Keith R. Solar Appointed to High-Profile Water Strategy Panel, Notes Media

Keith R. Solar, managing shareholder of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's San Diego office, was appointed by San Diego City Council to the city's Water Policy Implementation Task Force.

The 11-member group is "designed to put into action recommendations outlined in the Comprehensive Water Policy adopted unanimously by the council in October," according to U-T San Diego.

As announced by City Councilmember Sherri Lighter, the taskforce will "develop specific goals, timelines and measurements of success" for the policy's implementation. The panel is considering, among other matters, changing city water rates to favor customers who save water, desalination, and reusing water and rain water capture systems.

"Sometimes it helps to get a fresh perspective from a group of stakeholders on what is important and what isn't important. And all we can do is our job, and hope the city council responds to it," said Solar in an interview with KPBS, San Diego’s public radio station.

The group will present its recommendations in the next year.

Water supply is a priority for San Diego, as there is "growing competition for a shrinking pool of imported water," explained KPBS. Solar and the other 10 taskforce members will recommend ways to "cope with the growing scarcity of water.

Solar focuses a majority of his practice on water-related maters. He has represented the County of San Diego and its water authority in such proceedings, and has extensive experience negotiating and documenting the purchase, sale and lease of adjudicated groundwater rights, groundwater, privately owned water systems, shares in mutual water companies, and public/private partnerships for municipal water systems.