Community Water Center

We believe clean water is a human right, not a privilege.

Drinking Water in California

According to the State Water Board’s 2023 Drinking Water Needs Assessment and SAFER Dashboard, nearly two and half million people in California today do not have safe drinking water in their homes, schools, or places of work.1 In other words, nearly nearly two and half million people in this state cannot drink a glass of tap water without risking health impacts like nausea, headaches, and serious  illnesses like cancer. 

Many more residents obtain their drinking water from domestic wells and state small water systems. Domestic wells are not regulated, while state small water systems have few regulations. The lack of regulations makes it harder to ensure safe and reliable drinking water. Additionally, both these types of systems are often supplied by shallow wells that are more susceptible to contamination. Much of the unsafe, toxic water exists in California’s agricultural heartlands, home to low-income farmworker communities. This problem is not limited to the Central Valley; communities throughout the state, like on the Central Coast, face similar difficulties in accessing safe drinking water. 

Due to mismanagement of water resources, historic droughts, and failure to adequately regulate agricultural groundwater use, state groundwater levels have continued to drop to precarious levels. Throughout California, decreasing groundwater levels leads to dry wells and an increased concentration of contaminants in the remaining water. On the California coast, agricultural overpumping of groundwater also leads to undrinkable seawater moving further inland into groundwater supplies.2

Since groundwater makes up a significant source of the water that residents need, communities in danger of dry or contaminated wells due to decreasing groundwater levels face serious public health problems. The communities hardest hit by this problem are some of our state’s most low-income, but also pay some of the highest proportionate water rates in California – up to 10 percent of their household income – for undrinkable water. This forces many rural residents to pay for water twice – for their undrinkable tap water and the bottled water they need to survive.

For more data on failing and at-risk water systems, visit SAFER Dashboard | California State Water Resources Control Board. For information on the quality of your drinking water, visit Drinking Water Tool.

About Us

Community Water Center (CWC) was founded in 2006 to serve as a catalyst for the growing movement to achieve drinking water equity and justice in California. Before 2006, our founders, Susana de Anda and Laurel Firestone, started by organizing communities facing drinking water issues but going door-to-door in small, low-income rural communities. As they spoke to more people, it became clear that these problems were large and complex enough that they needed a formal organization to pursue systemic change for water justice.

In the nearly two decades since our founding, CWC and the water justice movement we started have grown exponentially. We, along with our community partners, now benefit from decades of drinking water advocacy experience. Our mission is to create community-driven water solutions through organizing, education, and advocacy in California’s San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast. Our main strategies in meeting our mission include:

  1. Organize low-income communities of color facing local water challenges by equipping them with knowledge and resources specific to their circumstances.

  2. Strategize both short and long term solutions to address the root causes of unsafe drinking water in the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast.

  3. Serve as a resource for residents, partner organizations, and government agencies for information and expertise on community water challenges.

  4. Advocate for state- and nation-wide policy change to ensure water justice for all California residents.

One of our most important victories came in 2012, when we teamed up with the AGUA coalition and other environmental justice groups around the state to secure the passage of AB 685, commonly known as the California Human Right to Water law. This bill added Section 106.3 to the Water Code and states: “It is hereby declared to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” (Emphasis added.) 

State agencies such as the State Water Board, Regional Water Boards, and the Department of Water Resources, must consider the Human Right to Water in any decisions that may impact water resources. Coming off the successful passage of this law, advocates have helped pass other laws and regulations to protect water quality, prevent further groundwater level decreases, and develop new funding sources to address critical drinking water needs. These laws and regulations include, but are not limited to, the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER), Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term Sustainability (CV-SALTS). These policies and more are included within this Guide.

The road to achieve the Human Right to Water for all Californians is long, but we get closer with each policy win.