California
Newsletters
Spring 2008
Features include:
- Regional Boards Fall Short
- On Campus With Green Chemistry
- Tuolumne Campaign Update
- Spring Legislative Update
- It’s Time For Action On Climate Change!
Get the Spring 2008 issue (458 kb, pdf)
You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader properly installed to view PDF documents. You can get it free from Adobe.
Past Issues
Winter 2007
Features include:
- Victory For Consumers of Bottled and Vended Water!
- San Francisco Oil Spill
- The Battle Over Bonds
- Building a Green Economy
- Clean Water Action Welcomes New CEO John DeCock
Summer 2007
This issue includes features on California legislative updates, the safety of bottled and vended water, California's green chemistry initiative, the PUC water system improvement program, and more.
Summer 2006
- Mercury in SF Bay
- Oil and Water Don't Mix
- Protect the San Mateo Coast
- Legislative Agenda for 2006
- Support Our Clean Water Action, and more
Get the Summer 2006 issue (1.1 MB)
Spring 2005
Features:
Post-Election Letter fo CA Members Victory to Protect San Francisco Bay A Perchlorate Standard Interview with Erich Pfuehler—CA Director Spring Action Letter—By-Products of Disinfecting Water
Get the Spring 2005 issue (439 kb)
Fall 2004
Features:
Chemical Policy Reform- Legislative Agenda
- CWF Conference
- Teleia Pastore Interview
- Drinking Water Standards
Get the Fall 2004 issue (431 kb)
Summer 2004
Features:
- Mercury Update
- Legislative Agenda
- Bay Area Water Stewards
- Perchlorate
Get the Summer 2004 issue (1.62 MB)
Spring 2003
Features:
- Bottled Water Facts
- Perchlorate
- Staff Transition
- Chemical Soup
- Prop 50 in Action
- The Canvass Up Close
- Preventing Harm and Action Alerts
Get the May 2003 issue (364 MB)
Fall 2002
Features:
- Election Updates
- Legislative Wrap Up
- Clean Water Clean Farms Campaign and the Clean Water Act at 30
June 2002
Features:
- Rocket Fuel Pollution in Drinking Water
- Legislative Agenda
- Preventing Harm Program Expands
- New Mercury Report
- SF Happenings
- Bay-Delta Update
- We’re Growing!
Get the June 2002 issue (123 kb)
June 2001
Features:
- Water Utilities Review
- Legislative Agenda
- Bioaccumulation: How Toxins Move Up the Food Chain
- Electronics Take Back
Get the June 2001 issue (355 kb)
March 2001
Features:
- Arsenic in CA Drinking Water
- Mercury Bill
- Wetlands
- Home Safe Home
- Meet Our Canvass Staff
Get the March 2001 issue (165 kb)
You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader properly installed to view PDF documents. You can get it free from Adobe.
Reports
Source Water Protection: A Wise Investment in California's Drinking Water
The State's Role; How California Measures Up to its Neighbors
The old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is actually an understatement when applied to drinking water. Studies show that preventing contamination can cost 30 to 40 times less than treating a contaminated drinking water source. So how is California doing at protecting the more than 16,000 drinking water sources around the state?
The importance of pollution prevention was recognized by Congress in the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1996, which created the Drinking Water Source Water Assessment Program. Under that program, every public water system in the country was required to identify its water sources, the land area that fed them, and potential threats to their water quality. In California, the Department of Health Services was tasked with coordinating the assessment of over 16,000 water sources. This Herculean task was largely completed by May of 2004.
As impressive an achievement as the Source Water Assessment Program was, it was intended to be just the first step in a renewed effort to protect and improve the quality of our source water. So how has California followed up on their assessment program? This report compares California's Source Water Protection Program with the actions taken by the neighboring states of Oregon, Arizona and Nevada. Based on that comparison, we've developed recommendations for how California can better protect its current and future drinking water supplies.
Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund released this report in July 2005. Download the executive summary (pdf, 49.5 kb) of this report. View or download the full report (pdf 401 kb), Source Water Protection, or contact Jennifer Clary for more information at 415.369.9160 x311 or jclary@cleanwater.org
Mercury Pollution
In April 2002, Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund released a report entitled What Goes Up..., which is an inventory of airborne mercury sources in California. While runoff from mercury mines in the coastal range and mercury-laden wastes from the gold mines of 150 years ago are a main source of mercury contamination, air and water discharges from current processes account for a significant portion of the mercury problem in the state.
Annually, more than 14,000 pounds of mercury are released into the state’s air. The majority of discharges can be attributed to power plants (especially coal-powered and geothermal facilities), petroleum refineries and cement production facilities. Mercury is released into the airshed of every county in California. Five counties—Lassen, Sonoma, Kern, Los Angeles, and San Diego—experienced mercury air releases in excess of 1,000 pounds according to the data analyzed for our report.
You may download What Goes Up... (1.3MB pdf) or contact Jennifer Clary for more information at 415.369.9160 x311 or jclary@cleanwater.org
Measuring Up
Clean Water Action, Clean Water Fund & the California Public Interest Research Group Charitable Trust, released a report which finds that most California water utilities are meeting new federal requirements for their Drinking Water Right-to-Know Reports (also known as Consumer Confidence Reports); however there is plenty of room for improvement.
While many of the state's large water utilities do a better than average job of informing consumers about drinking water safety and quality, California's smaller water systems are much more likely to fail in their duty to appropriately inform consumers about these issues. The report, Measuring Up II: An evaluation of water quality information provided to consumers in California grades Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs) from 249 water utilities that collectively serve nearly 25 million people in California.
The Measuring Up II press release (pdf, 16 kb) is available for download. Contact us for a copy of the report.
