Adrianne Davies, Owen McAleer and Gabi Rosenfeld went to the state Capitol to provide witness testimony to a State Assembly committee that is considering reforms to California’s groundwater rules. They are second-year students at the UCLA School of Law, and they helped write the bill in question, AB 779 – a bill that aims to create a more just groundwater adjudication process.
“Environmental justice is both indispensable and should be part of every project or policy proposal. We are very lucky that our project combines major equity and fairness concerns with technical, cutting-edge water policy,” McAleer said.
Their journey started last fall, when Davies, McAleer and Rosenfeld participated in the California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, a hands-on program that gives students a chance to work directly with California legislators to make law. The clinic is taught by faculty and staff of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which is the center of all things environmental at UCLA Law.
“I think all three of us have developed a passion for the bill and really want it to make it through the Legislature,” said Davies, who described feeling nervous but excited. “We’ve been working on the project since last September and went through multiple rounds of research memos and countless stakeholder interviews to develop the final bill proposal.”
Read more at UCLA Newsroom.
Image Source: Julia Stein/UCLA
