Policymakers must protect CA waters from federal deregulation

OPINION – If there is one thing the new Trump Administration has proven it’s that our precious democracy can go through great fluctuations depending on who resides in the White House. And thanks to President Trump’s deep reach into the current makeup of the US Supreme Court, sudden shifts in our regulatory environment are creating shockwaves on a wide range of topics that have left state leaders scrambling to retain our safety nets.

For example, federal policy changes are forcing California leaders to get creative to protect our shared natural resources and public health. The Supreme Court’s now-infamous Sackett v. EPA decision dramatically reduced the reach of the Clean Water Act, leaving many formerly protected waterways and wetlands much harder to protect from pollution, especially in the West.

Fortunately, we have leadership in California to ensure this seismic disruption in policy is muted by a response that could expedite how state law will capture the same protections that federal clean water permits once did. SB 601 (Allen), also known as The Right to Clean Water Act, attempts to piece back together the regulatory system established under the federal Clean Water Act over the past five decades. The Clean Water Act was intended to ensure the waters of the United States are “fishable, swimmable, and drinkable” for every American. But recent decisions by the US Supreme Court and related forthcoming regulatory changes made by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency have severely narrowed the reach of this landmark law. GIS maps developed by the NRDC estimate more than 600,000 miles of California’s streams and up to 96% of our wetlands could lose federal Clean Water Act protections based on changes due to Sackett and further impending moves under Trump’s EPA.

That’s where SB 601 comes in. The bill aims to restore and streamline the permitting process that ensures water pollution is well monitored and controlled in California under the authority of California’s Porter-Cologne Act.  With those protections now severely weakened, everything from our coastlines to our drinking water sources lack the protections we’ve all come to expect. SB 601 allows for the retention of a regulatory framework for managing water pollution in the state by expediting the replacement of the now-absent federal regulation with state authority.

SB 601 would strengthen state enforcement options and make it possible to increase penalties on polluters so that state penalties can align with the type of enforcement that was previously possible under federal law. With environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act now narrowed for many types of projects, protecting clean water under SB 601 is even more essential.

SB 601 was drafted with the basic goal of maintaining the clean water protections previously ensured through federal law. But as the bill has made its way through the legislative process, one critical tool for clean water enforcement – the citizen suit provision – has already been scuttled by the Senate.

Citizen enforcement is not just nice to have. State agencies expect and rely on community members to help enforce clean water laws because they lack the resources to pursue every violation. Citizen enforcement is fundamental to ensuring clean water protections in a state where water pollution remains the norm far too often, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color. It is essential that legislators reinstate this critical right within SB 601 so that it remains available to every Californian.

SB 601 is essential – but it’s hardly revolutionary. Several states, including Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico, and Maryland, have beaten the Golden State to the punch in strengthening state clean water protections in response to weaker federal protections.

The Right to Clean Water Act is the fulfillment of a promise made when our state leaders first acknowledged clean water is a human right. At this moment in time, perhaps more than ever before in our nation’s history, we need California to show the world we mean what we say when it comes to protecting public health and our natural world.

Martha Guzman was the US Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 Administrator from December 2021 to January 2025 and the Deputy Legislative Affairs Secretary in the Office of the California Governor from 2011 – 2016.