The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water is opening up the closed doors of the water world. It is time that the people making decisions about the future of California's water truly reflect the future of the state of California.

Amongst our member organizations and as a coalition, we are actively building the capacity of community members and advocates to become active members of decision-making bodies such as the Regional Water Quality Control Boards. This not only enables community members to participate in decisions about their natural resources, but also ensures that California's many low-income communities and communities of color are better represented within decision-making circles.

Did you know.....

The State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards are charged with monitoring the quality of California's wate resources and ensuring proper distribution of these resources. There are nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards and working with the State Board, they develop and enforce water quality goals. The regulate all types of industries in each region, issuing permits for what sort of water is allowed to be discharged by industries from refineries to agriculture. In 2005, out of 86 Regional Water Quality Control Board members, there are only three people of color!!

Community victories:

Sandra Meraz, Committee for a Better Alpaugh

Sandra's appointment to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board marks a huge victory for low-income communities and communities of color throughout California. Sandra has worked for years to bring clean drinking water to her community, and has joined forces with hundreds of other low-income, predominately Latino communities throughout the Central Valley that face simliar problems.

The appointment gives the Regional Board a community expertise that has been missing for a long time. Because they have had no connection to the environmental justice communities, the Board has not focused on the challenges that face the region’s most disadvantaged communities - the chronic groundwater contamination as a result of intensive agricultural, dairy and food processing throughout the Central Valley.

Sandra Meraz served on her local water boards for nearly a decade. Since being appointed in 1998 by a republican County Supervisor, she has overseen the application and implementation of over $4 million in State and Federal grants to upgrade the town’s public water system.

Sandra’s work has been recognized locally and nationally. She was named “Woman of the Year” by the California State Legislature in 2004, and honored that same year by the California Water Policy Conference for the significant difference she has made in the lives of Alpaugh residents. She was also recently honored with a Readers’ Choice Award in People Magazine in 2006.

Check out the People magazine article!

LaDonna Williams, People for Children's Health and Environmental Justice

LaDonna is now a member of the Low-Income Oversight Advisory Board of the California Public Utilities Commission, charged with overseeing the implementation of a statewide subsidized water rate.

Sandra Meraz has been appointed by Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board