December 2001 Issues Online June 2007 April 2007 February 2007 December 2006 October 2006 August 2006 June 2006 April 2006 February 2006 December 2005 October 2005 August 2005 June 2005 April 2005 February 2005 December 2004 October 2004 August 2004 June 2004 April 2004 February 2004 December 2003 October 2003 August 2003 June 2003 April 2003 February 2003 December 2002 October 2002 August 2002 June 2002 April 2002 February 2002 December 2001 October 2001 August 2001 June 2001 April 2001 February 2001 December 2000 October 2000 August 2000 June 2000 April 2000 February 2000 December 1999 October 1999 August 1999 June 1999 April 1999 February 1999 December 1998 October 1998 August 1998 June 1998 April 1998 February 1998 December 1997 October 1997 August 1997 June 1997 April 1997 February 1997 December 1996 October 1996 August 1996 June 1996 April 1996 February 1996 December 1995 October 1995 August 1995 June 1995 April 1995 February 1995 December 1994 October 1994 August 1994 June 1994 April 1994 February 1994 December 1993 October 1993 August 1993 Select any issue from the menu in this bar.

Workshops Tackle Impacts on Communities

The potential effects of CALFED activities on rural communities that depend on often heavily contaminated groundwater were among the issues raised by participants in a public workshop in Stockton last September.

The workshop was one of five held around the state to kick off CALFED’s long-term effort to turn a commitment to environmental justice into concrete policy. The CALFED Record of Decision obligates the program to incorporate environmental justice concerns as it makes decisions about raising dams, restoring habitat and implementing scores of other water supply and ecosystem improvements over the next decade.

The workshops — organized in conjunction with the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, which represents a broad range of low-income, rural, tribal and community groups — were designed to both inform local interests about CALFED’s plans and to begin to identify activities "that might cause disproportionate impacts on certain communities," says CALFED’s Dan Wermeil. The next step will be to develop goals and strategies to mitigate those impacts, a task that a new Environmental Justice Work Group working with the Bay Delta Advisory Committee will tackle.

The concerns raised at the workshops have varied widely depending on locality, says Wermeil. In Richmond, for example, residents are worried about contamination in Bay fish and want to know how low-income urban communities might tap into watershed and water quality grants available through CALFED. Meanwhile, in the San Joaquin Valley, workshop participants asked how CALFED’s plans to restore farmland to habitat might affect farm workers.

Martha Guzman of United Farm Workers, who worked with CALFEd to organize these meetings and conduct public outreach, says the workshops have been useful, although she notes that few CALFED agency folks were in attendance. "We were talking mostly to ourselves, which was a little disheartening," she says.

Contact: Dan Wermeil

«To @@(newsletter_title)@@ Index

[ ABAG HOME | SFEP HOME ]

Copyright © 2002, San Francisco Estuary Project