Sacramento Bee Cites CRC Research
June 2018

Confronting Environmental Racism Event 2018

Water Legislation Could Spread Clean Water Access
By Sara Jerome
@sarmje

California lawmakers are considering a drinking water proposal that water agencies see as a threat of unnecessary fees. Proponents say it will spread access to clean water, which many California residents still lack.

The legislation would establish a fund to help communities facing drinking water contamination pay for improvements.

Thousands in the San Joaquin Valley Have Unsafe Drinking Water, But Clean Water Is Close
UC Davis Study Shows Solutions, Some Underway With Water Justice Clinic
March 2018 By Karen Nikos-Rose
Tens of thousands of people living in the San Joaquin Valley’s unincorporated, rural, low-income communities have unsafe drinking water pouring from their taps. That water is delivered from a patchwork of community water systems that often don’t meet state or federal standards for drinking water, or from private wells that are not tested.

December 2017

Mr. Lee is widely recognized as a true pioneer in the arena of environmental justice.  He was the principal author of the landmark report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States.

This article is a case study of one Community-University Research and Action Partnership (CURAP) focused on soil lead, urban gardening, and environmental justice in Sacramento, California.  We argue that creating and sustaining CURAPs requires a process of weaving together diverse strands of knowledge, resources, and lines of accountability that connect all parties involved.  Like the physical process of weaving fabric, weaving CURAPs involve creative and collaborative uses and responses to tension between all elements of a partnership.

From Testimony to Transformation: The Identifying Violations Affecting Neighborhoods (IVAN) Program is a new report from the CRC that examines IVAN's history, successes, and challenges, and offers suggestions for expanding and improving the program. We intend for this report to inform a wide range of audiences, including funders, policy-makers, public agency officials, and environmental justice advocates in California and beyond that are either currently involved in IVAN or are considering establishing an IVAN network.

The goal of this project is to provide analytical and mapping support to the Ubuntu Green's Brownfields and Vacant Spaces Campaign and efforts by the Sacramento Housing Alliance and the Coalition on Regional Equity to advance a healthy land use agenda in traditionally marginalized communities in Sacramento.

The Center for Regional Change is working with the UC Davis Superfund Program and community partners to learn about community concerns about agricultural use of biosolids in Kern County, CA and apply SRP-technologies and expertise to address these community driven questions.

Collaborating on a pilot project, the UC Davis Superfund Research Program (SRP) and the UC Davis Center for Regional Change (CRC) aim to:

The Center for Regional Change is providing technical assistance and capacity-building for environmental justice, health and social equity advocates in the San Joaquin Valley to enhance their impacts on the region's Sustainable Community Strategies. The CRC has developed several data tools for use by advocates, including analyses of Jobs/Housing Fit, regional opportunity and vulnerability, cumulative environmental vulnerability, and modeling of transportation and housing equity.

The Center for Regional Change and the California Institute of Rural Studies have partnered with the Eastern Coachella Valley Building Healthy Communities (ECV-BHC) to advance environmental justice-related policy and systems change priorities in the Eastern Coachella Valley. The goals are to increase the capacity of the ECV-BHC partners to access relevant, accurate and timely sources of data and to increase utilization of this data for advocacy, organization and education. The project is funded by The California Endowment.