People of color are California’s new majority, and polling data has shown over and over that people of color care about the environment and want to see strong government action to address climate change, among other things. People of color are also a growing force in the voting booth, helping swing critical elections and pass ballot measures such as Proposition 30 in 2012…
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.
The Senate’s Natural Resources and Water Committee voted today to approve a $6.895 billion water bond by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to begin immediately meeting urgent water needs throughout California.
Senate Bill 848, also known as “The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality & Water Supply Act,” would replace the $11.14 billion water bond currently slated for the November 2014 state ballot. SB 848 is the first proposal to replace the existing bond to receive a committee vote…
No gutters, no curbs, no sidewalks and polluted water.
Kettleman City residents have a lot to be frustrated about, but the issue of contaminated tap water tops the list. Exasperation over the achingly slow progress toward a new water treatment plant boiled over at a Kings County Board of Supervisors meeting last month…
John Capitman, executive director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State, has been appointed to the local air district board, replacing UC Merced professor Henry Jay Forman.
The appointment from Gov. Jerry Brown fills the seat designated for a health expert on the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board…
Community Water Center and the water injustice issues of the Central Valley are currently being featured in the “Health is a Human Right: Race and Place in America” exhibit at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, located at the Center for Disease Control Headquarters in Atlanta, GA. This exhibition looks back through history at how minority groups have experienced health problems differently and aims to educate the public on why these differences persist and what efforts currently exist to reduce and eliminate health disparities. In addition to viewing historic photographs, documents, and objects, visitors can check up on the health of their communities through interactive atlases. Videos, including one of Michelle Obama talking about access to fresh fruit and vegetables, are also integrated throughout…
The Pacific Water Quality Association (PWQA) has announced that it is donating $2,500 to the Community Water Center (CWC) to assist in addressing the unsafe drinking water crises in California’s disadvantaged communities, according to a press release…
Air quality in central Bakersfield was “moderate” Thursday, and parents with children at schools with a yellow flag out front knew it.
The flag signaled to educators and parents that it was OK for students to play outside, information that is particularly important for campuses in Kern County, where one in five children has asthma.
But only about half — or roughly 700 — of schools in the San Joaquin Valley raise color-coded flags to alert the public to air quality conditions, according to San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District estimates…
Maricela Mares-Alatorre stands at her kitchen sink and describes the contaminated water that became a suspect in a high-profile cluster of birth defects in 2009.
“Usually, very early in the morning or late at night, there’s like a petroleum smell, like gas,” Mares-Alatorre says, as water trickles out of the faucet. “Sometimes during the day, while we’re washing the dishes, we’ll have a white dish, and all of a sudden, we’ll see the water is totally brown.”
Mares-Alatorre is the leader of a community group, called People for Clean Air and Water, which has spent decades fighting for environmental justice in Kettleman City (Kings County). In recent years, the group has worked to halt the proposed expansion of a nearby toxic waste landfill — already the largest in the western United States — and has pointed to the birth defects as a reason to block it…
In anticipation of the release of the “Thirsty for Justice: The Struggle for the Human Right to Water,” UUJMCA has just released the trailer for this illuminating documentary.
As Unitarian Universalists, we are part of this story. For the past six years, UUs across the state have been deeply involved in supporting the Human Right to Water.
As many as 2 million Californians face significant challenges with water and sanitation. Water that is contaminated with nitrates, arsenic, lead, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. Water that is inaccessible or unaffordable. Water policies that are undemocratic and unsustainable…
Want to know how our elected officials in the State Capitol stand on environmental justice? Do you wonder what have been some of the biggest EJ issues in state politics over the past year? Well, CEJA is going to try and provide our answers to these questions: we are proud to be releasing our first ever Environmental Justice Scorecard for 2013!…