MWD board approves promotion of two top administrators.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 1996--Metropolitan Water District's board of directors Tuesday approved the promotion of two district administrators, continuing the evolution of the agency's top management team.

With the board's approval, MWD General Manager John R. Wodraska appointed

Edward G. Means III, Metropolitan's chief of operations since March 1994, as the district's third deputy general manager. Wodraska also promoted Jay W. Malinowski, MWD's director of public affairs and conservation, to fill Means' vacancy as Metropolitan's chief of operations.

"I believe the reassignments of Ed Means and Jay Malinowski will help the district better respond to the variety of challenges facing Metropolitan today," Wodraska said.

In his new post, Means will focus on the district's day-to-day operations, while implementing operating policies, as well as managing and expanding the district's ongoing cost-containment efforts. He also will continue to improve coordination of Metropolitan's member agencies and divisions; develop long-range work-force strategies and policies; and review MWD's re-engineering and bench-marketing efforts.

Since joining Metropolitan in 1980 as a microbiologist, Means has risen in the agency to become manager of the water quality laboratory in 1986, associate director of water quality in 1988, and director of water quality in 1990. In 1993, he was appointed director of resources and, in 1994, was named chief of operations.

The author or co-author of more than 40 articles in scientific and industry journals, Means received both a master's degree, with honors, in social ecology and a bachelor's degree in social ecology with an emphasis in environmental analysis from the University of California at Irvine.

A resident of the Newport Beach community of Balboa, Means is a member of the American Water Works Association and the American Society for Microbiology. He also serves on 10 committees for a variety of other organizations in the water field.

Malinowski's appointment marks his return to MWD's operations division, which comprises about half of the district's employees. From 1989 to 1993 he was assistant chief of operations, a post to which he was named after serving as assistant director of public affairs the previous nine years.

As chief of operations, Malinowski will be in charge of the daily operations and maintenance of MWD's regional water treatment and distribution system, including the district's 242-mile-long Colorado River Aqueduct. The system also includes 775 miles of large-diameter pipelines, five filtration plants, eight reservoirs and 15 hydroelectric plants.

Malinowski, of Tujunga, earned a master of science degree in public administration and a bachelor's degree in sociology from California State University at Los Angeles. Accredited by the Public Relations Society of America, he has chaired public affairs and communications committees on a number of water associations and most recently was a board member of the Association of California Water Agencies.

Prior to joining Metropolitan in 1980, Malinowski was a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Tampa Tribune and public affairs director at Cerritos Community College in Norwalk. -0-

The Metropolitan Water District is a regional water agency that imports water from Northern California and the Colorado River, and delivers it on a wholesale basis to the coastal plain of Southern California. Through its 27 member public agencies, the district provides almost 60 percent of the water used by nearly 16 million people living in portions of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties.

CONTACT: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Bob Gomperz, 213/217-6866 (office); 818/797-5478 (home)

Bob Muir, 213/217-6930 (office); 714/879-7478 (home)

Rob Hallwachs, 213/217-6450 (office); 818/398-7697 (home)

Jay Malinowski, 213/217-6480 (office); 818/951-4364 (home)