California’s Inequitable Water Rights System and Water Projects

In 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 under-reported, and discusses how the mismanagement of our most precious resource has made some people billionaires while over 1 million Californians lack access to clean drinking water. We discuss how to protect California's rivers and fisheries from excessive water diversions, and Doug makes it clear that we all need to participate in public comment periods, reach out to our representatives and the State Water Board because it really does make a difference.

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