2011 was a challenging year for environmental legislation in Sacramento as lawmakers were reluctant to support any measure that could be spun a imposing additional cost to the state or threatening jobs. Despite these challenges, Clean Water Action and its water allies achieved many notable victories for water this legislative season. The following is a list of gifts of clean water for the 2011 holiday season provided, in part, by Clean Water Action.

Human Right to Water: Clean Water Action won passage of a package of bills that will protect the fundamental right to safe and affordable drinking water. This included: AB 983, increasing access to funding for drinking water treatment in low income communities; AB1221, expanding small community eligibility for State cleanup and abatement funds; SB244, addressing drinking water and other infrastructure problems of small unincorporated communities, and AB 938, dismantling language barriers for non-English speaking residents when emergency drinking water notices are provided.

improving water quality in the san joaquin valley
Clean Water Action has worked to improve water quality in the San Joaquin Valley for nearly a decade. Hundreds of small communities there lack safe drinking water and do not have the resources to treat or replace their contaminated source water. Despite myriad projects and bond initiatives to address these problems, the list of contaminated water systems continues to grow.

Nitrate is the most common contaminant in the region. In drinking water, nitrate can make it hard for the blood stream to absorb oxygen, causing “blue baby syndrome” in infants. Other health effects linked to nitrate are cancer, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and thyroid disruption.

community action = clean water
Activists and community volunteers in Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy in Santa Clara County are organizing at the grassroots to fight toxic pollution, and they are winning.

In 2003, area residents learned that their drinking water was contaminated with perchlorate from a former Olin Corporation highway flare manufacturing site. They eventually learned that the plume of underground pollution extends more than ten miles from the site, impacting hundreds of public and private wells.

clean water for monterey park?
The City of Ceres, near Modesto, may be coming to the rescue of Monterey Park Tract. Residents of Monterey Park (population about 130) have been warned for years not to drink their tap water, which is contaminated with nitrates and arsenic. Treating the contaminated well water is prohibitively expensive for so small a community. Drilling a new well is not a viable option; there are no available nearby locations that are not also contaminated.

california legislative update

Clean Water Action saw some significant progress on environmental and health protections this year, even with the legislature’s focus on state fiscal woes and the economy. Here is a summary of measures backed by Clean Water Action in Sacramento, and their status.

getting to the source of plastics and trash in our waterways
By Eleanor Jaeger

california currents