Internship with California Coastkeeper Alliance

Berit C., Spring 2025

Hello! My name is Berit and I’m a senior in Environmental Studies who has been interning during the Spring 2025 semester for California Coastkeeper Alliance (CCKA). CCKA is a nonprofit organization that works to provide Californians with clean waters through policy and advocacy. Whether coastal or inland, CCKA addresses crucial water issues throughout the state such as pollution, water rights, and ecosystem health. Some more specific examples of CCKA’s projects for 2025 include protecting streams from groundwater overuse and working to set water quality standards to prevent coastal nutrient pollution.

My internship with CCKA has covered several topics within the realm of water quality and policy as I have been tasked with work to support CCKA’s numerous ongoing projects. This has included researching and summarizing important context for certain water quality concerns, writing briefers about recent events and developments relevant to water health, and updating water impairment data for communications. I also recently had the chance to author a blog post on the CCKA website about a National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report that revealed the extent to which a recent Supreme Court decision will affect wetland protections, and how CCKA’s legislative work is seeking to remedy this concern.

My time with CCKA has been invaluable, introducing me to the complexity of water issues in this state and how much progress still needs to be made for California to have safe, useable, and healthy water bodies.