Nina Foushee

Overview of your organization’s  involvement with sustainable groundwater management issues?

How did you get involved with sustainable groundwater management issues?

How did you get involved with sustainable groundwater management issues?

Adam Livingston is the Director of Planning and Policy at the Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT). SRT is part of the Groundwater Collaborative, a group of non-governmental organizations, tribes and individuals that share information and resources to aid NGO participation in the development and implementation of groundwater sustainability plans around the state. Clean Water Action's Communication's Manager, Nina Foushee, interviewed Adam about the role of land trusts in sustainable groundwater management. 

Earlier this month, Honolulu BBQ, a ReThink Disposable certified business, won a StopWaste Business Efficiency Award for Excellence in Disposable Foodware Reduction.  Honolulu BBQ’s journey to ReThink Disposable certification and county-wide recognition is an inspiration. 

On May 7th, Clean Water Action California hosted our first Environmental Champions award dinner. We had the pleasure of honoring former chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, Felicia Marcus, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, and Senator Bill Monning. 

The evenings remarks cohered around the important work Clean Water Action is able to undertake in partnership with environmental champions in government. Andria Ventura, Clean Water Action’s Toxics Program Manager, and Jennifer Clary, our Water Program Manager, introduced the evening’s honorees. 

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 

Imagine over 600,000 acres of wilderness.  You are surrounded by blue sky, mountains, rock formations and a cornucopia of plants including creosote, palo verde, cacti, and ocotillo. As you walk around, you have the opportunity to see bighorn sheep, mountain lions, kit foxes, mule deer, coyotes, greater roadrunners, golden eagles, black-tailed jackrabbits, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, quail, prairie falcons, desert iguanas, chuckwallas, and red diamond rattlesnakes.

The United States contains 5% of the world’s population, yet consumes about a quarter of the planet’s resources. Much of this consumption stems from our “throw away” lifestyle, whereby many products are used once and then thrown away. This started in the 1950s, when the plastics and chemical industries sold the American public on the convenience of single-use disposable items. In 2011, the average American produced 4.4 pounds of household garbage per day, twice as much as in 1960.

Candice Meneghin serves on the board of the Fillmore and Piru Basins (FPB) Groundwater Sustainability Agency as an environmental representative for the Santa Clara River Environmental Groundwater Committee. She also serves on the board of a local nonprofit, Friends of the Santa Clara River, which both fills the Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) seat as the environmental lead for the committee on the Fillmore and Piru Basins GSA, and fills the environmental representative seat on the Mound Basin GSA on the low Santa Clara River.