Environmental Justice Coalition for Water ###

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Community Voices, Community Visions

The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water supports communities working on local water issues with funding and staff.

If low-income communities and communities of color are to achieve water justice, it requires a long-term commitment to community empowerment

A Community Vision for a Better Future in North Richmond:

The Parchester Village Neighborhood Council and the North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance has been fighting to preserve the North Richmond Shoreline, an important ecological and social resource for communities of color in Richmond.

Click here to learn more about the struggle for open space in North Richmond!

Winnemem Wintu's fight to stop the Shasta Dam Raise:

The Winnemem Wintu are a small tribe that has taken on a big task: stopping the state of California and the Bureau of Reclamation from raising Shasta Dam to increase water storage. The dam raise would flood Winnemem tribal lands and sacred sites...

Click here to learn more about the Winnemem Wintu's struggle!

Enviromental Justice on the Klamath River:

The Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa and Klamath Tribes once thrived throughout the Klamath Basin, depending on and taking care of salmon runs and watershed-wide wildlife. In just fifty years, generations of stewardship along the Klamath River were destroyed by dams that provide irrigation water for farmers and hydroelectric power. Now, salmon runs have been dratically depleted, river wildlife threatened, and the Tribes no longer have their traditional diet or economic livelihoods.

Read more about the Tribe's efforts to restore the Klamath Basin!

Addressing the Drinking Water crisis in the Central Valley

Many low-income, predominately Latino communities lack safe, clean, affordable drinking water. Years of agriculture, food processing and dairy production have contaminated California's groundwater, which many small, rural communities rely on for drinking water.

Read about our efforts to protect California's groundwater, the source of drinking water for these communities.

The San Diego-Imperial Irrigation District transition assistance settlement:

Farm working communities in the Imperial Valley are being heavily impacted by the transfer of water out of agriculture. While farmers recieve compensation for the loss of farm land, farm workers often loose their jobs and may be evicted. Local organizing efforts are working to ensure any deals include money to offset the loss of jobs and housing for low-income communities in the area.

Find out more information on this water justice issue!

Central Coast water quality:

The Central Coast of California is called the "salad bowl" for all the lettuce and vegetables it produces, but many farm workers in the area are left to drink contaminated water. EJCW has been working with local organizations to conduct training on pesticide and fertilizer contamination in the area.

The goals of our community-based work are:

  • to provide participants with tools for issue analysis, campaign development and strategy building, and addressed a wide array of topics
  • to bring community and Environmental Justice activists together to discuss water issues, promote networking, and engage in peer education and training activities.
  • to facilitate EJCW members sharing information and resources such as funding and workshop opportunities
  • to provide an opportunity for groups to support each other, keeping informed of their work,  finding connections among their efforts, and developing and working for a common community and EJ agenda in water polic

Regional Workshops

EJCW offers a variety of different types of workshops for member organizations and allies.

We can provide workshops on:

  • basic water quality and education
  • advocacy trainings
  • water justice

Some of the workshops and activities we have sponsored are:

  • EJCW co-sponsored three workshops to educate more than 300 community groups on how to secure funding from the voter-approved park and water bond measures (Props. 12 and 13)
  • EJCW facilitates participated in the Environmental Health Working Group lobby days and has assisted in bringing over 100 community activits to Sacramento to lobby on environmental health legislation
  • basic water education and issue development in communities facing water-related issues
  • local legislative training seminars to prepare community members for lobbying and legislative work
  • community tours in conjunction with the regional workshops to provide members a first-hand look at critical issues affecting communities and a more personalized opportunity to exchange information about best practice