Achieving Equity in Stormwater Investments in the Safe, Clean Water Program in Los Angeles County, California

Achieving Equity in Stormwater Investments in the Safe, Clean Water Program in Los Angeles County, CaliforniaAbstractThe Equity in Stormwater Investments: Measuring Community Engagement and Disadvantaged Community Benefits for Equitable Impact in the Safe, Clean Water Program white paper, developed for the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, provides examples and makes recommendations for multi-benefit stormwater management programs seeking to support community-led planning in marginalized and low-income communities. The Safe, Clean Water Program (Program, or SCWP) is representative of a shift that reveals how voters are prepared to invest in multibenefit improvements that prioritize equity. Embedded at the core of the Program is a recognition of past environmental injustices, and represented throughout its policies is a deliberate commitment to achieving equitable outcomes. Created in 2018 by a voter-approved measure, the SCWP holds environmental water quality regulatory compliance at its center yet requires that these investments provide multiple additional benefits including reliable water supplies, urban greening, climate adaptation, living-wage work, and meaningful careers, among countless other potential benefits. The Program has fourteen goals described in the two authorizing Flood Control District Code sections. To best navigate the complex interdependency of many of these goals and the lack of industry-standard practices or metrics for certain types of benefits, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District is evolving the program through ongoing adaptive management with efforts like the Metrics & Monitoring Study. The results are intended to inform both the strategic planning and tracking of equitable multi-benefit investments. This presentation will convey how the Los Angeles Flood Control District commissioned work by social scientists, planners, and engagement specialists at University of California Los Angeles and Stantec to directly engage and listen to community organizers, representatives, and the public. The resulting evaluation supports ongoing adaptive management of the Safe, Clean Water Program, which invests approximately $280M per year in programs and projects that achieve water quality improvements, increases in water supply reliability, and enhanced communities. Attendees to the presentation will learn about the Safe, Clean Water Program, its adaptive management efforts including the Metrics & Monitoring Study, the details of the Equity in Stormwater Investments white paper, and the impact it has had on the program. Multi-benefit stormwater investments can be aligned with community-stated needs and preferences through a process of listening, engagement, and education. Community members are experts about their community so making programmatic investments in listening to community and respecting that valuable expertise is necessary to the outcomes. Least-cost pathways to stormwater compliance rarely receive community support. Community-supported multi-benefit stormwater investments are possible when community voice is listened to, and projects are designed to be responsive to the holistic strengths and needs known well by the community itself. The Equity in Stormwater Investments white paper is a completed effort and is a component of the Metrics & Monitoring Study that is not complete at the time of submittal but will be concluded at the time of the conference. The Safe, Clean Water Program is in its fifth program year, and will be ongoing. Regardless of economic capacity, all people and all communities have pride, hope, things they would sustain, and things they would change. Sustainably and inclusively seeking and centering community voice to achieve equitable investments that overcome historic injustices is both humane and a key resilience strategy, and a core principle and goal of the Safe, Clean Water Program.This paper was presented at the WEF Collection Systems and Stormwater Conference, April 9-12, 2024.SpeakerAntos, MikePresentation time13:30:0016:45:00Session time13:30:0016:45:00SessionWorkforce Development, Recruitment, and Community CollaborationSession number22Session locationConnecticut Convention Center, Hartford, ConnecticutTopicCombined Sewer Overflow, Community Engagement, Consent Orders, Cultural Change, Environmental Injustice, Environmental, Social, and governance, Equity, Flooding, Green Infrastructure, Public Education/Information/Communication, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability And Social Responsibility, Triple Bottom Line Plus, Wet Weather, Workforce Issues / Professional DevelopmentTopicCombined Sewer Overflow, Community Engagement, Consent Orders, Cultural Change, Environmental Injustice, Environmental, Social, and governance, Equity, Flooding, Green Infrastructure, Public Education/Information/Communication, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability And Social Responsibility, Triple Bottom Line Plus, Wet Weather, Workforce Issues / Professional DevelopmentAuthor(s)Antos, MikeAuthor(s)M. Antos1, J. Christensen2, P. Roquemore2, H. Rasul1, E. Garcia2, G. Pierce2Author affiliation(s)Stantec 1; UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability 2; UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, 2Stantec, 1UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, 2UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, 2SourceProceedings of the Water Environment FederationDocument typeConference PaperPublisherWater Environment FederationPrint publication date Apr 2024DOI10.2175/193864718825159389Volume / Issue Content sourceCollection Systems and Stormwater ConferenceCopyright2024Word count17