By Mary-Justine Lanyon
As a girl, Lake Arrowhead resident Mary Ann Dickinson was fascinated by other countries and had her eye on entering the United States Foreign Service. With that in mind, she started her college studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
However, she was told that, as a woman, she would not be appointed as an officer (such were the times in the 60s).
It was an Earth Day celebration that turned her attention to the environment and specifically water issues. At the University of Connecticut, she was allowed to put together her own program in environmental planning. Dickinson has not looked back.
For a number of years, she worked for the state of Connecticut in a variety of positions – as chief of staff for the commissioner and as executive director of the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality.
It was when Dickinson went to work for a water utility in Connecticut that she really “started jumping into water,” she said. One day, she noted, the general manager said he was giving her a new assignment – water conservation.
“I said that I didn’t really know anything about it,” Dickinson recalled. The utility was required to do water conservation by law. She attended a conference and figured out it would be cost effective if all Connecticut utilities worked on one program. She pulled 63 utilities into one state-wide water conservation program.
What she discovered was that Connecticut was the first state to do a statewide program.
“Water conservation was related to environmental issues for me,” Dickinson said. “You would leave more water in the system for fish and their habitat.”
Once she got into water conservation, she realized that, while everyone understood energy conservation, few understood water conservation. She started going to international conferences and became the executive director of the California Urban Water Conservation Council, a nonprofit organization composed of urban water supply agencies, environmental groups and other entities managing statewide water conservation. Through the Council, Dickinson helped implement the nation’s first set of best management practices.
That led to her founding a national organization. In 2007, she founded and became the CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, North America’s only organization promoting water efficiency programs and practices. The Alliance was based in Chicago, where Mayor Daley gave them the use of free office space for six months. From that office they served both the U.S. and Canada.
Dickinson served with the Alliance until March 2021 when she retired and founded her own practice, Dickinson Associates, which focuses on sustainable water management issues, water efficiency program design and communication. She works with government agencies, public and private water utilities, and private companies.
For nearly 25 years, Dickinson has shared her message of water conservation practices at national and international events. Most recently she spoke in person in San Sebastian, Spain, and online at Brazil Water Week. At both events she spoke about how reducing water leakage can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the past, she made three trips to Jordan to oversee a big project. That, she said, “really got me very involved in water projects in the Middle East.” She also oversaw a project in Israel.
In Amman, residents got their water delivered once a week to a tank on the roof. “We are so lucky here,” Dickinson said. “Most have no idea how beautiful our infrastructure is.”
In the Philippines, in Manila, Dickinson trained people to fix leaks in their distribution system. “They were leaking 70 percent of their water,” she said.
In 1996 Dickinson moved to Lake Arrowhead, bringing her water expertise with her. She served on the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District board, including a time as president.
Water conservation remains at the top of Dickinson’s areas of focus and concern. After all, as she notes, “We can’t make more water.”
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