Every four years Palm Springs Life asks the community to nominate the Coachella Valley’s high-achieving leaders and professionals under age 40 and CVWD’s Board Vice President Cástulo R. Estrada made this year’s list.
Estrada, 34, joins this class of leaders who come from a variety of fields including business, finance, real estate, neurology, epidemiology and others. The group assembled at the Palm Springs Art Museum for a photo, video shoot and interview. Video interviews are available at palmspringslife.com and profiles are in the October magazine.
He is the Utilities Manager at the City of Coachella. He is a native of the Eastern Coachella Valley, a graduate of Coachella Valley High School, and has a civil engineering degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He has served on the Salton Sea Authority Board of Directors since 2014, including serving as President of the Board in 2019/2020. He also serves as an appointed member of the State Water Resources Control Board's SAFER Program since 2019.
Since joining the CVWD Board in 2014 at age 26, Estrada lead the formation of the Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force, which has worked towards the establishment and pursuit of project funding and development to bring clean drinking water and sanitation services to the Eastern Coachella Valley. Because of these efforts, in 2022, CVWD successfully secured $75.5 million in grant and loan funding for top priority water and sewer projects to improve failing infrastructure in the Eastern Coachella Valley within the next 3 years.
Earlier this year, WaterNow Alliance recognized Estrada for his work in forming CVWD’s Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force and his role in implementing California’s Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience Program. Estrada received the award at the Alliance’s 2022 Tap into Resilience Summit, held April 13 and 14 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Coachella Valley Water District is a public agency governed by a five-member board of directors. The district provides domestic and irrigation water, agricultural drainage, wastewater treatment and reclamation services, regional stormwater protection, groundwater management and water conservation. It serves approximately 113,000 residential and business customers across 1,000 square miles located primarily in Riverside County, but also in portions of Imperial and San Diego counties