San Diego County CA— Yesterday, San Diego Coastkeeper announced that Matt O’Malley has been promoted to executive director and Waterkeeper. O’Malley will lead the water watchdog and its law and policy efforts to achieve goals in its 2015-2018 strategic plan, which include lowering San Diego County household water use by 25 percent and training 300 new volunteer scientists to monitor the health of the region’s water.
O’Malley, who came to Coastkeeper in January of 2014 as its legal and policy director, has more than 15 years of public interest environmental advocacy and legal experience. While at Coastkeeper, O’Malley restarted an industrial stormwater enforcement program that has already led to legal actions to end industrial pollution. He also continued advocacy efforts to ensure the City of San Diego properly funded Pure Water and spearheaded Coastkeeper’s negotiations to finalize a joint Cooperative Agreement on the 20-year implementation of Pure Water.
Matt first supported San Diego Coastkeeper in 2010 with pro bono legal work, which contributed to the organization winning a cleanup of San Diego Bay. Prior to joining Coastkeeper, Matt practiced public-interest environmental and land-use law both through his own firm and with Wildlaw, a nonprofit law firm. He strongly believes in an environmental ethic and values the businesses and individuals that protect the region’s environment and waterways.