Despite designating water pollution from animal waste a national priority, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decreased the number of federal inspections and enforcement actions against animal feeding operations every year since 2012, according to agency data released in December. EPA inspections of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have dropped by more than half in the last three years, from 291 in 2012 to 141 last year…
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.
After four years of a crushing drought, Californians are hoping El Niño storms bring relief this winter. But whether they replenish the state’s reservoirs and rebuild its crucial snowpack remains to be seen, with many experts cautioning that the state’s water deficit is too severe to be resolved in one rainy year…
An ugly truth behind black gold: How racial injustices are behind California’s fight against Big Oil
California has an oil problem.Despite being known as an energy-progressive state and the vanguard of the green movement, California remains a major epicenter of oil production in the United States. Generally, oil production comes with the predictable environmental issues involved with the endeavor: Polluted air, contaminated water, acid rain, carcinogens, and the occasional landslide, tremor, or refinery explosion. And in California, many of the communities most affected by these environmental issues also happen to be inhabited heavily by Latinos, African Americans, and other people of color…
The California Water Board has convened a panel of experts to assess the safety of eating food grown with wastewater produced during oil drilling and fracking and sold by oil companies to farmers for crop irrigation. Last year, the Los Angeles Times, using data from the nonprofit Water Defense, exposed chemicals of concern present in this water used on food in the Central Valley’s Cawelo Water District. Currently there is no legal requirement to test this water or the crops that are grown with wastewater…
More farmers in drought-stricken California are using oilfield wastewater to irrigate, and a new panel on Tuesday began taking one of the state’s deepest looks yet at the safety of using the chemical-laced water on food crops…
To close out 2015, members of the Northern Tulare County (NTC) Water Alliance participated in a field trip on December 5th to the Terra Bella Water Treatment Plant to learn first-hand about the surface water treatment option being proposed for the Northern Tulare County region…
123 TCP (1,2,3-trichloropropane) is an extremely toxic chemical contaminating the groundwater that is used as drinking water in cities and small communities across California. It is disproportionately found in drinking water supplies for the San Joaquin Valley. 123 TCP was added to the list of chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer in 1999; however, to this day, it remains unregulated and therefore untreated in hundreds of water systems across the state…
After three years of advocating for safe, affordable drinking water for rural communities, CWC’s Senior Policy Analyst Omar Carrillo has moved on to an exciting new position with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation…
You’re invited to our second annual Water Justice Leadership Awards on Wednesday, Feb. 17th, from 5:30-7:30PM at Mayahuel in Downtown Sacramento!…
Drought-impacted residents Adela Arellano from East Porterville and Simona Magaña from Seville testified at the December State Water Board meeting to encourage the Board to approve $5 million in drought-related emergency funding for individuals reliant on private wells. Arellano and Magaña were joined by CWC’s Ryan Jensen and Erasto Teran, who also testified in support of this much-needed drought relief funding…