[env-trinity] Allocation of Developed water Resources

[Daniel Bacher]

Byron

Thanks for posting that. It's a surprisingly favorable article. I was at the 
press conference and got a copy of the report, "Thirsting for Water." 
Everybody in the fish and watershed restoration movement should get a copy 
of it. It's great. For more information, get on www.ejcw.org

Dan Bacher




From : 	Byron <bwl3 at comcast.net>
Sent : 	Friday, August 19, 2005 4:47 PM
To : 	"FOTR List" <fotr at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>, "Trinity List Server" 
<env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>
Subject : 	[env-trinity] Allocation of Developed water Resources
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By VIC POLLARD, Californian Sacramento Bureau
e-mail: vpollard at bakersfield.com

SACRAMENTO -- Massive water projects have protected California's cities and 
farms from droughts, but
they have left many minorities and low-income residents suffering from too 
little water or too much
pollution, according to a report issued Wednesday by an environmental group.

The report by the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water condemned 
developments like Klamath River
irrigation projects, blamed for depriving Indians along the Northern 
California stream of their traditional
salmon food supply and disrupting their cultural heritage.

Another example cited in the report is the influx of mega-dairies, driven 
out of the Chino Basin by the
crackdown on water pollution there, to towns like heavily Latino Wasco, 
which seem powerless to block
them.

The report contends that powerful water agencies and government regulators 
neglect or harm ethnic and
low-income communities by failing to protect them from pollution and 
blocking them from
decision-making processes.

"Water is the lifeblood of California communities; sucking it away from 
native tribes and Latino
farmworkers will only dry up their local economies, their rivers, their 
fisheries, their farmland and their
cultural connections," said Alisha Deen, an author who contributed to the 
report.

At a news conference in Sacramento, one of several around the state called 
to release the report, officials
said they do not have specific legislative proposals to remedy the problems.

However, the report called for more water conservation by farms and cities 
to reduce consumption and
greater involvement in the decision-making process by minorities and 
low-income people affected by water
policies.

Officials of the Kern County Water Agency, one of the big agencies that 
benefit from water projects, did not
respond to a request for comment.

The coalition is made up of a number of environmental and human rights 
groups, officials said, and the
report was funded by grants from charitable organizations.