For too long, water pollution in California has followed a familiar pattern: communities suffer, regulators issue fines, and the money disappears into a system that rarely delivers relief where it’s needed most. This month, the State Water Board took a major step toward rewriting that story—advancing a new funding program that will direct more than $20 million in pollution penalties toward cleaning up waterways and investing in frontline communities. This is what “polluter pays” is supposed to look like.
The funding comes from the state’s Cleanup and Abatement Account—money collected from enforcement actions against polluters. Instead of sitting idle or being spent far from the harm, these dollars are now being redirected where they belong: back into impacted ecosystems and communities. This program is critical because it recognizes that accountability isn’t just about penalizing polluters—it’s about repairing harm and building resilience where it matters most.
The plan includes $15 million for regional cleanup and water quality projects and $5 million dedicated to disadvantaged and Tribal communities. That last piece is critical. Because the communities hit hardest by pollution are too often the ones shut out of the funding needed to fix it.
This didn’t happen by accident. For years, California Coastkeeper Alliance has pushed for a simple but powerful idea: pollution fines should directly benefit the people and places harmed. Our Clean Water Accountability Report exposed a core failure in the system: pollution penalties were being collected, but too often not reinvested in the communities and waterways harmed. The report laid out a clear fix: prioritize directing those funds back into impacted regions and increase transparency in how they are spent.
California Coastkeeper Alliance then took that blueprint to the Legislature, helping advance reforms like Assembly Bill 2113, authored by Robert Rivas, which focused on improving how cleanup and abatement funds can be deployed for water quality projects. We also worked on complementary legislation by Diane Papan, including Assembly Bill 753 to direct penalties toward impacted communities, and Assembly Bill 2318 to require public reporting on fund expenditures. Together, this work has helped turn a wonky funding mechanism into a powerful tool for environmental justice—ensuring that enforcement dollars don’t just punish pollution, but actually repair the damage.
The state’s new funding program begins to turn that vision into reality. That means investing in cleanup of contaminated rivers and coastlines; safe, reliable drinking water systems; community-based monitoring and enforcement; and local organizations on the frontlines of water pollution. And it opens the door for a broader set of leaders—community groups, Tribes, small water systems—to access funding and drive solutions from the ground up.
This is a big step forward. But it’s only a start. The real test will be whether these funds are deployed quickly, targeted to the highest-need communities, and sustained and expanded in the years ahead. Because the scale of California’s water challenges demands more than one-time investments, CCKA will continue to advocate for a long-term commitment to equity, transparency, and accountability.
For the first time in a long time, California is aligning its enforcement dollars with its environmental values. Polluters pay. Communities benefit. Ecosystems get restored. That’s the promise of this new funding program—and it’s one worth fighting to make permanent.
Executive Director Sean Bothwell leads CCKA’s initiatives to fight for swimmable, fishable, and drinkable waters for all Californians.
