Box 6: The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water

      Water policy in the American West has traditionally reflected the concerns of a small number of stakeholders, namely, urban and rural water districts; state and federal resource agencies; and corporate agribusiness and the industries that use the lion’s share of water in California. Recently, environmentalists have been included. However, water debates still fail to include the voices of other sectors of our increasingly diverse society, such as farm workers, inner city residents, rural communities, and subsistence fishers. These communities remain underrepresented in natural resource policy-making, despite the persistent water-related problems they face.
      Despite the long history of state and federal laws and administrative measures seeking to address environmental justice and community issues, California resource agencies have yet to develop adequate procedures and programs to address water-related environmental and health impacts on people of color and low-income communities. Water issues faced by these communities are not adequately addressed by current policies and regulations, agency programs, or funding opportunities. State and federal water policies are routinely developed with little or no input from those communities most impacted by them. Moreover, traditional water stakeholders do not adequately represent and advocate for people of color and poor communities. Ultimately, urban and rural water agencies fail to represent the full scope of the public in making decisions regarding water.
      Since 1999, the Environmental Justice Coalition on Water (http://www.ejwatercoalition.org) has elevated issues of environmental justice to the regional and state levels. By bringing in new voices, the EJ Coalition has sought to ensure that water policy development, management, and planning, as well as on-the-ground projects, address the problems faced by these traditionally marginalized constituencies. The Coalition has initially focused on a joint state and federal effort, known as the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, to address water supply, water quality, and ecological needs for two-thirds of the state’s watersheds.
      During development of the CALFED programmatic environmental impact statement (EIS) and environmental impact report (EIR), the EJ Coalition successfully interjected environmental justice language to help guide implementation of the program. The final programmatic EIS/EIR and subsequent Record of Decision commit CALFED programs and its federal and state partners to develop a comprehensive environmental justice implementation plan. Two Coalition members were appointed to serve on the CALFED Bay-Delta Advisory Committee, which unanimously endorsed inclusion of environmental justice principles and commitments to substantively address environmental justice in CALFED’s Framework for Action. Subsequently, the Bay-Delta Public Advisory Committee established an Environmental Justice Subcommittee to ensure these program commitments are monitored and, ultimately, implemented.