May eNews: Governor pledges $1 BILLION for water debt relief
This month Governor Newsom made history by pledging $1 BILLION for water debt relief for California families.
This can’t come soon enough.
Five million California households are currently drowning in water debt and this assistance will provide a major lifeline for them.
In addition to this relief package, California also needs a long-term solution for water affordability.
That’s why we’re working with water justice allies to advance SB 222 (Dodd) to create a statewide water affordability assistance program, so that safe water is affordable for all Californians.
We also are confronting a drought crisis that threatens to be even more severe than the “last” drought. At the same time we recognize that many of our families never fully recovered from drought conditions.
As part of the state’s 2021-2022 budget, CWC is advocating for a transformative level of investment to build drought resilience and help close our continued and unjust drinking water and wastewater access gap. We particularly applaud the Governor’s proposal for $1.3 billion in State Water Board funding for drinking water, wastewater and drought resilience investments.
Read more below.
Adelante,
Susana De Anda
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Long-Term Water Affordability Efforts Still Needed
We strongly support Governor Newsom’s historic May 10 initiative to invest $1 billion in water debt relief for California families.
This will be a big help for the five million California households who are drowning in water debt. Now, California needs a long-term solution for water affordability.
CWC has been pushing alongside community partners and Senator Bill Dodd, D-Napa, to pass legislation (SB 222 and SB 223) that would directly tackle water affordability and prevent water shutoffs.
Although both bills sailed through committees in April, only one bill, SB 222, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is moving forward. It aims to create a statewide water affordability program, making water affordable for all Californians.
SB 223, which would have helped prevent water shutoffs, is no longer moving forward. This jeopardizes necessary protections against water shutoffs for families.
We have been very supportive of Senator Dodd's efforts to make sure families are protected against shutoffs. 500,000 Californians were impacted by water shutoffs in 2019 alone. This was a crisis before the pandemic, and it will remain a crisis after the pandemic. Returning to "normal" on water shutoffs should not be acceptable. We look forward to partnering with the Legislature and Governor to ensure water is maintained as a basic human right -- and as the most basic form of PPE.
We will continue to push for a statewide program to maintain water access for Californians under SB 222!
Governor Pledges $5.1 Billion for Drought Package and Safe Drinking Water
With drought worsening and extending to 41 counties facing severe drought conditions, we must act boldly and swiftly. The Governor has pledged a historic $5.1 billion for water and drought response across the state, which includes $1.3 billion for Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure, $300 million for SGMA implementation, $150 million for small water systems to better prepare for drought, and $20 million to monitor and filter PFAS.
We strongly support these critical provisions under the Governor’s May Revise, which will help protect and advance the Human Right to Water during the drought.
Without bold leadership, hundreds of thousands of Californians are at risk of going without water to meet their basic needs as thousands of wells are expected to go dry in the coming months. We’re confident that the Governor and Legislature’s funding proposals will help the State respond to drinking water outages that are already being reported by community residents across the Central Valley and that can be found on the Department of Water Resources’ Dry Well Reporting Tool
While we know that drought is already here and that there needs to be an immediate response to drought impacts now, we must also recognize that California will continue to experience drought impacts for many years to come. The State must address the current gaps in drought preparedness planning and work towards establishing contingency planning across all counties.
That is why we must pass SB 552, which will help establish minimum drought resiliency planning across the state.
The bill is currently on the Senate Floor and advancing through the legislature.
New FREE Programs: Well Testing for Nitrates and Replacement Water
This month, the Central Valley Regional Water Board conditionally approved four out of five plans aimed at providing emergency drinking water for households with nitrate contamination.
Communities with nitrate-contaminated drinking water living within certain groundwater basins (blue areas of the map above) can now access a new program that includes FREE well testing for nitrates and FREE replacement water.
These programs are being run by groups called “management zones,” which include agriculture, dairies, and others who discharge nitrate as part of their operations.
Contact your management zone (more information on that below) to learn more about your options, including the location of water filling stations and how to sign up for nitrate well testing and bottled water deliveries. Also, ask how you can participate in the process to ensure that well testing and replacement water options are accessible for your community.
CWC is committed to ensuring that the drinking water plans are being implemented in a way that meaningfully engages and meets the needs of impacted communities.
We will continue to work with the management zones and our community partners to ensure that solutions are appropriately implemented.
Find your management zone: (Go to this map: http://kingswateralliance.org/map/ , click on the magnifying glass on the upper right corner of the map, and enter your address).
Contact your management zone:
CWC in the News!
Emergency water urged for rural Latino communities before California drought worsens
“Families still have tanks outside of their homes, have this constant worry of not drinking water because it’s not safe to drink and now with this drought, this worry of, ‘Am I not going to have enough water?’”
Susana de Anda, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Community Water Center
Gov. Newsom expands drought emergency to Tulare, 40 other Calif. Counties
“All Californians must have safe, clean, and affordable drinking water. Yet the reality is that 1.6 million households, or about five million Californians, are drowning in at least $1 billion in water debt due to the pandemic. The governor’s plan represents a lifeline for the millions of families who are drowning in water debt.”
Susana de Anda, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Community Water Center
Valley communities lost water in last drought. Are small water systems ready this time?
“We’re definitely concerned. Not enough has been done to mitigate the synergistic effects causing overdrafting.”
Arturo Rodriguez, Board President, Poplar Community Services District, AGUA Coalition member, Community Water Leaders Network (CWLN) member
“At the end of the day, a drought crisis is a human crisis.”
Jonathan Nelson, Policy Director, Community Water Center
‘I’m Scared of Getting Sick From the Water’
“We want solutions now… It’s a huge problem, and we have generations that have been condemned to this reality.”
Susana de Anda, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Community Water Center
Fail: Tule Basin drinking water plan kicked back for a redo
“The dischargers are being forced to pay for solutions but if you’re not outreaching to people, you don’t have to implement solutions if no one asks for them.”
Debi Ores, Senior Attorney, Community Water Center
“In this area, a lot of people who do live off of domestic wells are minorities and a lot of times the information doesn’t really get to them… We’re left to look for it ourselves.”
Sandra Chavez, AGUA Coalition member
Public Health Crisis Looms as California Identifies 600 Communities at Risk of Water-System Failures
“The report reinforced what we unfortunately already know too well — that California is facing a major water affordability crisis…Nearly 1 in 3 water systems were identified either as having water rates that were higher than what is deemed affordable for families or high levels of water shutoffs.”
Jonathan Nelson, Policy Director, Community Water Center
California’s Relentless Droughts Strain Farming Towns
“But there’s a lot of families around me that don’t even know that this is an issue or that they could possibly be drinking contaminated water. They think, ‘Well I left my country to come to the U.S. to have a better life.’ They can’t believe this is happening here… We didn’t contaminate our own water. Therefore, it shouldn’t be on us to fix an issue that some of us may not even know about.”
Sandra Chavez, AGUA Coalition member
Pandemic Lockdown Exposes The Vulnerability Some Californians Face Keeping Up With Water Bills
“We don’t want to have a disparity, we want something universal.”
Uriel Saldivar, Senior Policy Advocate, Community Water Center
See more CWC news coverage here.
New CWC Team Members
We are excited to introduce Elizabeth Perez as our new team member! Elizabeth joined our Visalia office this month as a Community Solutions Advocate. Welcome aboard, Elizabeth!
Read more about Elizabeth here.
We’re Hiring!
Safe Water Resources
Thank you to our Generous Donors!
Huge thank you to our regular monthly donors, whose continual contributions help to sustain our long-term work toward achieving safe, clean and affordable drinking water!
Anavel Valdez-Lupercio, Arden Wells, Arohi Sharma, Benigna Hernandez, Bessma Mourad, Bob Simone, Carly Yoshida, Cassie Morgan, Esperanza Pimentel, Frank Lukacs, Jose Pablo Ortiz Partida, Julia Emerson, Kathryn Gilje, Kathryn Wuelfing, Kelly Archer, Kelsey Hinton, Klara East, Kristin Dobbin, Lara Cushing, Leonard Sklar, Paul Pierce, Sandra Hocker, Sandra Rose, Stephen Gasteyer, Temma Kaplan, Vicki Woods, and Victoria Klug
And thank you to our generous donors for May!
Andrew Jensen, Jason Capili, and Lester Snow
Be a water champion and support safe water for all.
