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A Legal Guide to the Public’s Rights to Access and Use of California’s Navigable Waters

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A Legal Guide to the Public’s Rights to Access and Use of California’s Navigable Waters
California State Lands Commission | November 20, 2017...
Summary
In California, members of the public have rights to access and use navigable waters for many beneficial uses, including, but not limited to navigation, fishing, and recreation. These public rights are expressed in federal law, California’s Act of...
In California, members of the public have rights to access and use navigable waters for many beneficial uses, including, but not limited to navigation, fishing, and recreation. These public rights are expressed in federal law, California’s Act of Admission, the California Constitution, court opinions, and state statutes. However, the public’s rights to access and use the state’s navigable waters are sometimes misunderstood.

California public officials are periodically called on to address disputes about the public’s rights to access and use the state’s navigable waters. These disputes may arise between recreational water users, such as boaters, fishermen, hunters, shoreline and beach users, and adjacent private property owners. In this guide, the California State Lands Commission seeks to inform and clarify, for the public, government officials, and private property owners, the public’s rights to access and use the state’s navigable waters by summarizing the relevant legal principles.

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A Survey of Efforts to Achieve Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in California

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A Survey of Efforts to Achieve Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in California
Pacific Institute | April 12, 2018...
Summary
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/292, which declared that “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation [is] a human...
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/292, which declared that “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation [is] a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” Two years later, the California Legislature added section 106.3 to the California Water Code (Section 106.3), which declared that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.”

Although the formulation of the human right to water (HRTW) for sanitary purposes in Section 106.3 is not as explicit as the UN resolution, it is also true that the availability of safe and clean drinking water presupposes the sanitary disposal of human waste. Accordingly, the statute has served as the touchstone for California drinking water and sanitation efforts.

Since 2012, California government agencies and non-governmental stakeholders have focused most of their efforts on drinking water. These efforts, while commendable, have been incomplete. First, the need for drinking water access and quality continues to outstrip capacity and resources. Second, while sanitation requires an adequate supply of water, it also requires an array of public and private infrastructure and services for the hygienic disposal of human waste, including household-level infrastructure like a toilet or septic tank.

This paper will focus on needs, efforts, and recommendations to advance the right to water for drinking and sanitary purposes. First, we summarize the legislative efforts that set the foundation for the adoption of HRTW in California.

Second, we discuss the challenges facing residents of disadvantaged unincorporated communities, particularly in light of California’s recent drought, to illustrate the drinking water and sanitation needs of these communities. Third, we review the state’s implementation of Section 106.3 and efforts by non-governmental stakeholders to advance HRTW, focusing on the need to invest in programs and funds to address the right to water for sanitary purposes. Last, we provide recommendations to tackle the existing and ongoing needs related to sanitation, with a focus on household-level infrastructure.

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Advancing One Water Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action
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Advancing One Water Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action
U.S. Water Alliance | June 26, 2018...
Summary
No matter who we are, where we live, or what we do, water is essential to our lives. It is life’s most precious...
No matter who we are, where we live, or what we do, water is essential to our lives. It is life’s most precious resource, an indispensable ingredient for prosperity, progress, and well-being. Water challenges in the United States are vast and mounting—communities are suffering from poor water quality, drought, flooding, and more. Our water and wastewater infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of replacement and renewal. Our water systems are further stressed by increasingly unpredictable weather, sea level rise, and shifting populations.

The complex water challenges we face today cannot be solved solely by the approaches we have used in the past. Water leaders—utility managers, public officials, farmers, river keepers, business leaders, manufacturers, community leaders, philanthropy, and others—recognize that business as usual will not get us to a sustainable water future. Visionary water leaders are working to shift the paradigm of how water is viewed, valued, and managed.

They are taking a One Water approach, elevating water as a national priority, inspiring our collective imagination, and activating new solutions. Water leaders are increasingly turning to artists and cultural leaders to help bring visibility to water issues, create more inclusive and imaginative planning processes, and leverage infrastructure investments to provide additional benefits to the communities they serve. At the same time, many artists and cultural leaders have become increasingly aware of and engaged in the water issues facing their communities.

There is tremendous opportunity to utilize arts and culture strategies to advance sustainable, integrated, and inclusive management of our nation’s water resources. As creative thinkers and doers, artists can be powerful partners to water leaders seeking to reimagine traditional approaches to water planning and management, and connect with communities in new ways.

This report aims to help water leaders envision the various ways that arts and culture can advance One Water goals, and how they can most effectively partner with artists and cultural leaders. In addition to serving water leaders, we hope this document will provide artists and cultural leaders with insights on the priorities of the water sector and reveal synergies. By establishing a shared framework, we hope to enable increased collaboration between the water and arts sectors.

The report is organized in the following manner:

• Our Current Water Landscape provides a brief overview of the complex water related challenges that face our communities;

• A New Paradigm for Water: The One Water Approach describes how the water sector is embracing a more innovative, integrated, and inclusive approach to water management;

• Opportunities at the Intersection of Water, Arts, and Culture outlines seven ways that arts and culture can advance One Water goals;

• The Path Forward: Building Cross-Sector Capacity for Collaboration

offers recommendations for how we can seed and spread collaborations between arts, culture, and water leaders; and

• Art in Action presents eight case studies that demonstrate how arts and culture strategies are driving positive water related outcomes in communities across the country.

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Assessing and communicating the impacts of climate change on the Southern California coast

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Assessing and communicating the impacts of climate change on the Southern California coast
California Natural Resources Agency | August 27, 2018...
Summary
Over the course of this and the next century, the combination of rising sea levels, severe storms, and coastal erosion will threaten the...
Over the course of this and the next century, the combination of rising sea levels, severe storms, and coastal erosion will threaten the sustainability of coastal communities, development, and ecosystems as we currently know them. To clearly identify coastal vulnerabilities and develop appropriate adaptation strategies for projected increased levels of coastal flooding and erosion, coastal managers need user-friendly planning tools based on the best available climate and coastal science. In anticipation of these climate change impacts, many communities are in the early stages of climate change adaptation planning but lack the scientific information and tools to adequately address the potential impacts. In collaboration with leading scientists worldwide, the USGS designed the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) to assess the coastal impacts of climate change for the California coast, including the combination of sea level rise, storms, and coastal change. In this project, we directly address the needs of coastal resource managers in Southern California by integrating a vast range of global climate change projections and translate that information using sophisticated physical process models into planning-scale physical, ecological, and economic exposure, shoreline change, and impact assessments, all delivered in two simple, user-friendly, online tools. Our results show that by the end of the 21st century, over 250,000 residents and nearly $40 billion in building value across Southern California could be exposed to coastal flooding from storms, sea level rise, and coastal change. Results for the other major population center in California (the greater San Francisco Bay Area) are also available but not explicitly discussed in this report. Together, CoSMoS has now assessed the exposure of 95% of the 26 million coastal residents of the State (17 million in Southern California)

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Broadening understandings of drought: the climate vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities in California (USA)

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Broadening understandings of drought: the climate vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities in California (USA)
Environmental Science and Policy, Elsevier | November 1, 2018...
Summary
The vulnerability of food and agricultural systems to climate variability and change is extensively studied. However, the vulnerability of agricultural labor is largely ignored...
The vulnerability of food and agricultural systems to climate variability and change is extensively studied. However, the vulnerability of agricultural labor is largely ignored in climate vulnerability and adaptation studies, especially in the context of developed countries. This research examines the drought vulnerability of farmworkers both in the fields and in their communities by analyzing how changes in water resources and agricultural practices impact socioeconomic drought. A combination of surveys and semi-structured interviews with farmworkers, farmers, and social service providers in California’s San Joaquin Valley is used to identify the impacts of drought on agricultural labor, water security, food security, and health. Findings demonstrate that drought impacts and vulnerabilities are multi-scalar and uneven. Agricultural drought adaptations, including increase in groundwater pumping and changes in crops, reshapes the vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities. There is a need for continued interdisciplinary research on the socioeconomic dimensions of drought as well as increased representation of needs and vulnerabilities of farmworkers and rural communities in drought and climate change adaptation planning.

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California against the sea

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California against the sea
Los Angeles Times | July 7, 2019...
Summary
THE CALIFORNIA COAST GREW AND PROSPERED during a remarkable moment in history when the sea was at its tamest. But the mighty Pacific,...
THE CALIFORNIA COAST GREW AND PROSPERED during a remarkable moment in history when the sea was at its tamest.

But the mighty Pacific, unbeknownst to all, was nearing its final years of a calm but unusual cycle that had lulled dreaming settlers into a false sense of endless summer.

Elsewhere, Miami has been drowning, Louisiana shrinking, North Carolina’s beaches disappearing like a time lapse with no ending. While other regions grappled with destructive waves and rising seas, the West Coast for decades was spared by a rare confluence of favorable winds and cooler water. This “sea level rise suppression,” as scientists call it, went largely undetected. Blinded from the consequences of a warming planet, Californians kept building right to the water’s edge.

But lines in the sand are meant to shift. In the last 100 years, the sea rose less than 9 inches in California. By the end of this century, the surge could be greater than 9 feet.

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California’s Future
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California’s Future
Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | January 18, 2018...
Summary
Water management in California has always been challenging. The state’s variable climate is marked by long droughts and severe floods, with stark regional...
Water management in California has always been challenging. The state’s variable climate is marked by long droughts and severe floods, with stark regional differences in water availability and demand. California has adapted by building a vast network of storage and conveyance facilities to deliver water from the wetter parts of the state to population and farming centers in the Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California. The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is a fragile link in the state’s water supply network, and a plan to address supply reliability, known as California WaterFix, faces many hurdles. California’s extensive network of dams is aging. Agricultural demand is becoming less flexible, as farmers are increasing tree crops (especially nuts), which must be watered every year. Conflicts are growing between human water use and water needed to support fish and other wildlife. And the latest cycle of droughts and floods provides a glimpse of an uncertain future under climate change. California’s water management challenges are complex, but they can be addressed. Solutions will involve difficult and sometimes costly trade-offs, as well as contentious legal and political changes.

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Challenges Facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta: Complex, Chaotic, or Simply Cantankerous?

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Challenges Facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta: Complex, Chaotic, or Simply Cantankerous?
University of California at Davis (UC Davis) | September 17, 2015...
Summary
Freshwater is a scarce and precious resource in California; its overall value is being made clear by the current severe drought. The Sacramento–San...
Freshwater is a scarce and precious resource in California; its overall value is being made clear by the current severe drought. The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is a critical node in a complex water supply system that extends throughout much of the western U.S. wherein demand is exceeding supply. The Delta also underpins a major component of the U.S. economy, helps feed a substantial part of the country, is a unique and valuable ecological resource, and is a place with a rich cultural heritage. Sustaining the Delta is a problem that manifests itself in many dimensions including the physical structure of the Delta, the conflicting demands for water, changing water quality, rapidly evolving ecological character, and high institutional complexity. The problems of the California Delta are increasingly complex, sometimes chaotic, and always contentious. There is general agreement that current management will sustain neither the Delta ecosystem nor high-quality water exports, as required under the Delta Reform Act, so there is a renewed urgency to address all dimensions of the problem aggressively. Sustainable management of the Delta ecosystem and California’s highly variable water supply, in the face of global climate change, will require bold political decisions that include adjustments to the infrastructure but give equal emphasis to chronic overuse and misuse of water, promote enhanced efficiency of water use, and facilitate new initiatives for ecosystem recovery. This new approach will need to be underpinned by collaborative science that supports ongoing evaluation and re-adjustment of actions. Problems like the Delta are formally “wicked" problems that cannot be “solved” in the traditional sense, but they can be managed with appropriate knowledge and flexible institutions. Where possible, it is advisable to approach major actions incrementally, with an eye toward avoiding catastrophic unexpected outcomes. Collaborative analyses of risks and benefits that consider all dimensions of the problem are essential. Difficult as the problems are, California has the tools and the intellectual resources to manage the Delta problem and achieve the twin goals of a reliable water supply and an ecologically diverse Delta ecosystem.

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Changes in water consumption linked to heavy news media coverage of extreme climatic events

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Changes in water consumption linked to heavy news media coverage of extreme climatic events
Science Magazine, American Association for the Advancement of Science | October 25, 2017...
Summary
Public awareness of water- and drought-related issues is an important yet relatively unexplored component of water use behavior. To examine this relationship, we...

Public awareness of water- and drought-related issues is an important yet relatively unexplored component of water use behavior. To examine this relationship, we first quantified news media coverage of drought in California from 2005 to 2015, a period with two distinct droughts; the later drought received unprecedentedly high media coverage, whereas the earlier drought did not, as the United States was experiencing an economic downturn coinciding with a historic presidential election. Comparing this coverage to Google search frequency confirmed that public attention followed news media trends. We then modeled single-family residential water consumption in 20 service areas in the San Francisco Bay Area during the same period using geospatially explicit data and including news media coverage as a covariate. Model outputs revealed the factors affecting water use for populations of varying demographics. Importantly, the models estimated that an increase of 100 drought-related articles in a bimonthly period was associated with an 11 to 18% reduction in water use. Then, we evaluated high-resolution water consumption data from smart meters, known as advanced metering infrastructure, in one of the previously modeled service areas to evaluate breakpoints in water use trends. Results demonstrated that whereas nonresidential commercial irrigation customers responded to changes in climate, single-family residential customers decreased water use at the fastest rate following heavy drought-related news media coverage. These results highlight the need for water resource planners and decision makers to further consider the importance of effective, internally and externally driven, public awareness and education in water demand behavior and management.

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Citizen’s Guide to Working with the California Water Boards
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Citizen’s Guide to Working with the California Water Boards
California State Water Resources Control Board | July 8, 2011...
Summary
The Guide provides an overview of the Water Boards and the many opportunities that all Californians have to participate with the Water Boards...
The Guide provides an overview of the Water Boards and the many opportunities that all Californians have to participate with the Water Boards in decisions and activities that affect the state’s water resources. While some of the public participation opportunities are formal, e.g., at a Water Board hearing, others are less formal, but just as important, e.g., a stakeholder process implemented by a Regional Board.

Although the Guide doesn’t contain information about specific water quality decisions that are before the Boards, it will direct you where you can find that information. We look forward to updating this Guide periodically to assure its continuing usefulness to you, the public.

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A Legal Guide to the Public’s Rights to Access and Use of California’s Navigable Waters

A Legal Guide to the Public’s Rights to Access and Use of California’s Navigable Waters

Become a member to access this feature

A Survey of Efforts to Achieve Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in California

A Survey of Efforts to Achieve Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in California

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Advancing One Water Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action

Advancing One Water Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action

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Assessing and communicating the impacts of climate change on the Southern California coast

Assessing and communicating the impacts of climate change on the Southern California coast

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Broadening understandings of drought: the climate vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities in California (USA)

Broadening understandings of drought: the climate vulnerability of farmworkers and rural communities in California (USA)

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California against the sea

California against the sea

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California’s Future

California’s Future

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Challenges Facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta: Complex, Chaotic, or Simply Cantankerous?

Challenges Facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta: Complex, Chaotic, or Simply Cantankerous?

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Changes in water consumption linked to heavy news media coverage of extreme climatic events

Changes in water consumption linked to heavy news media coverage of extreme climatic events

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Citizen’s Guide to Working with the California Water Boards

Citizen’s Guide to Working with the California Water Boards

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