This year’s annual Ecology Law Quarterly Symposium, “Rural Unincorporated California: The Growth of Cities and Who is Left Behind,” will focus on the gap in resource access faced by disadvantaged, unincorporated communities in California. These communities, located outside cities, lack local government functions to coordinate municipal services (such as drinking water, sewage and wastewater management) and infrastructure (like paved roads, sidewalks and street lights). The symposium will highlight the ongoing work of organizations advocating for rural, unincorporated communities. The goal is to shed light on an often overlooked facet of rural environmental justice advocacy in California.

WHEN AND WHERE

April 10th, 2026 from 9:00am-4:30pm
Goldberg Room at Berkeley Law

SCHEDULE
9:00am-9:30am: Breakfast and Opening Remarks
9:30am-10:00am: Unincorporated Areas in California and Environmental Justice
10:15am–11:15am: Community Advocacy from Ground Level to State Level
11:30am-12:45pm: Lunch
1:00pm-1:50pm: The General Plan: California Laws for How Counties Treat Expansion and Growth
2:00pm-3:45pm: Tackling Legal Barriers to Drinking Water and Wastewater Access in Rural Unincorporated Communities
3:45-4:00: Closing Remarks
4:00 onwards: Reception at Edmonds

EVENT DETAILS

Unincorporated Areas in California and Environmental Justice with Camille Pannu (Columbia Law School):
Camille Pannu, Director and Founder of the Environmental and Climate Justice Clinic at Columbia Law School and prior to her time at Columbia, Professor Pannu also founded the Water Justice Clinic at UC Davis School of Law. Professor Pannu’s extensive background on rural environmental justice issues and studies and publications on Disadvantaged Unincorporated Communities allow her to provide a presentation on this history of the unincorporated communities in rural California struggling with resource access and the issues that will be discussed throughout the day of the symposium.

Community Advocacy from Ground Level to State Level with Miguel Rojas-Flores (Community Water Center), moderated by Dr. Nell Green Nylen (Wheeler Water Center at CLEE): Community organizers working for unincorporated communities face the unique challenge of helping people advocate for consideration of their needs to cities that do not represent them. Miguel Rojas-Flores will speak to how Community Water Center handles this unique challenge.

The General Plan: California Laws for How Counties Treat Expansion and Growth with Nick Jensen (California Rural Legal Assistance), Monica Heger (California DOJ), Ashley Marie Suarez (Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability: California counties make General Plans to determine plans for future growth and expansion. Nick Jensen and Ashley Marie Suarez work with communities in the Central Valley to ensure their counties provide plans for future housing development that account for these communities and Monica Heger works to ensure counties and cities abide by the requirements of SB 1000 mandating an element considering environmental justice in these plans. 

Tackling Legal Barriers to Drinking Water and Wastewater Access in Rural Unincorporated Communities with Elias Rodriguez (California Rural Legal Assistance), Leticia Luquin (California Rural Legal Assistance), Nataly Escobedo Garcia (Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability), and Kristin Dobbin (U.C. Berkeley Rausser College of Natural Resources), moderated by Professor Dave Owen (UC Law SF): Through discussions of several case studies, practitioners from several organizations will discuss their experiences working to connect unincorporated communities to drinking water and wastewater systems while maintaining community autonomy. Researcher Kristin Dobbin speaks to the perspective of the local boards that approve such system connections.  

Please RSVP for which panels you can attend.