Difference between revisions of "Draft GPUS Platform Amendment Water"

Revision as of 14:46, 29 March 2010

Section title: Water

Section subtitle: ???

Our position: ONE SENTENCE.

Water is essential to all forms of life. The Green Party calls for an international declaration that water belongs to the Earth and all of its species. Water is a basic human right! The U. S. Government must lead the way in declaring water a fundamental human right and prevent efforts to privatize, export, and sell for profit a substance that is essential for all life.

We face a worldwide water crisis. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 as much as two-thirds of the world’s population will be living with a serious scarcity of water. Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are moving fast to monopolize water supplies around the world. They argue that privatizing water is the best way to allocate this valuable resource, and they are scheming to have water declared a human need so that it can be commodified and sold on the open market ensuring that the allocation of water will be based on principles of scarcity and profit maximization.

We do not agree. With water sold to the highest bidder, the rich will have plenty while the poor will be left with little but polluted water, and short term profits will preclude any concern for long term sustainability. We must stop this privatization before the infrastructures become so established that it will be impossible to avoid a disaster of epic proportions.

Current expenditures have done nothing to reassure the public regarding the depletion of nonrenewable sources of water (groundwater) and continue to minimize the real costs of research and development to assure adequate supply to regions. We propose a two-tier severance tax for regions that will provide funding for bio-regions while assuring a conservation measure that will reduce water consumptive use. Large water users need to begin to be appropriately charged for withdrawals that lower the water table.

Many high-tech mega-corporations do not contribute their fair share for the cost of the infrastructure and development needed to meet the delivery of the resource to local residents. Private companies, who sell bottled water, do so at the expense of the hydrological systems of the neighboring communities, and as such should be required to report annually to the local communities and be held responsible for such withdrawals to local municipalities. We propose that localities control, or even eliminate, expansion (growth), where such expansion will continue to expand groundwater resource depletion, and wherever water supplies are not meeting demand.

Water is not money, and can’t be printed to satisfy the ambitions of local governments, large landholders, and developers.” Water is a component of the commons. As such, while respecting existing historical water rights, such as those in the West- “first in time, first in right”, we call for water administration that is accountable to stakeholders in a form that is directly responsible to all users. Urban planning decisions need to be based on a plan that integrates land use with water use. Political bodies, such as municipal water authorities, need to reflect more than the interests and concerns of real estate and development interests. We support growth of urban centers in the context of supply from renewable water sources. Depletion of the aquifers and groundwater mining undermines the long-term stability of the hydrology of regions. We oppose private water banking because it prevents consistent bio-regional public planning policies towards water withdrawals by private interests that seek to reallocate the resource where it is most profitable. We support mandatory conservation requirements in urban areas, as needed, to assure the geological stability of aquifers and reliance on renewable sources of water.

Governments are signing away their control over their domestic water supplies by participating in trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and in institutions such as the World Trade Organization. The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. We support the recognition of the principle that all stakeholders should be included in water-planning processes. We oppose allowing major economic or political interests to make decisions that will impact others. We are opposed to the exploitation of another country’s natural resources, whether water, oil or gold without fair and just compensation and review of the extraction process by those impacted.

We support the national sovereignty of all countries and their authority to control the extraction and development process of natural resources within their national boundaries by international corporations.

Green Solutions

1. We need strong national and international laws promote conservation, reclaim polluted water systems, develop water-supply restrictions, ban toxic and pesticide dumping, control or ban corporate farming, and bring the rule of law to transnational corporations that pollute water systems. Mining and depleting the present underground aquifers must be severely restricted. We encourage the use of wetlands, improving the utilization of updated technologies in treating water for pharmaceuticals and preventing the introduction of nucleotides, mixed waste, nuclear waste and perchlorate into the surface and ground water. We encourage local municipal support for transitioning local economies away from high-tech industry, military bases and national laboratories that withdraw disproportionate amounts of water and pollute public waterways. We support the highest federal standards for the public water supply and federal funding support for water quality including for the local implementation of the highest possible standard regarding arsenic levels of surface and groundwater.

2. Greens oppose the privatization of water and demand that the U.S. government pass strong laws with effective enforcement mechanisms to assure a safe and adequate supply of water for its citizens and all life within its borders.

3. New forms of international, bioregional, and community organizations, watershed/ecosystem-based, must be created to monitor and equitably distribute the fresh water necessary for all life on our planet. Decisions about water must be based on an ecosystems approach. (Version 1) These decisions can be reached and considered appropriate when stakeholders themselves participate in the planning. Such planning processes, that are open and inclusive, need to be given the authority of their respective states to establish plans, using the science available, and the demonstrated values held by stakeholders. We support duly-elected regional water authority boards that represent stakeholders and have stakeholders represented on an advisory board. (Version 2) These decisions can be reached and considered appropriate when stakeholders themselves participate in the planning. Such planning processes, that are open and inclusive, need to be given the authority of their respective states to establish plans, using the science available, and the demonstrated values held by stakeholders. We support the establishment of small, local water management associations to give local people control over the administration and management of their water. Water can only be managed in a sustainable fashion at the local level. The creation of such institutions would promote democracy and give people the opportunity to acknowledge and accept the responsibility all of us have to manage our water.

Cycles of intense drought and flooding have demonstrated the need to reorient our priorities in order to achieve a truly sustainable water policy. Over-development and poor planning have resulted in increasing rain-impermeable areas, which compounds the severity and frequency of flooding and pollution in regions downstream. We must begin to understand and apply a holistic watershed approach to managing our water resources. The principle of bioregionalism (living within the means of a region’s natural resources) should give direction to future water policies. We recognize the disproportional political influences of the timber, real estate and development industries, and work to support family farms, open space, and preservation of the old growth forests. We support the concept of economic growth being premised on available renewable water supplies. We support integration of local industry and agriculture that promotes organic and non-GMO agricultural and dairy production. We support the facilitation of these methods through favorable local municipal tax policies and subsidization of investors, growers and dairy farmers support. We uphold the water and land rights established under the Treaty of Guadelupe-Hidalgo and the sovereign claims of Native American nations, pueblos and tribes, as paramount to all other rights.

4. Conservation must be an essential part of any water policy. Water conservation also reduces energy consumption and pollution. Conservation needs to be utilized to reduce regional water consumptive use and not to redirect “saved” water for “new” users. The question of determining the public policy for conservation should include whether or not to make conservation measures mandatory, or voluntary and how revenues can be raised, through such measures as water severance taxes that are pro-rated based on amount of use to pay for water management infrastructure improvements.

To conserve water, the Green Party proposes to:

Mandate water efficient appliances and fixtures be used in all new construction, and promote retrofitting of older buildings.

Promote native landscaping and other drought resistant/ climate-appropriate plants, in order to reduce the need for irrigation.

Promote drip irrigation systems where irrigation is necessary.

Eliminate storm water pollution of our water resources through education of our citizens, enforcement of our laws, and holistic watershed management. Promote storm water technologies that detain, treat, filtrate, and use storm waters near where it is collected.

Promote the appropriate reuse of the “gray” and “black” waters we produce. Use separation techniques, such as dual piping systems where pure water is used for drinking and washing, and reclaimed water is used for lawn watering and similar purposes.

Mandate pre-treatment of industrial wastes to eliminate the presence of metals, solvents, and other toxins in sewer water. This would reduce the cost of municipal treatment and encourage wastewater reuse.

Promote passive and natural systems, such as wetlands, for water and wastewater treatment where appropriate.

Eliminate water subsidies for corporate agribusiness. Higher water prices give agribusiness incentives to conserve.

Assist community organizations to monitor the use of local resources, and to oversee the enforcement of water quality regulations.

Preserve and restore the nation’s natural water features (streams, rivers, lakes, bays, wetlands and groundwater aquifers) that are vital to achieving sustainable use of water resources.

5. Chemicals used in the fluoridation of America’s public drinking water supplies are toxic waste by-products. The majority of these toxic wastes come from the phosphate fertilizer industry. Fluoride accumulates in the human body through ingestion and inhalation. A growing body of research suggests that fluoride may be associated with arthritis, hip fractures, bone cancer, kidney damage, infertility, and brain disorders. For these reasons, the Green Party opposes the fluoridation of drinking water.

6. The EPA recognizes factory farms as sources of water pollution under its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program. The Green Party proposes to: • Mandate treatment of toxic wastes from existing factory farms. • Impose a moratorium on any new factory farms.

FROM SEPT 2009 WATER PAPER FORM THE GPUS ECOACTION COMMITTEE

The Green Party seeks to safeguard the wellbeing of future generations and restore ecological systems. Clean and available water is a critical priority which government can and must secure for all people. The threats to our waters are many, from depleted aquifers, to the pollution of surface waters, to the degradation of oceanic waters that have been treated as international waste dumps. There is no time, and no water, to waste

Greens and Green Party Organizations should:

Work together with our neighbors in making decisions on water issues that recognize the stake that future generations have in those decisions; (Future Focus)

Recognize our dependence on a finite supply of fresh water, the importance of oceanic waters and the aquatic life that provide oxygen and food for the planet; and to respect the integrity of ecosystems and the natural patterns of water; (Ecological Wisdom)

Support the rights of indigenous peoples and other nations to maintain clean, affordable water resources; (Personal and Global Responsibility, Social Justice)

Assure that elected officials who make decisions on water use, pricing and quality represent the community of varied users, water specialists and the environment; (Grassroots Democracy)

Acknowledge the diversity of plant and animal life dependent on long-enduring ecosystems and to recognize the necessity of water systems to all life; (Respect for Diversity)

Prevent the usurpation of public rights through privatization of the water resource by multi-national corporations; (Decentralization)

Prioritize affordable drinking water over industrial uses, recognizing that access to water is basic human right; and to consider the impact of all water policy decisions on poor people, impoverished neighborhoods, rural communities and family farmers; (Social Justice)

Prioritize affordable drinking water over industrial uses, recognizing that access to water is a basic human right; and to consider the impact of all water policy decisions on poor people, impoverished neighborhoods, rural communities and family farmers; (Social Justice)

Support local municipal growth policies in the context of existing water supplies, and to maintain a working relationship between urban economic development and local rural agriculture. (Community-based Economics and Economic Justice)