Recent Awards

Iris Stewart-Frey with the Environmental Studies and Sciences Department has received a $24,000 subaward from the Windward Foundation. These funds will support her project "A Data-drive Approach to Increasing Access to Safe Water in Central Valley's Nitrate Risk Zones".

This project will target the more than 22 Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) and Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities (DUCs) within the Modesto-Turlock Management Zone whose residents rely on private domestic wells or small water systems to understand and remove barriers to accessing safe drinking water supplies under nitrate pollution and drought. To this end, the California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. Community Equity Initiative (CRLA), in collaboration with Professor Iris Stewart-Frey from Santa Clara University will conduct resident surveys to evaluate the efficacy of early outreach and implementation efforts of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's (CVWB) Nitrate Control Program's (NCP), a Central Valley-wide water quality regulatory program aimed to address widespread nitrate contamination in the region's groundwater. Further, the resident surveys and focus groups will help illuminate social and structural barriers to accessing safe drinking water supplies under nitrate pollution and drought with concurrent educational information on alternatives. Results will be analyzed and visualized in publications to support implementing the human right to water in California. We will build capacity within the organization for (a) community-based data collection, (b) spatial data analysis and visualization, and (c) a locally-relevant environmental justice data repository. This project will benefit DUC residents in the Modesto-Turlock Management Zone and - longer term - the wider Central Valley that rely on contaminated groundwater for their drinking water by providing an independent outcomes report with quantifiable data to inform decision-makers and improve the NCP and other groundwater policies impacting safe drinking water access. Simultaneously, this project will increase access to well water quality information, safe water, and resources through community education and outreach.