Bills To Create Drinking Water Fund Die In State Legislature

California’s legislative session ended last week, and with it, the hopes for a statewide pool of money that would have supported drinking water projects. It was called the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, and it would have been available for disadvantaged communities in need of water cleanup projects. The fund would have been sourced by fees on residential water bills and on some agricultural producers. But the two bills that set the framework for the fund died in the state assembly last week as California’s legislative deadline passed by. Phoebe Seaton is co-director of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, an advocacy group who supported the fund. She says this was a missed opportunity and that surveys had shown Californians generally supported paying into the fund . “We’re disappointed to see that leadership wasn’t responding to the constituents and wasn’t responding to this need,” she says. The bills had broad support from two groups typically at odds: