This year, CCKA introduced Senate Bill 601, the Right to Clean Water Act, which aims to protect California from the Trump Administration’s federal rollbacks by enshrining longstanding federal Clean Water Act protections into state law. While we hoped to pass the Right to Clean Water Act this month, the bill has been extended into 2026 because this legislation is too important, and we want to take the time to get it right. But if we are going to stand up to the Trump Administration, Governor Newsom and the California Legislature need to act decisively to protect California’s water while the rest of the nation goes backwards.
Two years ago, the Trump-appointed U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision we commonly refer to as the Sackett decision, which stripped away Clean Water Act protections for many California streams and wetlands, leaving state waters highly vulnerable to pollution. It is estimated that over 600,000 miles of California streams and up to 96 percent of California’s wetlands are at risk of losing Clean Water Act protections. According to our State Water Board, “[t]he Sackett Ruling will have significant and widespread consequences for the Clean Water Act and the scope of federal protections over the nation’s waters.”
This March, the Trump Administration also announced plans to further erode the Clean Water Act by developing their own rule for which waters should be protected and which shouldn’t – you can only imagine that isn’t going to end well for the environment. Making matters worse, this June, Congress introduced The PERMIT Act, which is an assault on several of the most effective provisions of the Clean Water Act and, if passed, would hurt people, communities, and ecosystems across the U.S.
The Right to Clean Water Act preserves California’s values in the face of turbulent federal disruptions. Importantly, the Right to Clean Water Act allows our Water Boards to create state permits as protective as existing federal Clean Water Act permits, while maintaining water quality standards for our most polluted waterways. The bill provides our state agencies with the tools necessary to maintain clean water protections in an efficient, cost-saving manner. And finally, the bill streamlines enforcement to hold polluters accountable while preventing permit shopping to less protective and more cumbersome state permits.
Governor Newsom seems prized to insulate California from the Trump Administration’s attacks on our daily lives. And yet on an issue as fundamental as clean water, he has failed to lead. Several states have already surpassed California: Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico, and Maryland have all beaten the Golden State to the punch in strengthening state clean water protections in response to weaker federal protections. It is time California take back its role as an environmental leader, and we call on Governor Newsom to step up and ensure clean water for all Californians by signing SB 601, the Right to Clean Water Act, into law.
As a state we cannot go backwards. California has enjoyed clean water protections for 50 years and we have a right to continue to do so.
The Right to Clean Water Act became a two-year bill because of the lack of state leadership to make Trump-proofing, as it relates to water, a priority in California. We call on Governor Newsom to preserve the half-century of clean water protections that Californians have enjoyed before the Trump Administration. Without The Right to Clean Water Act, the federal government will have a chokehold on the state’s ability to manage our waters to provide clean, safe, and affordable water to all Californians.
Executive Director Sean Bothwell leads CCKA’s initiatives to fight for swimmable, fishable, and drinkable waters for all Californians.
