Restore the Delta has been working since 2006 to restore the environmental quality and livability of Northern California’s Sacramento–San Joaquin Bay Delta. The large and historic estuary provides water for millions while nurturing more than 1500 wild species, including flourishing-for-now peregrine falcons and bald eagles as well as endangered or imperiled salmon, sturgeon, honey bees, and monarchs. The estuary’s life-giving functions are being disrupted by discharges of selenium, algal blooms, and a short-sighted levee system inadequate to protect BIPOC communities of the Delta from projected rainfall and storm surges. The group demonstrates its commitment to protecting the Delta through public comments at local government hearings, public education, and the development of environmental justice initiatives to ensure that they have a direct impact on water management decisions affecting the well-being of their communities, and water sustainability policies for all Californians.
Restore the Delta has 75,000 members who work to attain and then maintain the historical life-giving nature of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Bay Delta. Many people living, fishing, and farming in the Delta are disadvantaged and, therefore less resilient to the flooding of homes and reduced food stability that accompanies climate change. For them in particular, the group is pressing the local government to improve the old levee system, which is inadequately designed to prevent today’s floods. In addition, it has organized a justice initiative that works with Cal EPA to stop industrial pollution and illegal dumping, improve drinking water, and increase air quality near schools. On a larger scale, the group guards the Delta estuary and works to improve the sustainability of its ecosystem. As a source of water and food, the home of hundreds of wild species, and a “nursery of the sea,” this large estuary is a crucial natural resource. Restore the Delta is a partner when it can be, and a watchdog when it must.
For more information:
Contact
MacKenzie Owens, Youth Coordinator
Website
Social Media
Climate Impacts
Drought, Erosion-Subsidence, Flooding, Heat
Environmental Justice Concerns
Air Pollution, Fracking/Oil and Gas Development/Pipelines, Industrial Agriculture/Animal Waste, Sewage/Sewage Treatment
Strategies
Community Farm/Gardens, Community Land Trusts/Land Conservation, Community Organizing and Education, Green Infrastructure, Legal/permit challenges to development, contamination, pollution, etc, Nature-Based Solutions, Policy Reform, Political activism, including protests, petitions, and lobbying, Risk mapping and/or monitoring e.g. flooding/contaminants etc
501c3 Tax Deductible
Yes
Accepting Donations
Yes