By Miriam Gordon, California Director

January 2012 marked the end of a two-year legislative session. With your help, Clean Water Action won several victories for clean drinking water during that session. Our wins included a bill affirming that state agencies must recognize the Human Right to Water and others that help small communities get access to drinking water and wastewater treatment funds. We helped end the use of toxic bisphenol-A (BPA) in children’s products and ensured that lead will no longer be used in children’s jewelry sold in California.

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Clean Water Calls for a Fracking Moratorium

Big oil has its sights on California. Plans are in motion to make the state the nation’s number one oil producer, moving up from its current 4th place position. New hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques are a big part of industry’s strategy. Though oil developers promise an economic boom for the state, increased fracking has the potential to cause serious environmental and health harm, and California residents and other industries might be forced to shoulder those costs.

Clean Water Calls for a Fracking Moratorium

Big oil has its sights on California. Plans are in motion to make the state the nation’s number one oil producer, moving up from its current 4th place position. New hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques are a big part of industry’s strategy. Though oil developers promise an economic boom for the state, increased fracking has the potential to cause serious environmental and health harm, and California residents and other industries might be forced to shoulder those costs.

California (CROMCA)’s reputation for environmental protection may be jeopardized by the lure of a $25 billion tax windfall that depends on how the state permits oil companies to take advantage of vast deposits lying two miles beneath its golden hills.

The Monterey Shale formation running through the center of the state may hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil -- equivalent to five years of U.S. petroleum imports, according to a state report. Releasing it requires drillers to smash the rock by forcing millions of gallons of water and chemicals underground, a technique known as fracking.

We need you today! Send a letter of support for a new standard that will prevent exposure to toxic chemicals that make fires more deadly and are linked to serious long term impacts on public health and the environment.

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SACRAMENTO -- State water regulators are endorsing new taxes to ensure access to safe drinking water for Californians, including possibly on the fertilizer that feeds the state's $34 billion agricultural industry.

Portraying a grim picture of the Golden State's groundwater problems, a long-awaited report by the State Water Board says it is "critical" that new funds be found to help poor and disadvantaged communities. This week's report followed an earlier one naming 680 community water systems that rely on contaminated wells for water, including seven in Santa Cruz County.

You’ve heard the old western proverb before, especially if you live in California: “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”

Santa Barbara County Supervisor Doreen Farr’s district covers a lot of water—nearly the county’s entire coastline. On Feb. 12, Farr traveled inland to testify in Sacramento before a joint committee hearing on hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking. California legislators had called the hearing to assess the adequacy of recently proposed state regulations on the highly controversial mineral exploration practice, and also to consider adopting a moratorium on fracking until sufficient safety measures exist.

The California State Water Resources Control Board in February released a report that highlights the need to create a fee on the sale of commercial fertilizer to provide funding to communities struggling with the impacts of nitrate contamination of their groundwater supply.

Help us protect water today - send a message to your legislator now!

Advocates praise action to reduce nitrate contamination in state’s drinking water  

Law360, New York (February 14, 2013, 6:27 PM ET) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to ban Styrofoam in New York City struck a positive chord with Democrats in Albany and environmentalists on Thursday but experts say city and state-level action will encounter resistance from chemical and packaging makers who helped defeat a California ban last year.

The mayor, famous for a raft of consumer-protection initiatives including a trans-fat ban, public calorie counts and curbs on public smoking and the size of sugary drinks, floated his latest brainchild at his final State of the City address before a raucous crowd at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.