coalition of outside groups and elected officials all pulling in the same direction to pass a number of policies, many of which aren’t necessarily headline grabbing. Eventually this will lead to something positive that people will feel in their checking accounts. This means changing how we do wildfire mitigation spending, addressing the hundreds of well-intended but likely wasteful programs that we stick on electric bills, getting smart about how we plan for the transition away from fossil fuels while acknowledging that it’s going to be with us for a while longer so we better make it as clean and affordable as possible in the meantime, and so on.
We have been great as a state at passing big lofty goals that have pulled us in the right direction. But now we have to do the less glamorous work of building an actual plan to get there that doesn’t sacrifice our environmental standards or bankrupt Californians along the way.
How do you balance the need for investment in water infrastructure with keeping services affordable and maintaining water quality and reliability?
Clean, reliable water is the foundation of healthy communities and a strong economy. Because we have limited resources, we should prioritize projects that deliver long-term value—modernizing aging systems, improving drought resilience, and protecting water quality from climate-related disasters. If we focus on paying for these projects as responsibly as possible, then over time we will deliver 21st century infrastructure for a 21st century world. We have to figure out how to invest – not just react.
To protect ratepayers we need to be thoughtful but aggressive by leveraging state and federal partnerships, maximizing low-interest financing, and promoting innovation in water efficiency and recycling. Transparency combined with early and frequent community engagement are also key—people deserve to see where their dollars are going and how those investments make our water systems stronger and more sustainable. This transparency helps keep costs down by exposing bad ideas before they turn into bad projects and by keeping politicians and interest groups honest.
Water utilities across California are planning for a more uncertain future. What advice would you give them as they prepare for the next decade?
California’s water future is increasingly defined by uncertainty — from more intense droughts and floods to shifting climate patterns and growing population demands. My advice to water utilities is to plan boldly and collaboratively for a new era of resilience. That starts with investing in smart infrastructure that makes our systems more adaptive — from water recycling and stormwater capture to leak detection and groundwater management. These technologies not only strengthen reliability but also stretch every drop and every dollar further.
I encourage water utilities to focus on working across jurisdictions and with state partners to align regional solutions. Water challenges don’t stop at city or county lines. By sharing data, coordinating investments, and engaging communities early, utilities can build public trust and accelerate progress. This community focused approach will also help utilities maintain a focus on equity and affordability. The next decade will get more expensive in all ways for myriad reasons – water is no exception.
Looking ahead, how do you think about funding priorities for water systems with the state facing budget constraints?
We cannot afford to neglect the critical investments that protect our water supply, public health, and economic future. The key is to be strategic and disciplined — prioritizing projects that deliver the greatest long-term value, leverage outside funding, and advance our climate resilience goals. Every dollar should move us toward a system that is more efficient, equitable, and sustainable. There will be crises along the way but we have to stay laser focused on building resilient systems that can withstand these future crises without needing expensive intervention by the state.
I believe the state should focus on maximizing federal partnerships, streamlining access to low-interest financing, and incentivizing regional collaboration among utilities. We also need to double down on innovative, cost-effective solutions like water reuse, conservation, and green infrastructure — approaches that save money over time while improving reliability. Better collaboration reduces costs and leads to better outcomes.
Ultimately, the goal is to prioritize smart, forward-looking investments that are justifiable because they are necessary in the near-term and will protect access to clean water in the long-term. Californians expect us to be good stewards — of both our natural resources and our public dollars — and that means funding the projects that deliver measurable, lasting benefits to communities across the state.