Activists battling a toxic waste dump near Kettleman City said Friday they have filed administrative complaints against two state agencies alleging civil rights violations in the approval of an expansion of the Chemical Waste Management facility…
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People for Clean Air and Water of Kettleman City, Greenaction for Health, and Environmental Justice have filed complaints charging the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and California Environmental Protection Agency with racial discrimination due to their approval of the expansion of the Chemical Waste Management Kettleman Hills Facility hazardous waste landfill…
The San Joaquin Valley now has a third member on the California Water Commission, the group that will have a big say in carving up part of the $7.5 billion water bond passed last November.
The new member is Maria Herrera, 32, of Visalia, joining west-side farmer Joe Del Bosque, who was reappointed, and Dave Orth, general manager of the Kings River Conservation District…
CWC recently completed a fact sheet on acute water shortage needs for California’s most vulnerable communities. The document provides key recommendations for California’s Administration and Legislature to address critical drought-related issues.
The three-year period between fall 2011 and fall 2014 was the driest since record keeping began in 1895, and recent reports signal that California is headed into its fourth year of drought.1 As debates continue on the duration of the current drought and the extent of the problem for the state as a whole, thousands of Californians — the majority of whom are living in rural small and disadvantaged communities (DACs) — are already living in crisis, experiencing complete water loss, or extreme and acute impacts due to increasing water scarcity and groundwater contamination. In the worst cases, communities have run out of water completely and lack both short- and long-term options for addressing their basic water needs…
After protest marches, public hearings, and letter-writing campaigns, groups opposed to dangerous oil-industry practices have now launched two major legal challenges.
One is a legal petition by more than 150 environmental, health, labor, and community organizations asking Governor Jerry Brown to use his emergency powers to halt fracking. State law requires the governor to respond to this type of petition within thirty days…
Juan Flores stands in the community garden at Sequoia Elementary School in Shafter, California, and points to one, two, three oil wells within view of the school. The closest well stands the length of a couple of football fields from the edge of the garden, and all day its pump slides up and down sucking crude oil from the earth.
“There are probably a hundred wells within a mile radius of this school,” says Flores, an environmental organizer and the son of local farmworkers. “And many of them have been fracked.” The tall well at the edge of school property is the nearest example.
Before Flores can say more, a man in a white truck comes by and tells us that the farmer next door is about to spray pesticides on his almond grove. The wind is blowing in the direction of the garden and the school. It’s time to leave.
This is life in Kern County, one of the most productive and poisoned places in California…
At the usually quiet, rural home of Abelardo De Leon Garcia, a drilling machine hammered the sandy soil all morning Monday, creating a well shaft three times deeper than a dry well only a few yards away.
Garcia, 81, had lost his water well on Easter Sunday last year. Nearly a year later, his water supply has been resurrected, thanks to federal funding and a Visalia-based nonprofit called Self-Help Enterprises.
“I was very worried,” he said in Spanish, standing near the drilling site at his home of 33 years. “I didn’t know how to keep going, and I was afraid I would have to move.”…
California’s Central Valley is the breadbasket of America. It is the source of much of the country’s grapes, tree fruit, nuts, and vegetables. Many of the farms are massive, requiring large amounts of capital, land, and labor.
In the nearby small towns are the homes of the state’s farm laborers. They are primarily Latino. About half are undocumented. Most are poor and few have health care. Politically and economically weak, they are the primary human victims of pesticide drift…
Residents in the area of Airport and Merle Haggard Drives say the smell of petroleum coming from an approximately 15 acre field being developed is so bad, they can barely breathe.
“I can almost taste it in my mouth,” said Celine Martinez, who lives just east of the field.
It began about the same time that elevating scrapers began pushing dirt around, and for weeks it’s only gotten worse.
Residents like Martinez began to wonder if the smell was more than just a nuisance…
The troubled Hydrogen Energy California project (HECA) sustained another blow to its chances of becoming a reality today as a result of actions by environmental opponents. In a March 3, 2015, letter to the California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission(commonly referred to as the CEC), the Sierra Club and two local citizen’s groups formally requested that the agency terminate the application for the project. According to the Sierra Club, the project applicant, SCS Energy California LLC (SCS), has failed to diligently follow through with several tasks and submit requested documentation for over 18 months…