purchased at vending machine or in buying bottled water.


The problem has been around for a long time, but recent attention has been focused on ways to make things right.


“We have communities in the state currently where you turn on the tap and the water is not safe to drink,” said Debbie Davis, community and rural affairs advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown, at the Water Education Foundation’s Executive Briefi ng March 15. “People are paying a water bill for water they can’t drink and paying additional money for bottled water. In a state like California, as rich as we are … we can do better. We should do better.” The governor’s offi ce and state lawmakers are gearing their efforts toward making sure no one in the state has to live without safe drinking water. In his proposed 2013-2014 budget, the governor pledged to review the state’s activities “related to the provision of safe drinking water and to recommend effi ciencies and alignments to maximize the state’s ability to ensure that all members of the public have access to safer water.”


Despite the struggles of DACs with nitrate, the vast majority of drinking water systems in the state provide safe, affordable water. More than 98 percent of the population served by community water systems is served water that meets all primary drinking water standards. Nontheless, efforts are underway to consider transferring the state’s author- ity over drinking water safety from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) at the capital. The proposal is supported by the Legislative Analyst’s Offi ce (LAO), which investigated the matter at the behest of Demo- cratic Assemblymember Luis Alejo, D- Salinas, chair of the Assembly Envi- ronmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. Alejo convened a March 18 hearing on this issue. “It’s certainly a challenging issue, there are very real tradeoffs in both directions,” Janne Olson-Morgan, with


March/April 2013


the LAO, told the committee March 18. “We found that on balance, we believe this transition in the long term would be a good choice.”


The idea has supporters in the Legislature.


“I believe we need to move the drinking water program to the State Water Board,” said Assemblymember Anthony Rendon, D-South Gate, at the committee hearing. “Doing so would bring the entire hydrologic cycle together. It would be a problem solver at each step, from source water to drinking water to wastewater.” The impetus to move the drinking water program comes from the belief that it is not operating as effi ciently as it could be at CDPH in addressing the problems of contaminants like nitrate in groundwater. Dr. Ron Chapman, director of CDPH, told the committee that the department “adheres to the principles expressed in the [Human Right to Water law], that every human being has the right to safe, affordable and accessible water adequate for human consumption,” and that CDPH “has increased the focus on getting safe drinking water to small and disadvan- taged communities.”


The Human Right to Water


law, signed last year by Gov. Brown, declares it the policy of the state that every human being has the right to clean, affordable and accessible water for human consumption, cooking and sanitary purposes, and for CDPH, the State Water Board and the Depart- ment of Water Resources to consider the policy when adopting policies and regulations.


Nitrate contamination gained publicity with the release of a 2012 UC Davis report, Addressing Nitrate in California’s Drinking Water, which said that fertilizers and animal wastes applied to cropland “are by far the largest regional sources of nitrate in groundwater.”


Nitrate contamination “is wide- spread and increasing,” with 57 percent of the people in the UC Davis study area depending on community public water systems with raw water (before


5 Hear more from Debbie Davis


“We have


communities in the state currently where you turn on the tap and the water is not safe to drink.”


– Debbie Davis,


Governor’s Offi ce of Planning and Research


Watch the UCD video “Following the Trail of Nitrates”


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