Brandon Chow, Kinesiology | Adam Krupinski, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Today, we also woke up (bright and early!) at 7 AM to a fantastic, 70-degree day. After having a breakfast of eggs, cereal, and bananas, and after preparing lunch for later, we drove from our church in East Sacramento into a garage downtown. Maneuvering the 12-person van through the narrow twists and turns of the garage was quite an experience -- and we apologize to the line of cars behind us impatient to get to work. After parking, we walked a few blocks to the California Sierra Club offices, where we met with Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League (PCL). He was accompanied by Kyle Jones, a policy advocate for the Sierra Club of California, as well as Jennifer Clary, a staffer for Clean Water Action, on the phone. We learned a lot about what each of these organizations does, and some specific projects that they have worked on -- there’s a tremendous breadth! For example, Jonas and the PCL spend a lot of time connecting community-based nonprofits to each other; Kyle spends a solid portion of his time directly in the California State Capitol, advocating for the Sierra Club’s interests (and that’s just scratching the surface). We discussed each of their individual experiences within their roles, California water policy in general, the process of implementing a policy or engineering project, our roles as college students, and the deeper meaning of water justice in general. We then walked over to the Capitol, where we had lunch and played games on the Capitol steps. Our next visit was to the Community Water Center (CWC), a nonprofit working mainly with smaller, disadvantaged communities in the southern San Joaquin Valley; the organization educates these communities with water problems about their rights and water options, and connects them to organizations that may improve their water situation. We spoke with Debi Ores, an attorney for the organization, as well as Kelsey Hinton, who works to build the CWC through communications and development. Our discussion with the CWC was fascinating. In particular, we learned a lot about how water policy directly affects lower-income communities, and about how the “drought” aspect of California’s water issues can often overshadow the “contamination” aspect. We were also provided a fascinating, candid view of day-to-day life working at a nonprofit: it can be unrelenting, but also incredibly rewarding.

Today was truly an information overload. We were provided so many past policies, engineering projects, and contaminant case studies as examples, and we’re still just beginning to connect them all to the “big picture.” But ultimately, learning about the specific intricacies of California water policies is just a small portion of why we’re on this ASB, and we learned some. Until this point, we hadn’t really internalized just how many niches exist within water advocacy -- you can be an attorney, a scientist, a community organizer, an organizer of nonprofits, or an engineer, and play an invaluable role in improving people’s lives.