Leadership Grant

Cumulative Impacts and Sustainable Solutions for Central Valley Water, Year 1

$40,000 awarded to Community Water Center in

Community Water Center (CWC) has hired Carolina Balazs as Research Scientist and Scientific Advisor.  Carolina will add scientific capacity to this grassroots advocacy organization to help inform its policy and planning efforts as it works to ensure that communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley have access to safe, clean, affordable drinking water.  The San Joaquin Valley is one of the country’s richest agricultural regions, yet it also has some of the most contaminated drinking water in the country.  Economically disadvantaged agricultural communities are disproportionately affected by the poor drinking water quality.  Carolina will generate and analyze scientific data and provide information for CWC’s activities and policy campaigns.  Her employment at CWC builds on years of dissertation research on Central Valley water issues, during which she worked closely with CWC.