{"id":105,"date":"2011-07-25T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/?p=105"},"modified":"2011-07-22T10:42:37","modified_gmt":"2011-07-22T15:42:37","slug":"water-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/water-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe Drinking Water for All Californians"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mark Carlson, director, Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/a>

The Sacramento Water Treatment Plant by the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Photo courtesy of Mark Carlson.<\/p><\/div>\n

In California, a couple of well-known sayings are imprinted in the minds of those who care about water.\u00a0 The most famous is attributed to Mark Twain: \u201cWhiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Central Valley, whose rich productivity is supported by federal dams such as Trinity and Shasta, signs along highways proclaim a California truth: \u201cFood grows where water flows.\u201d\u00a0 My favorite is the passage from Ezekiel 47:9, engraved on the masonry over the Sacramento water treatment plant near the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers: \u201cEverything shall live whithersoever the river cometh.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, a Southern California Lutheran youth group rafted the Trinity River, a tributary of the embattled Klamath River, in the far north part of the state.\u00a0 A portion of the coastal Trinity is diverted over into the Central Valley to the farms and cities far to the south. While rainfall and snowpack are abundant this year, three years of severe drought contributed to cuts in water deliveries, fallowed fields, dead orchards, unemployed farmworkers, suspended commercial salmon fishing, and highway signs of a more partisan and demonizing nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet even now that our rivers and reservoirs are full, there are more than 250,000 mostly low-income people in the Central Valley who lack water safe enough for drinking, bathing and washing.\u00a0 Among that group are the men and women who pick and process the fruits and vegetables that end up in our grocery stores and on our tables. There are about 300 projects, at an estimated $400 million, on the waiting list for the federal Drinking Water Revolving Fund to address severe contamination in such disadvantaged California communities (compared with about $35 million available each of the last two years).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, fragile agreements for water rights to the Klamath and San Joaquin Rivers, reached after a generation of litigation, are threatened by possible federal budget cuts that could ignite a new round of courtroom conflict.<\/p>\n

Through history and by collective will and difficult compromises, the federal government has been a primary partner and stakeholder in working with state, local, and tribal governments and private interests in promoting what remains the elusive goal of safe, sufficient, sustainable water for all \u2013 farms, fish, people and healthy, productive ecosystems that all thrive \u201cwhithersoever the river cometh.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Carlson, director, Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California In California, a couple of well-known sayings are imprinted in the minds of those who care about water.\u00a0 The most famous is attributed to Mark Twain: \u201cWhiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.\u201d\u00a0 In the Central Valley, whose rich productivity is supported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1400],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-care-for-creation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSafe Drinking Water for All Californians - ELCA Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/water-in-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Safe Drinking Water for All Californians - ELCA Advocacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Mark Carlson, director, Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California In California, a couple of well-known sayings are imprinted in the minds of those who care about water.\u00a0 The most famous is attributed to Mark Twain: \u201cWhiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.\u201d\u00a0 In the Central Valley, whose rich productivity is supported […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/water-in-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ELCA Advocacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-25T14:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/EverythingShallLive3_web.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Advocacy Ministries of the ELCA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Advocacy Ministries of the ELCA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/water-in-california\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/water-in-california\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Advocacy Ministries of the ELCA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec1ca66a67dc27de902e054a241afe66\"},\"headline\":\"Safe Drinking Water for All Californians\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-25T14:00:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/water-in-california\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/water-in-california\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/EverythingShallLive3_web.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Care for Creation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Post\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/water-in-california\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.elca.org\\\/advocacy\\\/water-in-california\\\/\",\"name\":\"Safe Drinking Water for All Californians - 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