Water Czar Gets a Promotion

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promoted the man who has served as his point-person for water issues, including the $10 billion water bond proposal that lawmakers agreed to last year.

The governor Wednesday nominated Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, to be secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, a cabinet-level position that oversees all the state’s natural resource policies and programs, with 25 departments including the DWR.

“Lester served a key role in developing the historic comprehensive water package to reform and rebuild our state’s water infrastructure that will benefit future generations of Californians,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “I am confident that he will bring that same level of commitment and dedication to managing the agency in this new role.”

He will replace Mike Chrisman, who is departing after more than six years to direct the new San Francisco-based Southwestern Partnership Office of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Schwarzenegger also named DWR veteran Mark Cowin as Snow’s replacement there.

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