SACRAMENTO – On Wednesday, April 21 Assembly Bill 377, the California Clean Water Act, passed the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials with a vote of 5-3. Introduced this past February by Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and California Coastkeeper Alliance, this legislation will put California back on track to clean up our rivers, lakes, and other waterways by 2050 and achieve the goals laid out 50 years ago in the federal Clean Water Act.
“We cannot ignore how polluted our waterways are in California any longer,” Asm. Rivas said. “The evidence is there: roughly 19 out of 20 waterways in California are polluted or ‘impaired.’ Clearly, we must do more to protect the health of Californians, communities and the environment. And, as with so many of our other environmental challenges, it’s our low-income communities and our communities of color who are hit the hardest by this issue. I am grateful to the Committee for approving this measure, and I remain committed to working with every stakeholder, including the opposition, to create the best bill possible. We are one step closer to making clean water a reality for all Californians.”
The California Clean Water Act will require the State and Regional Water Boards to develop a comprehensive strategy to achieve clean water by 2050, ensure that all dischargers are in compliance with water quality standards, and direct a larger proportion of existing funding toward cleaning up impaired waterways. The effects of this bill will be especially significant in disadvantaged communities, where water is disproportionately likely to be polluted or even toxic.
“We are grateful for the Committee’s support of AB 377,” said Sean Bothwell, Executive Director for the California Coastkeeper Alliance. “It is time California begins holding polluters accountable. Discharging pollution into our environment is a privilege – not a right – and that privilege needs to come with accountability for meeting legally required standards to ensure our waters are fishable, swimmable, and drinkable.”
In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, which set a goal of restoring and maintaining clean water in all of the nation’s rivers, lakes, wetlands, and other waterways by 1985. Five decades later, the vast majority of waterways in California and across the nation are still polluted, or “impaired,” by discharges of chemicals, sediment, or other materials into those waterways. These discharges can range from a chemical company pouring waste into a nearby swimming hole, to an industrial project clogging up a stream with sediment runoff, to untreated urban storm water carrying bacteria, toxic metals, and trash onto the beach.
Fifty years after Congress passed the Clean Water Act, roughly 95% of all waterways in California remain impaired, including 82% of rivers and streams, 93% of lakes and ponds, 99% of wetlands, and 99% of bays and estuaries.
Technical Aspects
AB 377, the California Clean Water Act, will change the way the State and Regional Water Boards enforce compliance with water quality standards and ensure that waterways are taken off the impaired list over time by:
● Requiring development of a plan to bring impaired waterways into compliance with water quality standards by 2050. Now that the original Clean Water Act deadline to achieve clean water statewide has passed, the Water Boards do not have any specific target date to clean up California’s waterways. Development of a comprehensive and achievable plan to get back on track will ensure that California makes progress over the next several decades instead of falling further behind.
● Changing Water Board enforcement procedures, requiring them to spend more time and effort enforcing against the worst polluters instead of ignoring violations. AB 377 will also allow the Water Boards to recover attorneys’ fees after successful enforcement actions, similar to existing procedures at the Air Resources Board and other agencies. This will ensure that dischargers complying with water quality standards are not forced to pay for enforcement against those who are not.
● Directing a larger portion of existing Water Board financial resources toward cleaning up impaired waterways, without imposing any new fees or costs.
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Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) represents California’s 30th Assembly District, which includes all or portions of the cities and towns of Aromas, Big Sur, Chualar, Gilroy, Greenfield, Gonzales, Hollister, King City, Morgan Hill, Salinas, San Martin, San Juan Bautista, Soledad, Spreckels, and Watsonville.
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