CALIFORNIA WATER SOLUTIONS NOW” REPORT OUTLINES GOALS AND PRINCIPLES FOR RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY AND FISH RESTORATION:

The Environmental Water Caucus (EWC), a California-based coalition of many groups advocating for sustainable and equitable water use in the state which includes PCFFA, has released a new report unveiling a vision for the future of California water. The report is based on the following 10 principles, developed to guide policy reform:

1. California must respect and adjust to meet the natural limits of its waters and waterways, including the limits imposed by climate change.

2. Every Californian has a right to safe, sufficient, affordable and accessible drinking water.

3. California’s ecosystems and the life they support have a right to clean water and to exist and thrive, for their own benefit and the benefit of future generations.

4. California must maximize environmentally sustainable local water self sufficiency in all areas of the State, especially in the face of climate change.

5. The quality and health of California’s water must be protected and enhanced through full implementation and enforcement of existing water quality, environmental, and land use regulations and other actions and through new or more rigorous regulations and actions as needed.

6. All Californians must have immediate and ready access to information and the decision-making processes for water.

7. California must institute sustainable and equitable funding to ensure cost-effective water reliability and water quality solutions for the state where “cost-effective” includes environmental and social costs.

8. Groundwater and surface water management must be integrated, and water health and protection must be addressed on a watershed basis.

9. California’s actions on water must respect the needs and interests of California Tribes, including those unrecognized Tribes in the State.

10. California must overhaul its existing, piecemeal water rights policies, which already over-allocate existing water and distribute rights without regard to equity.

In California Water Solutions Now, EWC outlines 10 strategic goals to get moving toward the dual objectives of reliable water supplies and habitat recovery, as follows:

1. Implement ecologically sustainable and cost effective water supply efficiency targets that reduce demand or increase supply.

2. Reduce exports from the SF Bay Delta, minimize reverse flows in the Delta, and increase Delta outflow.

3. Restore instream flows, volumes and patterns for aquatic ecosystems.

4. Provide fish passage above and below dams for all at-risk salmonid species.

5. Retain cold water for fish in reservoirs for later downstream release.

6. Integrate floodplains with rivers and streams.

7. Eliminate State and Federal water deliveries to irrigate drainage-impaired lands in the western San Joaquin Valley.

8. Restore surface and groundwater quality.

9. Maximize regional water self-sufficiency to include water for the environment.

10. Fund sustainable environmental agencies, watershed restoration and science with end-user fees.

To read the entire California Water Solutions Now report, visit http://ewccalifornia.org/home.


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SUBLEGALS
~WE HOOK THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO NET~
Vol. 15, No. 25
14 August 2009