Editor’s Note: Yesterday, PublicCEO ran an article regarding a growing scandal involving the Central Basin Municipal Water District. That story, which includes claims that the CBMWD spent money on a media consultant who published stories unethically, was originally written by the Los Angeles Times. Now, we have received a response from the CBMWD. 

For the sake of fair and full disclosure, it is re-published below.

Working with a vendor, the Central Basin Municipal Water District has been seeking to communicate information across web-based platforms about our programs and policy initiatives in an effort to combat the Water Replenishment District’s cyber spreading of inaccurate information on fake websites designed to purposefully mislead the public.

It is important to stress that the information related to the Central Basin Municipal Water District posted on the News Hawks Review website was true and accurate and reflected positive Central Basin announcements and policy initiatives and did not contain information designed to mislead the public about Central Basin’s substantive policies or the policies of other water districts. Central Basin was not aware of issues related to the backgrounds of the individuals whose names appeared alongside the stories and had no knowledge of their biographies until it was brought to our attention, at which point the News Hawks website lost its Google Certification and Central Basin’s vendor discontinued using the website.

Central Basin is committed to maintaining a strong education and outreach effort and will continue to disseminate information to inform its customers and the public about important water issues.

Here are links to several various misleading online platforms (known as cybersquatting) sponsored by the Water Replenishment District: www.centralbasin.net, www.central-basin.com, www.centralbasinreplenishment.org