[env-trinity] Environmental & Social Justice Advocates Condemn CALFED

[Daniel Bacher]

PRESS RELEASE

December 8, 2005

Contact:	Alisha Deen, (707) 342-2052

LaDonna Williams, (707) 712-4088

Gary Mulcahy, (916) 214-8493

Martha Guzman, (916) 524-2243

David Nesmith, (510) 693-4979


ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ADVOCATES ACROSS THE STATE CONDEMN
CALFED'S DISREGARD FOR LOW-INCOME & COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

"10-Year Action Plan Framework" is another example of how CALFED
deliberately excludes majority of California's residents from
participating in critical decisions affecting water


Oakland, CA-Environmental and social justice leaders across the state
expressed outrage at the utter disregard for environmental justice
concerns in the CALFED "10-year Action Plan Framework."

"The participants who hammered out this framework behind closed doors are
not interested in environmental justice," said Alisha Deen, a legislative
analyst for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water in Oakland. "The
environmental justice commitments in CALFED are absent in the 10-year
action plan. They don't even mention the phrase in the 11-page document.
Unfortunately that has been our experience with CALFED itself.
Environmental justice has been this buzz word without any real action."

CALFED has suffered devastating blows to its legitimacy with the state
legislature, the Little Hoover Commission and the Third District Court of
Appeals calling into question the basic pillars of the program in recent
months.

Last Friday, December 2nd, only a few minutes before offices closed for
the weekend, the Bay-Delta Authority released the 10-year Action Plan
Framework, announcing that a vote would take place less than a week later.


The activists plan on giving testimony at today's CALFED Authority meeting
in Sacramento.

"This is a slap in the face to communities throughout California," said
LaDonna Williams, Executive Director of People for Children's Health and
Environmental Justice. "The Bay-Delta Authority once again exhibits their
total disregard for environmental justice and true public participation in
the vital decisions concerning water in California."

"Even though the CALFED Record of Decision established a commitment to
environmental justice that was to cut across all programs, the
environmental justice element of CALFED is pretty much lip-service," said
Gary Mulcahy, the Governmental Liaison for the Winnemem Wintu Tribe.

"Originally we were encouraged by what seemed like a real commitment on
the part of CALFED to ensuring public participation," said Martha Guzman,
legislative advocate for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
"However, over the past five years it has become crystal clear that CALFED
never had any intention of truly implementing its environmental justice
obligations."

Environmental and social justice advocates call on the Governor and the
Legislature to ensure that CALFED allow meaningful public participation,
particularly from communities of color and low-income communities who
clearly suffer disproportionate effects from industry-driven water
projects and policies. CALFED has failed to improve the environmental and
environmental justice problems facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
the areas of origin and the regions now-dependent on water shipments
through the Delta precisely because the Bay-Delta Authority has lacked the
strength and commitment to ensure open decision making processes and
balanced projects that fully consider environmental justice impacts.

"Now is a moment of rare agreement that the system is broken," said David
Nesmith, coordinator with the Environmental Water Caucus.   "The Governor
and the Legislature must ensure that CALFED does not repeat the same
mistakes of exclusion and discrimination that have characterized it for so
long."

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The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water is a network of more than
sixty grassroots and intermediary organizations building a collective,
community-based movement for democratic water management and allocation in
California. EJCW works to empower community members to become strong
voices for water justice in their communities by participating in water
policy, planning and decisions. We hold policy makers accountable for the
disproportionate impacts water policy has on low-income communities and
communities of color.

The Environmental Water Caucus works to achieve comprehensive, sustainable
water management solutions for all Californians. EWC and its members
employ political, legal and economic strategies to restore ecological
health, improve water quality and protect public trust values throughout
the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta estuary and the Central
Valley/Sierra Nevada watersheds.


Environmental Water Caucus
319 Lenox Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610
510-893-1330  OR  510-693-4979


Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
654 13th Street
Oakland, CA  94612
(510) 286-8400
www.ejcw.org