SOQUEL >> The Soquel Creek Water District has found new leadership, but it is by no means a new face.

At its Tuesday meeting, the local water provider’s board of directors unanimously selected Melanie Mow Schumacher as its general manager. Schumacher will take the helm Oct. 1 after the district’s current general manager, Ron Duncan, retires in late September.

“Over her many years with the District, Melanie has more than proven herself to the Board, to District staff, to our customers, and to professionals throughout the water industry,” said district Board President Bruce Jaffe in a release. “Her expertise and tireless dedication to the goals of the District — particularly in bringing the Pure Water Soquel project to fruition — have shown us that she is the ideal leader to take the District into the future.”

Schumacher, who is a registered civil engineer and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, began at the district in 1995 as a junior engineer. Since then, she has continued to assume greater responsibility in different roles and is currently the special projects/communications manager at the district and was appointed assistant general manager in 2022.

“I’m honored and grateful to our Board for their confidence and trust in appointing me as General Manager,” said Schumacher in the release. “It’s my privilege and passion to be part of the District, and I’m very proud to work alongside so many talented and dedicated colleagues. I look forward to focusing on service, sustainability, and stewardship.”

Schumacher, alongside Duncan, played a key role in the planning, environmental study, funding, design and now ongoing construction for the Pure Water Soquel project, according to the release. The project, located on the corner of Chanticleer and Soquel avenues, will further purify treated wastewater from the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility and inject it into underground wells as a means for staving off creeping seawater intrusion at the Mid-County Groundwater Basin due to decades of overdrafting. The state has mandated that the basin be made sustainable by 2040.

The release credited Schumacher for helping secure about $100 million in grant funding that got the project — expected to launch later this year — off the ground.

“Melanie has been the heart and soul of the Pure Water Soquel program, demonstrating exceptional leadership qualities. She is the best choice to lead the District into the future,” said Duncan, who has been general manager since 2016, in the release.

Schumacher previously served as president of the Monterey Bay Water Works Association and is a founding member of the WateReuse Communications Collaborative. Last year the California WateReuse Association recognized Schumacher with the Water Staff Person of the Year award, according to the release.

The Soquel Creek Water District serves more than 40,000 residents in Aptos, La Selva Beach, Opal Cliffs, Rio Del Mar, Seascape, Soquel and a portion of Capitola. Its supply is 100% reliant on groundwater.