West Coast Water Justice
19 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsA podcast about grassroots water justice in the Western United States. We interview experts about their local watersheds and how the health of our water impacts every facet of our lives and future generations.
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Episodes
Empty Wells, Poisoned Aquifers and Radioactive Crops: Big Oil in CA
October 24, 2023 11:00 - 49 minutes - 33.8 MBWe interview Jesus Alonso and Ngodoo Atume from Clean Water Action in California. Ngodoo is a Senior Water Policy Analyst and Jesus serves as Clean Water Action’s Kern County Gas and Oil Organizer. We learn about California’s Central Valley communities that do not have safe drinking water, some that have to pay for contaminated water, and others whose wells have been poisoned or sucked dry. Jesus shares stories from his community, in Kern County, we hear about what it's like living and atten...
Big Oil and Fracking Part 2: Fox in The Hen House
June 27, 2023 09:00 - 46 minutes - 32.1 MBThis is part 2 of a 2-part interview with Food and Water Watch (FWW) and the second in our Fossil Fuels Series. In this episode, we interview (FWW) National Policy Director, Jim Walsh, and Tomás Morales Rebecchi, California's Central Coast Organizing Manager. They continue to discuss current issues with the oil and gas industry and its impacts on our clean water and environment. We learn more about the fossil fuel industry's practices that pollute our water, food, and communities and the in...
Big Oil, Fracking, and the Hydrogen Scam (part 1)
April 25, 2023 09:00 - 44 minutes - 30.5 MBThis is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Food and Water Watch (FWW) and the first in our Fossil Fuels Series. In this episode, we interview (FWW) National Policy Director, Jim Walsh, and Tomás Morales Rebecchi, California's Central Coast Organizing Manager, they catch us up to speed on the oil and gas industry and its impact on our clean water and environment. We also learn about the future of fossil fuels and the false hope of hydrogen and what's at stake. Food and Water Watch fights f...
Big Oil, Fracking, and the Hydrogen Scam Part 1
April 25, 2023 09:00 - 44 minutes - 30.5 MBThis is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Food and Water Watch (FWW) and the first in our Fossil Fuels Series. In this episode, we interview (FWW) National Policy Director, Jim Walsh, and Tomás Morales Rebecchi, California's Central Coast Organizing Manager, they catch us up to speed on the oil and gas industry and its impact on our clean water and environment. We also learn about the future of fossil fuels and the false hope of hydrogen and what's at stake. Food and Water Watch fights f...
Clean Water for California
February 28, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBIn this episode, we interview Laurel Firestone, a member of the State Water Resources Control Board. We learn about the organization and its work to ensure that every person in the state has a right to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water. We discuss how far we still have to go to meet California's Human Right to Water. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Laurel Firestone to the State Water Resources Control Board in February 2019. Prior to joining the Board, Laurel co-founded and co-dir...
Native Youth Rising
November 16, 2022 04:00 - 54 minutes - 37.4 MBIn this episode, we interview Danielle Frank, a Hoopa Valley Tribal Member, activist, and youth coordinator with Save California Salmon. Danielle shares her story of growing up in Hoopa Valley along the banks of the Trinity River near its confluence with the Klamath River. We hear how speaking up for her beliefs, community, and way of life helped her find her voice and become an empowered youth leader and public speaker. At nineteen years of age, some of her accomplishments include leading N...
Protecting California's Water Before It Runs Out
October 11, 2022 09:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBIn this episode, we follow up with Clifford Lee, retired Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice. We dive deeper into water policy and hear about critical changes needed to protect our most valuable resource: water! We are faced with a 27-year delay in the adoption of new scientific recommendations and species protections for the SF Bay Delta, the lifeblood of our state. While at the same time critical aquifers across the state are being over-pumped and going dry. ...
Updating California Water Policy for Climate Change
June 21, 2022 09:00 - 43 minutes - 29.8 MBCurrently, California is on track to lose most if not all native fish species within this century if we don't adapt to climate change. We talk with Clifford Lee; retired deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice who served the state for 40 years. Clifford shares his expertise and recommendations for updating California's water policy to mitigate the effects of climate change. He explains some of the policies that got us here and the nuts and bolts of the agencies ...
Klamath Dam Removal, a Confluence of Indigenous and Western Sciences
April 09, 2022 09:00 - 53 minutes - 37.1 MBKeith Parker, Senior Fisheries Biologist for the Yurok Tribe explains some of the basics that make up a healthy fishery and river ecosystem. We learn about the different salmon runs and basic salmon genetics. He shares his background in Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science and how together they inform the Klamath Dam Removal process. Keith makes it clear that the loss of these fish and traditional foods are as much a social justice issue as a biological issue. To lose specie...
Klamath Dam Removal, a Confluence of Indigenous and Western Sciences
April 09, 2022 09:00 - 53 minutes - 37.1 MBKeith Parker, Senior Fisheries Biologist for the Yurok Tribe explains some of the basics that make up a healthy fishery and river ecosystem. We learn about the different salmon runs and basic salmon genetics. He shares his background in Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science and how together they inform the Klamath Dam Removal process. Keith makes it clear that the loss of these fish and traditional foods are as much a social justice issue as a biological issue. To lose specie...
California’s Inequitable Water Rights System and Water Projects
March 08, 2022 10:00 - 53 minutes - 36.7 MBIn this episode, we interview Doug Obegi, Senior Attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Doug shares his expertise about the history of our archaic and inequitable water rights system and how protections for fish and wildlife, and the tribes, fishing jobs, and communities that depend on these environmental protections, are constantly under threat from industrial agriculture and large corporations. He explains how California's water rights and diversions are over-allocated and u...
From the Bay to the Winnemem Waywayket (McCloud River)
February 01, 2022 10:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBWe follow up with hereditary Chief Caleen Sisk about the expansive watershed of the Sacramento River from the headwaters of the Winnemem Waywayket all the way to the Bay-Delta and the Pacific Ocean. We learn about the history of this once epic fishery and what it will take to bring the Salmon back home over the Shasta rim dam, and how New Zealand can help. The management of California's Bay Delta and its tributaries is complicated. The Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds and Delta h...
Following the Water: How Dams and Water Shape Tribal Recognition in California
January 18, 2022 10:00 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MBIn this episode, we hear from hereditary Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. Their tribal homelands encompass the Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud River) and much of the land now flooded by the Shasta Reservoir, California's largest. The Winnemum Wintu's resistance story exemplifies many of the inequities in California's land and water rights. Get Involved Winnemem Wintu Tribe Run 4 Salmon Petition to help the McCloud River Relevant news articles Save California Salmon Peti...
Water Infrastructure and Colonization in California
December 21, 2021 10:00 - 43 minutes - 30.2 MBDr. Beth Rose Middleton Manning is a Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis. In this episode, we learn about water rights in California and how Native lands and communities have been treated as sacrifice zones for national priorities of irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric development. Beth Rose shares her research on the North Fork of the Feather River and California’s State Water Project, with a focus on Indigenous resistance and activism. We discuss how Indigenous his...
Going Beyond Land Acknowledgments
November 23, 2021 10:00 - 24 minutes - 16.8 MBA call to action from Morning Star Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of Pit River Tribe. This episode is dedicated to Native American Heritage Month and focuses on Native resistance, justice, and action in California. Join Save California Salmon (SCS) with Native Communities in the fight for our environment and engage in public comments on important salmon, water, and land issues. There are opportunities to speak up about the proposed Sites Reservoir, the Delta Tunnel, numerous California d...
Fishermen Facts Behind Klamath Dam Removal
November 12, 2021 10:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBWe talk with Glen Spain, the North West Regional Director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). Glen shares his experience over the last 40 years working with the Klamath Basin. We hear about how the community has come together to address critical concerns from farmers, landowners and cities, and how they've found a compromise in order to move forward. He shares data collected over half a century that overwhelmingly indicates that dam removal is the best opti...
Connecting Indigenous Knowledge, Policy and Infrastructure
October 26, 2021 09:00 - 31 minutes - 22 MBBrook Thompson (She/Her) is a Yurok and Karuk Native from Northern California. Growing up she lived and fished on the same land that her ancestors have been on for over 12,000 years. Brook fights for water and Native American rights through speaking to groups and frontline activism. She has been an intern for the City of Portland’s BES and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in D.C. and the CA Water Resource Control Board. In 2017 Brook was awarded the American Indian Graduate Center’s Un...
Envisioning Justice on the Klamath River
October 11, 2021 09:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBIn this episode, we interview Dr. Cutcha Rising Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok, enrolled Hoopa Valley Tribe) Department Chair and Associate Professor of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University. Cutcha shares her unique perspective growing up in the Trinity and Klamath River Basin. Her personal stories inspire us to follow the example of the Hupa, Karuk, and Yurok Tribes and remind us that despite the colonizing forces of the United States and Gold Rush era, these tribes are still her...
Save California Salmon
September 25, 2021 21:00 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBThe Klamath River is slated to be the largest dam removal project in the history of the United States. Removing these dams will open up over 400 miles of salmon, trout, and eel habitat. Find out what's at stake and what it takes to protect a watershed. In this episode, we interview Regina Chichizola (she/her), Co-director of Save California Salmon. She shares some of their 20-year history of advocating for dam removal with communities on the Klamath River in Northern California and Southeas...