Water Plans

As part of a grant application I started to review water plans in the South land. As usual, I looked for mention of environmental justice in these legally mandated plans. What I found was sometimes amusing, some times alarming but most of the time, I found it "business as usual"--EJ is not taken seriously. Water plans rarely mention environmental justice. If they do mention it, it is mentioned in passing along with census tract data to define a Disadvantaged Community (DAC). Prop 84 SPECIFICALLY says that a portion of monies need to be spent in DAC. One plan cited lack of water quality in EJ communities as being detrimental to their recreational opportunities. Hello, DAC are concerned about their drinking water not their jet skiing opportunties. Given these challenges, it's important to educate the community so the community takes charge and advocates before the water agencies who draw up these plans. Amazing.

Quail Valley

Today the Press Enterprise ran a strong Opinion piece on Quail Valley in Riverside County. Quail Valley is now part of Menifee which was incorporated last year. Quail Valley is an Environmental Justice challenge to put it mildly. The entire community of Quail Valley, 1,000 plus homes are on septic tanks. The problem is that when we have downpours the leaky septic tanks over flow and pollute the ground water and Canyon Lake--a potable water source. The PE called for Quail Valley to be hooked up to a sewer system but the rub is how is this done in an EJ community. I'm going to stay on top of this story as it is an important case study.

Inland Empire Disadvantaged Communities

Recently I've had the opportunity to research the number of disadvantaged communities in the Inland Empire. The exact location of all of these EJ communities is largely unknown. There has been some field work in the this area but the Inland Empire is so large; the county of San Bernardino alone is the largest county in the country in terms of square miles, that all of the EJ communities have not been identified. For example, how much EJ work is currently being done in the Chochella Valley? This would be a good place to look at since there were so many defense contractors out in the Inland Empire in the 50's and 60's. It takes a little digging but the information is there. What is evident that the remoteness of the place in the 50's and 60's led to sloppy practices with regards to Environmental Stewardship by companies. Now the people are feeling the effects of contaminated groundwater as well as the lack of infrastructure to clean up wastewater and other essential services.