Each year, the Clean Water Action team analyzes hundreds of bills moving through the state legislature and engages with bill authors and allies to either support those that will benefit California and its residents or help to stop those initiatives that would weaken our environmental and public health protections. The organization also sponsors bills, working with legislative champions to write and pass bills that will promote clean water and equitable access for all Californians, stop the use of toxic chemicals in the products we use so they don’t enter the environment, protect the largely low-income BIPOC communities that located next to oil and gas extraction, and reduce waste and plastic proliferation.
This year Clean Water Action is sponsoring four groundbreaking bills to restrict the continued use of super-toxic chemicals before they enter our water and bodies and ensure that all Californians have access to clean, affordable water. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’re working on:
Updated March 2025
SB 350 (Durazo) Public Water Systems: Low-Income Water Rate Assistance
SB 350 would establish a first in the nation, statewide water rate assistance program for low-income residential customers served by public drinking water and wastewater systems. Access to safe, clean, and affordable water is a human right and essential to public health. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWB) has reported that water rates rose 45% from 2007 to 2015 and a 2025 industry study found that rates have increased over 24% in the past 5 years. The result is that an estimated 28% of households cannot pay their water bills and are threatened with shut offs. Under SB 350, the SWB would administer a low-income ratepayer assistance program that provides direct bill credits to eligible customers. The bill further requires annual reporting to the public and caps administrative spending to ensure maximum consumer benefits are provided.
Clean Water Action is co-sponsoring SB 350 with Community Water Center and Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.
SB 682 (Allen) Phasing Out Unnecessary Uses of PFAS "Forever Chemicals"
SB 682 is a comprehensive, science-based approach to phasing out unnecessary uses of PFAS intentionally added to products. To protect people and the environment from the PFAS crisis, additional sources of PFAS pollution must be reduced as quickly and broadly as possible. This bill would achieve this by prohibiting the sale and distribution of products with avoidable uses of PFAS in California starting January 1, 2033. The bill establishes a method by which regulators can determine if the use of PFAS in a product category is truly unavoidable and essential at this time, basing their decision on whether (1) there are no safer alternatives to PFAS available, (2) the function provided by PFAS in the product is necessary for the product to work, or (3) the use of PFAS in the product is critical for health, safety, or the functioning of society. Companies are able to apply for a limited extension, motivating them to develop less toxic alternatives. A small number of very complex products have until 2040 to either eradicate PFAS or apply for an extension.
Clean Water Action is co-sponsoring SB 682 with Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, the Environmental Working Group, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
AB 794 (Gabriel) Keep PFAS out of California Drinking Water
AB 794 will ensure that we protect Californians from PFAS chemicals in our drinking water regardless of any actions or policy changes at the federal level. An estimated 25 million Californians have some level of PFAS in their drinking water supplies. Given that this class of chemicals has been associated with a wide range of health issues at very low levels, including cancers, reproductive harm, impaired immunity, high cholesterol, liver damage, cardiovascular diseases, and developmental issues in infants and children, the U.S. EPA established drinking water standards for 6 of the most commonly found versions in 2024. California must establish its own standards for those 6 PFAS that are at least as protective as the federal rules. This process could be seriously delayed, however, if the Trump Administration either rescinds or weakens the standards set under the previous Administration or lawsuits by some water agencies and polluters move forward. AB 794 addresses this threat by directing the State Water Board to adopt an emergency regulation mirroring U.S. EPA’s 2024 regulation. That protects the state from any federal weakening of the rules, while allowing the State Board to move forward with its own process to determine if more stringent standards are warranted.
Clean Water Action is co-sponsoring AB 794 with the Environmental Working Group.
AB 823 (Boerner) Protecting Californians From Toxic Microplastics
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AB 823 would ban the sale of non-rinse off personal care products and cleaning products containing microplastics used as an abrasive to clean, exfoliate, or polish beginning January 1, 2027. AB 823 would also ban the sale of personal care products, cleaning products, and coatings containing any microplastics for other purposes beginning January 1, 2028. Such tiny plastics are a pervasive pollutant that can be found in oceans, rivers, soil, the air, drinking water and in peoples’ bodies. Microplastics absorb toxic chemicals and bioaccumulate in the food chain, endangering ecosystems and public health. Microplastics have been found in lungs, the bloodstream, placental tissues, breast milk, and even the brain, raising serious health concerns, such as dementia, hormone disruption, infertility, and cancer affecting the lungs, blood, breasts, prostate, and ovaries. Despite these serious concerns, microplastics added to products as abrasives (there are natural alternatives), to release fragrance, or for other avoidable purposes. AB 823 builds on a previous bill Clean Water Action co-sponsored banning the plastics in rinse off personal care products by expanding the number of plastic pollution sources that will be restricted.
Clean Water Action is co-sponsoring AB 823 with Californians Against Waste, the 5 Gyres Institute and Breast Cancer Prevention Partners.