The Union of Concerned Scientists, Self-Help Enterprises, and Community Water Center invite you to a panel discussion on local groundwater sustainability planning and the launch of the toolkit, Getting Involved in Groundwater; A Guide to California’s Groundwater Sustainability Plans…
News
This page features excerpts from news about environmental justice advocacy in the San Joaquin Valley and links to their original sources. Use the features on the right to sort by topic, news source, date, key word or author. You may also subscribe to receive the news by e-mail or through an rss reader. Please note that links to original sources may expire over time.
Governor signs Bakersfield Assemblymember’s bill to provide clean water to disadvantaged communities
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill written by Bakersfield Assemblymember Rudy Salas which authorized the expansion of state safe drinking water funds for those in disadvantaged communities…
Senate Bill 623, a legislative answer to funding projects that could rid contaminants from the water supply of disadvantaged communities, was a political casualty in the final days of the legislative session that ended last month. The bill was held in the Assembly Rules Committee and was lost amidst negotiations for much more controversial issues…
On July 25, 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill (AB) 398 into law, extending the state’s signature climate change program – the Cap and Trade Program (the program) – through 2030. AB 398 represents a key milestone for the program and will have several important effects on entities regulated under the program…
Environmentalists and community activists have long lobbied for a statewide ban on fracking, arguing that the unique chemical cocktails that make up fracking fluids present novel risks to human health. “Given what we know about fracking’s dangers, [banning it] is just a no-brainer,” says Hollin Kretzmann, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. But up until two year ago, no one but the drillers even knew where fracking was happening…
SB 1000, approved by Governor Jerry Brown last September, requires that cities consider environmental justice in their planning process — formally, that they create environmental justice “elements,” much like housing elements — as part of their general plan. Spurred in part by childhood asthma rates nearly 60 percent higher than the county average, as well as high numbers of diabetes- and coronary heart disease-related deaths, National City residents began pushing for such an element in 2005. Their success is laid out in a toolkit and guide of best practices released this month by the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA), which co-sponsored SB 1000…
In California we have a big problem with water. Although we always hear of the lack of water in California, a serious problem we still have is that there are up to a million people in our state who do not have drinking water…
More than one million Californians and 300 communities are subjected to similar living conditions in third-world countries, specifically with regard to reliable access to safe drinking water, an issue Senate Bill (SB) 623 aims to resolve…
The SB 1000 Implementation Toolkit, prepared collaboratively by CEJA and PlaceWorks Inc., is a guidance document intended for local governments, planners, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders who will be working to develop an Environmental Justice Element or a set of environmental justice policies for their General Plans to meet the requirements of SB 1000…
A peculiar confluence of history, legal precedent and defiance has set the stage for a regulatory mutiny in California that would reverberate throughout the country…