Our Water Program focuses on developing and implementing sustainable water policies that enable California to meet water needs for our growing population, our economy and our environment. Below are summaries of four PCL Water Program efforts to reform water policy in California.
Strengthen Statewide Water Planning |
| The state currently has three intertwined major planning efforts underway: The California Department of Water Resources’Äô (DWR) California State Water Plan Update 2013, the Delta Stewardship Council’Äôs Delta Plan and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan’Äôs Habitat Conservation Plan. These plans will be released in the next two to three years, however in their current form, they focus on adopting 20th century solutions to solve 21st problems; these pending ’Äòsolutions’Äô will be environmentally devastating and unfeasibly expensive. PCL is utilizing our own expertise and the coalition of allies we have worked with over the last eight years, to develop water management strategies for California that will work. |
Promoting Sustainable Water Laws in California |
| PCL is actively engaged in the legislative arena to promote policies that conform with our goals of regional self-sufficiency and prioritization of ’Äòreduce, reuse, recycle approach’Äô, while disincentivizing environmentally and economically damaging strategies like desalination, dams, transfers and new water storage. We are also working with the Legislature to identify sustainable ways to fund regional water supplies and ecosystem restoration projects. |
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| In 2004, PCLF launched its first field-based program, targeting four Central California coastal counties to address problems associated with nonpoint source pollution and goals to improve water quality in major coastal watersheds in San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties. |
San Clemente Dam Removal Project |
| we are now working to educate and inform coastal communities about the removal of the San Clemente Dam that will improve the public’Äôs safety and restore the Carmel River. |
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| The Planning and Conservation League has stepped back from all the rhetoric in recent water wars to think about what common sense approaches can actually improve conditions. In "8 Affordable Water Solutions for California’Äù, we outline 8 common-sense approaches that can help solve California’Äôs water problems without breaking the bank. These practical proposals will go a long way to giving residents, businesses, farmers and the environment a secure water future, and will generate good new jobs that we can afford. |
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| For more information on this project please Abigail Okrent at aokrent@pcl.org. |
