Last Updated on April 12, 2016 by bvnadmin
[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]“More than two thousand years ago, Aristotle defined the most fundamental principle of justice—‘equals should be treated equally and un-equals unequally.’ He explained that justice was sort of proportion—‘that which is just, then in this sense is that which is proportionate, and that which is unjust is that which is disproportionate.’”
California Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Justice Program
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_column_text]The California Cooperative Snow Survey Program’s recent reading of water content held by the state’s snowpack was nearly 24 inches, or 87 percent of normal.
The report was great news, especially when compared to last year when the April 1st measurement showed the statewide snowpack water content level at only 5 percent of normal—it was not only the lowest ever recorded; it was the worst in several hundred years. However, this year’s good news was somewhat tempered by the reality 55 percent of the state remains in extreme or exceptional drought particularly in Southern California.
Many hoped the winter’s promised El Nino would cure the drought; but it fell short of its promised precipitation. While Northern California gained some measurable benefit from this year’s storms, snowpack levels in Southern California remained much more below average. As a result, most Southern California residents can expect to remain under state-mandated water conservation restrictions that currently call for a 20 percent reduction in use.
Southern California latest snowpack readings were reported from 27 stations across the region. The average snow water equivalent was 19.4 inches or only 73 percent of average for historic April 1st snowpack readings. As a result, most Southern California reservoirs remain low and continue to threaten further depletion of the region’s rapidly dwindling groundwater reserves.
California is in the fifth year of its historic drought and snowpack is essential to the state’s hydrology. The state’s snowpack is usually deepest on April 1st before the spring melt begins to fill its rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs. In normal years, it can provide as much as thirty percent of the state’s water supply.
As disappointing as it was to learn El Nino did not solve the state’s water crisis, it did deliver a slight improvement for the nine cities with the worst drought conditions in the nation—all of which are in California according to a June report in USA Today. They included (in reverse order) Bakersfield, Sacramento, Chico, Lancaster-Palmdale, Yuba City, Fresno, Modesto, Merced, and Hanford.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_single_image image=”4907″ alignment=”center” border_color=”grey” img_link_large=”” img_link_target=”_self” img_size=”550×1403″][vc_column_text el_class=”small”]Source:
California Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Justice Program Update
February 2014[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_column_text]In addition to continuing issues related to California’s water shortage there are also ongoing issues related to environmental justice and the reality that minorities, especially black and brown people, live in the midst of a number of sources of pollution that can often impact the ground water that is available.
A 2012 report by the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Program (updated in February 2014) spoke about the state’s efforts to resolve its “complex and daunting environmental challenges”. The report included the need for California to improve air and water quality, preserve and enhance its diverse ecosystems, clean-up the contamination left behind by many years of industrial and agricultural use and provide communities with safe drinking water while also ensuring communities are not subject to undue chemical threats.
The state continues to make some progress as the list of state legislation focused on environmental justice issues is expansive. And yet, too many communities remain vulnerable.
Some California communities are more vulnerable than others. To enable the state to prioritize its focus and funding for remediation it created the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen). The tool uses existing environment, health and socioeconomic data to determine the extent to which communities are burdened by and vulnerable to pollution. In essence, it evaluates both pollution burden and population characteristics by zip code.
Some of the factors included in its screening are ozone concentrations, toxic releases from facilities, rate of low birth-weight births, rate of asthma emergency department visits, educational attainment, poverty, groundwater threats and impaired water bodies. It showed 37 percent of residents in these zip codes have less than a high school education compared to 15.2 percent in the rest of the state; 51 percent of the residents in these zip codes live in poverty compared to 29.4 percent of the rest of the state; and fully 32 percent of California’s toxic clean-up sites are in these zip codes.
According to the results the top, most heavily-environmentally-burdened communities in the state are more than fifty percent minority—largely black and brown. While the least burdened zip codes in the state are majority white. This data supports what most already know in their hearts to be true and they worry about what may ultimately happen medically to children raised in these heavily-environmentally-burdened zip codes.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_single_image image=”4906″ alignment=”center” border_color=”grey” img_link_large=”” img_link_target=”_self” img_size=”full” title=”Most burdened and least burdened zip codes by total percentage of California population by race”][vc_column_text css_animation=”” el_class=”small”]Source:
California Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Justice Program Update
February 2014[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_column_text]Three of the top 10 most polluted zip codes are in East Los Angeles. They include zip code 90058 in the city of Vernon, zip code 90023 in East Los Angeles and zip code 91706 in Baldwin Park. The remaining seven most polluted communities include Bakersfield zip code 93702; Fresno zip codes 93702 and 93725; and, Stockton zip codes 95202, 95205 and 95206.
There is no question communities whose water may already be compromised as indicated by these results, may be at even greater risk as the drought continues.
In a press release about his team’s findings, Frank Gehrke, Chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program stated, “While for many parts of the state there will be significant gains in reservoir storage and stream flow, the effects of previous dry years will remain for now.”
Although officials believe this year delivered a good start toward replenishing the state’s water supply, in order for the state to move beyond the current water crisis the drought would require snowpack levels at 150 percent of average by April 1st. This year’s April 1st reading was merely 105 percent of average.
State water officials affirmed the results of the April 1st reading will be factored into discussions regarding the possibility of reducing some water-saving mandates that took effect last year. However, experts also reminded Californians the state is still in the midst of an historic drought and as a result, remain only one dry spell away from reversing the minimal gains attained since last winter.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_column_text]Frank Gehr of Department of Water Resource’s snow survey team reported about average water content at Phillips Station in Northern California on March 30.
Conditions for major reservoirs as of April 1, 2016 http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action
Graph page chart showing reservoir levels statewide
California Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Justice Program Update
February 2014[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]