LOS ANGELES FUNDING AREA
Proposition 1
In 2014, voters approved Proposition 1, “The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act”, to meet the state’s long-term water needs. Prop 1 funds are managed by the California Department of Water Resources.
- 10% of Prop 1 funds are dedicated to WaterTalks outreach and planning efforts.
- $98M will go to projects in LA Funding Area through Prop 1 funding.
WaterTalks LA Funding Area Statistics
Outreach and Education Provided:
- 22 Community-based organizations involved in engagement
- 12 Tribal Allyship workshops with 413 participants total
- 25 education modules created, taking representatives from 12 community-based organizations through an in-depth water education program, providing user guides for an online database and project applications, distributing the TAPPED tool to WCVC representatives, providing community engagement best practices for agencies and electeds, IRWM participation, and more, engaging 240 participants total.
- 80 community meetings to introduce the WaterTalks program and gain initial feedback on water-related issues (pre Needs Assessment)
- 35 follow up meetings to affirm the Needs Assessment results, including supplemental events with CAUSE to collect needs and project ideas
Needs Assessment:
- 4,650 Community and Tribal surveys collected
- 48 Institutional interviews
- 33 Community listening sessions
- 251,000 Total people reached (phone banking, social media and text blasts, canvassing food banks and COVID vaccination clinics, marketing events, newspaper mailings and E-blast)
- 139 Communities served
- $9.3M awarded in initial DACTI funding, and another $5M for projects through the Urban Multi-benefit Drought Relief Program and additional funds awarded through Proposition 1 IRWM Funding, Round 2.
Top 3 Water-Related Concerns Within Communities
GLAC
- Drinking Water Quality
- Trash and Industrial Contamination
- More Shade Tree
USCR
- Drinking Water Quality
- Water Available for FIre & Agriculture
- High Cost of Water
Ventura
- Drinking Water Quality
- High Cost of Water
- Trash and Industrial Contamination
Innovative Tools Created
New models of community-based water infrastructure project design:
In the GLAC and USCR Regions, data from the Needs Assessment was reviewed by a team of engineers, community organizers, tribal representatives, and program designers to brainstorm projects that would address the needs identified. These were developed into simple sketches and shared with the broad coalition of community organizations, who discussed the projects, suggested revisions and ultimately prioritized projects to move forward for technical assistance. This approach placed community needs at the forefront of project and program design.
In the WCVC region a WaterTalks committee was formed, comprised of representatives from local water agencies, municipalities, non-governmental entities and members of underserved communities. Upon reviewing the results of the Needs Assessments, committee members submitted project ideas during a formal RFP process. The consultant teams were available to provide assistance in developing project concepts as needed. This assistance helped projects proponents develop an application for a variety of funding sources, including the Prop.1 IRWM Implementation Grant, or for further technical assistance and/or project funding available in the Prop. 1 DACI grant.
Consensus process forged between multiple IRWM Regions:
In the past, the 3 IRWM regions faced challenges agreeing on an equitable distribution of IRWM Implementation Grant funds and resulted in competing with one another for funds, with unsatisfactory results. In 2018, the WaterTalks Task Force developed a simple allocation system that began with a percentage split of funds as a non-binding starting place (50% GLAC, 25% USCR, and 25% WCVC), and then worked through proposals from consultants to refine the numbers. Regional agencies were then able to adopt this approach in 2022 for allocation of project funds from Prop 1 Round 2 IRWM , creating a means to drive more funds to “disadvantaged communities” than was seen historically.
Data Hub:
Users can search for, view, and download documents, data, map layers, and access StoryMaps that support the implementation of WaterTalks in the Los Angeles-Ventura Funding Area. Through the hub, the public and interested parties have 24-hour access free-of-charge to geospatial data available in Esri shapefile, KML, CSV, and GeoJSON formats, as well as other data products. Visit the Data Hub.
TAPPED:
The decision support tool allows for project data exploration, project ranking, and project evaluation by combining project description data, evaluation criteria, and reference data. It was developed for WaterTalks by a team led by the CSU Water Resources and Policy Initiative, and used in making funding decisions for projects recommended for Proposition 1 Round 2 IRWM Funding in 2022. It can be adapted for future use in numerous ways around project-based prioritization.
LA Funding Area DACIP Strengths & Needs Assessment Executive Summary
This Executive Summary provides a quick glance at key information contained in the Greater Los Angeles County, Upper Santa Clara River, and Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County Needs Assessment reports.
View the Los Angeles – Ventura Funding Area DACIP Strengths & Needs Assessment Executive Summary
WaterTalks Final Report
Funding for the Watertalks program came to a close at the end of 2023. A Final Report was prepared to summarize and encapsulate the program’s breadth of accomplishments, documents and data created during its 5 year operation.
View the Final Report. (Link coming soon!)
View the Executive Summary. (Link coming soon!)
Partners
NGO Partners:
- Active San Gabriel Valley
- API Forward Movement
- Cal Rural Water Association
- Center for Geospatial Science and Technology
- Central Coastal Alliance United for A Sustainable Economy (CAUSE)
- Communities for a Better Environment
- Council of Mexican Federations
- Council for Watershed Health
- CSUSB Water Resources Institute (WRI)
- Day One
- East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
- Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians
- Friends of the Santa Clara River
- Koreatown Youth and Community Center
- Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust
- Mujeres de la Tierra
- PlaceWorks
- Promesa Boyle Heights
- Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
- Santa Clara River Conservancy
- Social Eco Education
- Social Justice Learning Institute
- Stantec
- Tataviam Land Conservancy
- Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Land Conservancy
- TreePeople
- Trust South LA
- Ultimate Restoration Unlimited
- Watts Clean Air and Energy Committee
Government Partners:
- Department of Water Resources
- Los Angeles County Flood Control District
- West Basin Municipal Water District
- City of Santa Clarita
- Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency
- Watersheds Coalition of Ventura County
- Ventura County Department of Public Works
Projects
25 Projects Identified for Technical Assistance and the Community Served:
- Garden Acres Multilingual Education Program (Nyeland Acres)
- Fire Flow Infrastructure Improvement (Casitas Springs)
- Stormwater Capture and Groundwater Recharge (El Rio)
- Groundwater Recharge (Saticoy)
- Dual Language Workshops (Santa Paula, Fillmore)
- Income Survey (Meiners Oaks)
- GeoTribe – CSUSB – STEM Summer Youth Program (Tribal)
- Rural Water Supply Reliability Program (Agua Dulce)
- Acton Flooding Multi-benefit Solution (Acton)
- Tataviam Land Conservancy Project (Tribal)
- Septic Evaluation and Repair Support Program (Agua Dulce)
- Regional Tap Water Quality Testing Program (Multiple areas)
- Water System Partnerships (Multiple areas)
- Regional Tap Water Quality Testing Program (Multiple areas)
- Engaging Tribal Expertise (Tribal)
- Re-riting Water History – Tribal-led Design Guide (Tribal)
- Human Relationship to Water: Spaces for Cultural Practices (Tribal)
- Sleepy Lagoon at Maywood Riverfront Park (Maywood)
- South Gate Water Main Replacement Project (South Gate)
- Hygiene & Water Stations (Multiple areas)
- Healthy Pocket Parks and Schools: 52nd St ES (South Los Angeles)
- Sacred Waters Education Demonstration Sites (Inglewood)
- Industrial Greening – Landowner Outreach (Boyle Heights)
- Green Complete Streets Knowledge Exchange (San Gabriel Valley)
- Stream Healing: Revitalizing our Rivers (Tribal)
Total assigned funding: $2,348,000
12 Projects Awarded Implementation Funding and the Communities Benefiting:
- Nyeland Acres MWC 8-inch Mainline Replacement (Oxnard)
- Garden Acres MWC Backup Well – Land Acquisition, Design, and Construction Oxnard)
- Well 3 Nitrate Removal Treatment System (San Fernando)
- Water lnterties and Emergency Power Supplies (Altadena)
- Morada Well Rehabilitation Project (Baldwin Park)
- Well 4A Rehabilitation Project (Pico)
- Arundo Mapping and Priority Removal (Fillmore/Santa Paula)
- Rural Water Supply Reliability (Agua Dulce)
- Healthy Pocket Parks & Schools: 52nd St Elementary School (Los Angeles)
- Via Princessa Park (Canyon Country)
- South Gate Water Main Replacement Project (South Gate)
Total awarded: $10,902,000
