Water Justice Clinic Director Pannu writes Sacramento Bee op-ed about water bill SB 623

A California Senate bill that would establish a Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund for communities with polluted water does not give agricultural interests a free pass, Aoki Water Justice Clinic Director Camille Pannu wrote in a May 22 op-ed in the Sacramento Bee.

Pannu was responding to a May 15 Bee op-ed in which Terry Tamminen asserted that Senate Bill 623 would give farmers who contributed to the fund “a pass on cleaning up their operations.”

SB 623, which the Water Justice Clinic analyzed independently, does not let agricultural participants off the hook, Pannu wrote:

“In addition to paying into the fund, they must comply with all current and future water regulations. Their payments will help water suppliers with expensive infrastructure upgrades to deal with past pollution. Now, hundreds of systems are unable to provide safe water because their customers cannot afford necessary treatment. This fund would fix that.”

The more than 1 million Californians who currently receive unsafe tap water “spend more than 10 percent of their incomes to buy water and still pay high rates for tap water they can’t drink,” Pannu wrote.

The Aoki Water Justice Clinic partners with stakeholders to improve the sustainability of rural water systems; advocate for the inclusion of rural and low-income communities in water-management decisions; and ensure all Californians have access to safe, clean and affordable drinking water.