Clean water is the foundation for healthy & prosperous communities. While our nation has made significant progress since the 1970’s in cleaning up many of our rivers, bays and other vital water resources, we still face significant water quality and quantity challenges. Drinking water sources are threatened by pollution and overconsumption, and some of these threats are made worse by climate change.
Visit South Platte River Park in Littleton, Colorado (a suburb a few miles south of Denver) on a summer weekend and you’ll likely see dozens of people paddling, wading, fishing, or tubing on the river. A few weeks ago I was one of those tubers enjoying higher than normal flows on the South Platte, thanks to the high snowpack this past winter. As we floated on riffles and gentle rapids, families of ducks grazed at the river’s edge and trout swam beneath us. Occasionally we got caught on someone’s fishing line or bumped tubes in crowded sections of the river.
Angelina Cook is an environmental activist based in Siskiyou county. She advocates for including the City of Weed in the Shasta Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan and working to protect the city’s groundwater from expanded pumping by private bottling companies. Clean Water Action's communications manager interviewed Angelina about her involvement in local water politics.
What basin/basins are you currently working in/involved with?
Shasta Valley Groundwater Basin
On April 10th, Trump issued an Executive Order that limits states’ ability to protect their own water resources from harmful pipelines and other dirty energy projects.