Although California has set high standards for controlling some chemicals in water, actual enforcement and removal of contaminants is generally slow, and frequently stymied by high treatment costs and antiquated water infrastructure.
Meanwhile, polluters rarely have to answer for the health impacts their actions may have caused. Low-income communities of color are particularly hard hit, due to decades of environmental racism.
Researchers at the University of Southern California and Occidental College have come up with a roadmap for transitioning the state to a low-carbon economy while improving the lives of the state’s most marginalized people.
L.A.’s Green New Deal would strive to dramatically reduce environmental pollution in some of the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods, and stimulate the creation of green jobs and infrastructure through a $100 million, 10-year program.