How a Community-Academic-Government Partnership for Drinking Water Justice Strengthens the Rigor, Relevance, Reach, and Reflexivity of Science

This practice brief presents lessons learned through the Water Equity Science Shop (WESS), a community-academic-government partnership seeking to address drinking water challenges in California through community-engaged research and knowledge dissemination. Formed in 2017, WESS is comprised of Community Water Center, a community-based organization (CBO) working towards realizing California’s Human Right to Water; researchers at the University of California (Berkeley and Los Angeles); and scientists at the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. We describe the development of an online “Drinking Water Tool,” which presents data and maps on drinking water access, threats, and local decision-making processes. We discuss how features of the WESS collaboration have extended the “4 Rs”—the rigor, relevance, reach, and reflexivity—of our science and resulted in new approaches for assessing drinking water (in)justice that have both influenced and been influenced by complementary efforts by state agencies. Through our reflections, we elucidate how collaborations between communities, CBOs, academic institutions, and state agencies can generate actionable evidence and accessible data to support the incorporation of environmental justice goals into drinking water supply and management.