Green Party Platform:
Water
Water is essential to all forms of life. The many roles water performs in the natural world deserve our respect and protection. A clean, safe supply of drinking water is of paramount concern to every California resident. Our existing surface and groundwater must be protected from pollution by agricultural and industrial wastes as well as runoff from our homes and roadways.
Cycles of intense drought and flooding have demonstrated the need to reorient our priorities in order to achieve a truly sustainable water policy. Over-development and poor planning have resulted in increasing rain-impermeable areas, which then compound the severity and frequency of flooding and pollution in regions downstream. We must begin to understand and apply a holistic "watershed approach" to managing our state's water resources. The principle of bioregionalism--living within the means of a region's natural resources--should give direction to future water policies.
Conservation (reduce, reuse, recycle) must be an essential part of any water policy. Water conservation also reduces energy consumption and pollution.
The Green Party proposes:
- Mandate water efficient appliances and fixtures be used in all new construction, and promote retrofitting of older buildings.
- Promote native landscaping and other drought resistant/ climate-appropriate plants, in order to reduce the need for irrigation. Where irrigation is necessary, promote drip irrigation systems.
- Eliminate storm water pollution of our water resources through education of our citizens, enforcement of our laws and holistic watershed management. Promote storm water technologies that detain, treat, filtrate and use storm waters near where it is collected.
- Promote the appropriate reuse of the "gray" and "black" waters we produce. Use separation techniques such as dual piping systems where pure water is used for drinking and washing, and reclaimed water is used for lawn watering and similar purposes.
- Mandate pre-treatment of industrial wastes to eliminate the presence of metals, solvents and other toxins in sewer water. This would reduce the cost of municipal treatment and encourage wastewater reuse.
- Promote passive and natural systems (such as wetlands) for water and wastewater treatment, where appropriate.
- Eliminate water subsidies for corporate agribusiness. Higher water prices give agribusiness incentives to conserve.
- Assist community organizations to monitor the use of local resources, and to oversee the enforcement of water quality regulations.
- Preserve and restore the state's natural water features--California's streams, rivers, lakes, bays, wetlands and groundwater aquifers--which are vital to achieving sustainable use of state water resources.