Defend California’s Human Right to Water!

California is running out of water fast. While corporate interests guzzle up our precious, finite water resources, more than 1 million Californians lack access to safe drinking water.

Our elected leaders have failed to hold corporate interests accountable for their egregious water abuses. We need Governor Newsom to step up to the challenge and use his broad executive authority to rebalance California’s water allocation.

Add your name to tell Governor Newsom to put people over corporate profits and protect the human right to water NOW.

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Defend California’s Human Right to Water!

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Dear Governor Newsom,

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California is mired in a climate-change-fueled drought, leading to water shortages that pose a direct threat to the natural environment and California residents. These water shortages are also being driven by large corporate interests who profit while poisoning our environment.

We urge you to use your executive authority to take bold action to rein in these interests and balance water use and access in the state.

For much of the past 20 years, California has been in a drought, and with fossil fuel-driven climate change accelerating, droughts are going to get longer and temperatures will continue to get hotter. This is the new normal. At the same time, some of the industries most responsible for driving climate change continue to use vast quantities of water and pollute fresh water that could be used for people’s basic needs or could remain in the environment.

The devastating diversion of water means that there is not enough water to fulfill the human right to water or for the environment. In 2012, Governor Brown signed legislation establishing a human right to water in California and as governor, you have broad executive authority to address the drought and climate emergency.

We call on you to do the following:

(1) Declare a state of emergency for the entire state and use your executive authority to stop new oil and gas operations, factory farms, and planting of almonds and alfalfa in the Western San Joaquin valley. Reject public subsidies for water projects that support privatized ocean desalination projects and the wasteful water practices of Big Ag.

(2) Improve transparency and water management practices to confirm with the public trust doctrine and human right to water, while actively consulting with and respecting the water rights of Indigenous communities in the spirit of AB 52.

(3) Accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act groundwater sustainability plans, while ensuring the groundwater agencies and Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) reflect the needs of all stakeholders, centering vulnerable communities and small and rural water systems as codified in California law. The human right to water must be discussed in GSPs.

(4) Declare mandatory conservation measures across the state, limiting water consumption to 55 gallons per person per day to get closer to the milestone set by AB 1668.

We call on you to use your authority to help rebalance California’s water allocation, for the benefit of Californians and the environment.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]