Chief Executive Officer and General Manager

Nicole Sandkulla is Chief Executive Officer/General Manager of the Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency (BAWSCA), comprising 26 utilities that purchase water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) for resale to their local service areas. The Agency represents its members’ collective interests in their relationship with the SFPUC on matters related to water supply, facility reliability, operations, water quality and wholesale water rates.


Ms. Sandkulla joined the Bay Area Water Users Association, BAWSCA’s predecessor organization, in 1999 as Water Resources Planner and grew with the agency to become the Water Resources Planning Manager responsible for developing the agency’s first Long-Term Reliable Water Supply Strategy, and securing a dry year water transfer option for the BAWSCA agencies with East Bay Municipal Utility District. She also successfully negotiated an agreement for drought supply allocation among the BAWSCA member agencies and secured over $1.5 million in grants to fund water conservation efforts by member agencies and their customers.


Prior to her appointment as CEO/General Manager in September 2013, Ms. Sandkulla oversaw, and will continue to oversee, the SFPUC’s $4.6 billion Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) on behalf of the 1.7 million customers outside San Francisco that rely on the system to provide water supply following an earthquake. BAWSCA’s focus on the WSIP is to ensure that the program is implemented on time, within budget, and will meet the needs of the water users that rely on the system.


As CEO/General Manager of BAWSCA, Ms. Sandkulla looks forward to continuing to represent the BAWSCA member agencies’ interests in issues and activities related to regional water supply planning efforts with the SFPUC and other regional water agencies to ensure the reliable supply of high quality water at a fair price.


Before joining BAWUA, Ms. Sandkulla served as Associate Civil Engineer for East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD) for 9 years.


Ms. Sandkulla is a registered Professional Civil Engineer and has a B.S in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She resides in San Mateo with her husband and two children.