Welcome to the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water EJCW Website

Past Legislative Activities

In 2005.....

EJCW coordinated EJ scholarships, transportation for low-income communities of color across the state to participate in the 3rd Annual Environmental Health Lobby Day in Sacramento. We held English and Spanish educational and advocacy trainings in West Oakland, Salinas and Sacramento.

EJCW supported efforts to remand the TMDL for Mercury at the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the SWRCB.

EJCW sponsored a site visit for our members to visit the New River in Calexico to better understand the water contamination issues plaguing the river. We supported SB 387 (Ducheny), which passed and was signed by the governor and the CalEPA Action Plan's Pilot Project on the New River.

In other years.....

In 2001, EJCW was instrumental in the passage of SB 23, a bill that provided funding for projects addressing water issues in low-income communities of color in California
Through the leadership of the United Farm Workers, EJCW helped pass AB 2534, which provides funding for small communities to build sewage systems and address groundwater contamination problems affecting drinking water
EJCW worked with WaterKeeper and other environmental organizations to defeat AB 2226, which would have extended exemptions from the Clean Water Act for agricultural dischargers. EJCW joined the Clean Streams Clean Farms campaign to end a 20-year water quality waiver for the agriculture industry in 2003. These waivers allowed the agriculture industry to circumvent state water quality standards and remediation requirements.
EJCW supported SB 923 (Sher) that introduced new criteria that must be met in order for growers to get an extension on their waiver. This bill passed and was signed by the governor in October 2003.
SB 621 provides over $2 million of Proposition 13 funding to the community-led Tulare County Water Works District to design and build a domestic water system to meet the consumptive needs of the local, predominately Latino residents. Working with EJCW and other allies last year, the United Farm Workers secured dedicated funding to the community of Alpaugh in the Central Valley to address their lack of basic drinking water infrastructure.