Tuesday's White House water summit had a California theme, with several state water districts and officials represented among the few hundred people who gathered in Washington to talk about how the United States should use water.

California was represented by State Water Resources Control Board chair, Felicia Marcus. In addition, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) spoke about water infrastructure and innovation, and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) spoke about agriculture and forestry's role in water conservation. However, there was little discussion from the perspective of farmers or rural counties.

During the summit, the Administration announced the following:

  • Nearly $4 billion in private capital investment in a broad range of water-infrastructure projects nationwide. This includes $1.5 billion from Ultra Capital to finance decentralized and scalable water-management solutions, and $500 million from Sustainable Water to develop water reclamation and reuse systems.
  • More than $1 billion from the private sector over the next decade to conduct research and development into new technologies. This includes $500 million from GE to fuel innovation, expertise, and global capabilities in advanced water, wastewater, and reuse technologies.
  • A Presidential Memorandum and supporting Action Plan on building national capabilities for long-term drought resilience in the United States, including by setting drought resilience policy goals, directing specific drought resilience activities to be completed by the end of the year, and permanently establishing the National Drought Resilience Partnership as an interagency task force responsible for coordinating drought-resilience, response, and recovery efforts.
  • Nearly $35 million this year in Federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support cutting-edge water science.
  • The release of a new National Water Model that will dramatically enhance the Nation’s river-forecasting capabilities by delivering forecasts for approximately 2.7 million locations, up from 4,000 locations today (a 700-fold increase in forecast density).