Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Rudolph S. Chow, P.E., has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Association Of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA). The AMWA is an organization of the largest publicly owned drinking water systems in the United States. These water systems serve over 140 million people daily with safe drinking water – from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

The AMWA is the nation's sole policy-making organization for metropolitan drinking water suppliers. The organization represents these water systems by working with Congress and federal agencies to ensure that federal laws and regulations protect public health and are cost-effective. It also provides programs, publications, and services to help water suppliers be more effective, efficient and successful.

The 20-member Board of Directors represents all regions of the country. A full-time professional staff is located in Washington, D.C.

This is the second important national water industry position Director Chow has assumed this fall.  He was recently chosen by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) as that organization’s Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee. This key position serves as the bridge between water utilities and the federal government.

A public engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry, Director Chow came to Baltimore over five years ago to head the Bureau of Water and Wastewater. On February 1, 2014 he was named Director of the Department of Public Works by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The Department serves over 1.8 million residents of the City and the five surrounding counties with a combined Operating and Capital budget exceeding $1B annually. Mr. Chow’s swift rise to DPW Director is a direct reflection of his transformational agenda and visionary leadership, which is designed to restore the City’s prominence in the water industry and the public works arena, and make DPW a best-in-class organization.

Prior to his arrival in Baltimore, Mr. Chow spent 27 years with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) in Laurel, MD. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from George Washington University and a Master’s Degree in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from University of Maryland College Park. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the States of Maryland and Delaware.  He is an active member in ASCE, AWWA, WEF, WRF, NACWA, AMWA, APWA, and SWANA and serves on a number of boards and committees.