Water Planning

Cycles of intense drought and flooding demonstrated the need to reorient our priorities in order to achieve a truly sustainable water policy. Over-development and poor planning have resulted in increasing rain-impermeable areas, which then compound the severity and frequency of flooding and pollution in regions downstream. We must understand and apply a holistic "watershed approach" to managing our state's water resources. The principle of bioregionalism - living within the means of a region's natural resources - should give direction to future water policies. Current expenditures do not address regional depletions of groundwater, and they minimize the real costs of research and development to assure adequate supply. Regional water budgets for user water allocations and public welfare statements that define regional water use priorities need to be accountable to the public.

 

Conservation (reduce, reuse, recycle) must be an essential part of any water policy. Water conservation also reduces energy consumption and pollution. Attention to climate change requires conservation/recycling/management strategies. Pricing mechanisms that encourage conservation and re-use must be developed to establish consistency and fairness to all users. Bloc pricing can provide a means of increasing costs to larger users. This, in turn, creates new funds for research and development to decrease demand or increase supply of adequate water.

 

The Green Party proposes:

 

For Water Management/Policy

 

To:

 

Develop regional water plans that assure public input into the state water plan that in turn must be based on sound science and on priorities that are in the public interest

 

Oppose private water banking because profit making subverts consistent planning for the public interest

 

Support upgrade of the water infrastructure including levees, irrigation canals, and aqueducts. Currently, California spends just 2.5 percent of the gross state product on water infrastructure, compared with 20 percent in 1960

 

Implement water quality standards for pharmaceuticals (medications) and for feminizing chemicals

 

Support policies to implement the Marine Life Protection Act, as well as to end dumping of sewage and pollutants into the ocean

 

Require governments and councils to document water supplies to last 50-100 years before any development is considered

 

Implement strong laws to promote conservation, reclaim polluted water systems, develop water-supply restrictions, ban toxics and pesticide dumping, control corporate farming, and bring the rule of law to trans-state and trans-national operations that pollute water systems

 

Encourage local municipal support to transition local economies away from high-tech industry, confined animal feeding operations, military bases, and national laboratories that withdraw disproportionate amounts of water and pollute public waterways

 

Support state legislation that establishes/enforces standards beyond the Clean Water Act regarding the impacts of mining, quarrying and tunneling in government and industry operations

 

Use an ecosystems/watershed approach to ensure responsible water use. All stakeholders need to participate in the planning. Environmental justice, ecological impact, and depletion of groundwater supplies need to be integrated with the ongoing process for approval of new withdrawals

 

Achieve a truly sustainable water policy in the light of climate change considering, for example, snow packs, aquifer recharge, rising sea levels, and available water supplies

 

Address the special needs of senior and child/infant water users, including price reductions and providing high quality water

 

Oppose the disproportional political influences of the mining, timber, real estate and development industries, while working to support family farms, open space, the protection of water quality in our rivers, conservation of watersheds, and the sustainable use and preservation of healthy forests

 

Integrate land use with water use for urban planning decisions. Political bodies, such as municipal water authorities, need to be more inclusive in the representation of users, hydrologists, environmental health professionals, and environmental advocates in the region and address the issues affecting the regional supply and demand of the resource, as well as water quality. Presently, the interests and concerns of real estate and development interests have a disproportionate voice in new allocations

 

Reduce water allocations to energy producers by establishing viable systems for renewable energy production. Public policy for conservation should include whether or not to make conservation measures mandatory or voluntary and whether to implement pricing that is pro-rated based on amount of use

Uphold the water and land rights established under the Treaty of Guadelupe-Hidalgo and the sovereign claims of Native American bands, tribes, rancherias, reservations, Mission Indians, and non-federally recognized bands and tribes

 

For Water Conservation/Pollution

 

To:

 

Mandate water efficient appliances and fixtures be used in all new construction as well as to promote retrofitting of older buildings

 

Promote native landscaping and other drought resistant/climate-appropriate plants, to reduce the need for irrigation

 

Promote drip irrigation systems, laser leveling, infiltration in recharge zones, and other steps to improve water use efficiency and recharge of aquifers

 

Eliminate storm water pollution of our water resources through education of our citizens, enforcement of our laws, and holistic watershed management. Promote storm water technologies that detain, treat, filtrate, and use storm waters near collection points

 

Promote the appropriate reuse of the "gray" and "black" waters we produce. Use separation techniques, such as dual piping systems where pure water is used for drinking and washing, and reclaimed water is used for lawn watering and similar purposes

 

Mandate pre-treatment of industrial wastes to eliminate the presence of metals, solvents, and other toxins in sewer water. This will reduce the cost of municipal treatment and encourage wastewater reuse

 

Promote passive and natural systems (such as wetlands) for water and wastewater treatment where appropriate

 

Eliminate water subsidies for corporate agribusiness. Higher water prices give agribusiness incentives to conserve

 

Assist community organizations to monitor the use of local resources, as well as to oversee the enforcement of water quality regulations

 

Preserve and restore natural water features (streams, rivers, lakes, bays, wetlands, the ocean, and groundwater aquifers) that are vital to achieve responsible use of water resources

 

Support eliminating pollution of groundwater from leaking underground and aboveground storage tanks and regulating water pollution from septic tanks, for example, the pollution of methyl tertiary butyl ether from underground storage tanks

 

Prevent future sources of pollution of water and the other compartments of the environment (See the Transportation plank to reduce gasoline use)

 

Support protection of California's Marine Protected Areas and endangered species

 

Support mandatory conservation requirements in urban and rural areas to assure aquifer stability and to end aquifer depletions that are faster than their recharge

 

Encourage the maintenance of existing wetlands

 

Prevent the introduction of radionuclides, pharmaceuticals, toxic metals, toxic organics, endocrine disrupters, and perchlorate into surface and ground water via source and

government control and monitoring

 

Increase the utilization of best available technology to treat polluted water

 

Monitor increasing water supplies through desalination technologies for ocean water or for deep aquifer brackish water for impact on oceanic waters and shallow aquifers.

 

Likewise monitor the use of wastewater for conversion to drinking water in light of the inherent risks to the public supply of safe drinking water and because of need to include the appropriate precautions

 

Enforce regulations against dumping of pollutants and develop local wetlands for water purification through regional Water Quality Control Boards

 

---

This plank was amended and replaced at the GPCA General Assembly, June 28, 2015 in San Jose