Kelly Rowe
OCWD Director
Kelly Rowe was re-elected to the Orange County Water District Board of Directors in 2018, representing division 7, which includes Costa Mesa, and parts of Fountain Valley, Irvine, Newport Beach, and Tustin. Director Rowe returned to OCWD after an 18-year hiatus; he previously served on the board from 1998 to 2000. In 1985, he worked at OCWD as a technical consultant addressing the groundwater conditions of the Irvine Subbasin area, and from 1996 to 1998, he oversaw major repairs to OCWD’s coastal seawater intrusion barrier injection wells (Talbert Gap Barrier). These injection wells are the oldest part of OCWD’s Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS).
Director Rowe is a water resources technical professional with more than 40 years of experience specializing in the design, construction and management of groundwater wells and basin operational facilities. He is a California-licensed Professional Geologist, Certified Engineering Geologist and Certified Hydrogeologist and was a long-term Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) Certified Floodplain Manager.
Since 1977, he has worked as a senior hydrogeologist/engineering geologist for several large engineering and environmental consulting firms in Southern California. In 1996, he started a consulting company, Kelly E. Rowe & Associates, that specializes in water resources and environmental management programs and projects. Over the last 18 years, Director Rowe worked mainly as a contracted consultant-appointed official for the federal government, to develop and resolve grants for water resources facilities overseas for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and for seven states through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to restore public infrastructure damaged by 16 federally-declared major disasters, including California fires and floods. This involved working with many operational and environmental federal, state, regional, and local government officials to restore their facilities. Director Rowe also served in the FEMA roles as environmental specialist and floodplain specialist to ensure federal funds were used for projects in compliance with NEPA.
Director Rowe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from San Diego State University, with additional geology graduate studies. He is the founder and president of American Water Resources Association, Southern California Section. He was a long-term member of the American Geophysical Union and Association of Engineering Geologists. Director Rowe is a continuing member of the American Water Resources Association. In 2020, he was appointed commissioner to represent OCWD on the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority.
As a high school junior, Director Rowe participated in the first Earth Day program in 1970 and presented on the impacts of air pollution in the Cleveland, Ohio area. After high school he moved to San Diego to attend UC San Diego and become a marine geologist. He subsequently studied at San Diego State University to become a hydrogeologist.
Director Rowe resides in Costa Mesa.
