Amy Griffiths, Civil & Environmental Engineering | Lizzie Hoffman, Civil & Environmental Engineering

At 7 AM our Spotify water playlist began, waking us all up after a nice sleep to our next day of meetings. We scarfed down a breakfast of cereal and coffee and tried to make the most out of the remaining food we would have for lunch. Though hungry, everyone has maintained a positive outlook. Our group has had a strong focus on living minimally and staying within our budget, and I have a new understanding and appreciation for what it would be like to live without sufficient access to water and food. Living like this for a week, I miss having more options and for the first time in my life, I’m getting tired of peanut butter. I cannot believe that people live with even less than this--and without water to drink--in their daily lives.

Today a cold front came in and we got a fair amount of rain, which Sacramento truly needs. We then met with Vanessa and Colin from the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW). They gave us a description of their history. The EJCW’s mission focuses on providing the human right to water with a strong focus on environmental justice issues--considering cultural, subsistence and recreational uses of water. Next, they showed us a powerful documentary about water justice issues in a variety of communities--with an emphasis on the issues faced by Native American tribes, homeless populations, and disadvantaged communities (which include communities where at least 80% of the population fall at or below the median income in California). The documentary included an anecdote of the community activism involved in passing Bill (AB) 685 for the human right to water. The community handed out bottles of “Central Valley Special Blend” which was contaminated water from their taps, and they told the legislators that if they didn’t think it was a problem that the communities had to drink that water, then they should go ahead and drink that water. Surprisingly, the Bill just barely passed with the necessary ⅔ majority.

At 11:30 AM, we went to the Capitol to talk to the Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife. We specifically met with consultants to the Committee Keith, Catherine, and Ryan who mostly work with the budget and urban water use and wildlife issues. They discussed bills that were being proposed this legislative cycle that would hopefully make bill (AB) 685 more effective. These bills included raising the cap on advanced payments to entities that were trying to implement improvements to communities that did not have access to safe and affordable drinking water. It was encouraging to hear that Chair of the Committee Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia is viewed as a very hardworking individual who dedicates so much of his life to his duties as a legislator. Catherine told us that he cares deeply about his constituents, and he will often meet with someone in his district before meeting with someone with an important title who has come to his office.

Our last meeting with a community partner was with the California Environmental Protection Agency. The CalEPA has a large range of issues to focus on at any given time. I was impressed by how genuine and transparent Yana Garcia, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Justice and Tribal Affairs, was with us. She is very dedicated to helping solve environmental justice issues and knowledgeable about the subject. One issue we discussed was the setbacks due to the federal EPA under the current administration. Recently, many of California’s efforts have been tied up in trying to prevent regression in these areas instead of moving forward. It’s reassuring to hear that California is still holding itself to higher standards, and I hope that other states will follow California’s example while the federal EPA is lacking.

Everyone we talked to today seemed to be passionate about the issues that they interact with. They make daily sacrifices to help serve underrepresented communities and fight for environmental justice. I appreciate that despite their incredibly busy schedules, they were willing to meet with us. It’s encouraging to see such transparency in our government, especially with such sensitive and complicated issues. In the words of Colin-- water justice issues are more complicated than rocket science. I feel that so far, we’ve only begun to get our feet wet in these issues.