California Prioritizes Safe Drinking Water Funding
For Immediate Release
September 23, 2026
Contact:
Maraid Jimenez, Community Water Center, (765) 729-1674, maraid.jimenez@communitywatercenter.org
Stephanie Ambriz, Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability, (442) 400-2534, sambriz@leadershipcounsel.org
Jennifer Clary, Clean Water Action, (707) 483-6352, jclary@cleanwater.org
California Prioritizes Safe Drinking Water Funding
Time to Make it Affordable and Permanent
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Last Friday afternoon, Governor Newsom signed budget bills AB 113, SB114, and SB193 into law, authorizing $171M for SAFER for the 2026-27 fiscal year. This is a significant shift from the $24 million estimate projected in July. Community partners, allies, and strong leadership headed by Senator Melissa Hurtado and Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria made this critical change possible to secure safe water funding. Now is the time to make sure this investment in safe water is permanent, and to ensure that water is affordable.
“Living in the Cutler Orosi area, we realize that if SAFER loses funding we would be lost when we think about the dry wells that happen and the emergency bottled water we need,” said Angie Moreno, AGUA coalition member from the San Joaquin Valley. “We appreciate that the Governor has visited our communities like East Orosi and it is great we have this funding secured, but we need to make sure that years down the line, we still have funding so my community can finish the work and consolidate to have safe drinking water.”
SAFER has invested over $900 million in drinking water grants, funding 170 water system consolidations and bringing 321 water systems back into compliance. However, there are still 1,052 failing or at risk water systems that need investments to deliver safe water to their ratepayers. We need a permanent funding source to keep working towards solutions for contaminants like nitrate, 1,2,3-TCP, PFAS, and chromium-6 and outdated infrastructure. Californians organized to create this program and while maintaining its funding for this year is critical, the next step is working to guarantee $130 million annually to reaffirm the state’s commitment to a successful program for Californians in the long run.
”More than 1 million Californians have achieved access to safe drinking water since 2019, thanks to the SAFER program,” said Jennifer Clary, California Director of Clean Water Action. “Many of these systems had lacked safe drinking water for decades. The funding included in the budget package signed by Governor Newsom will continue this important work, and we look forward to working with the next administration to make this funding permanent.”
Securing funding for safe drinking water is only effective if this vital utility is accessible and affordable for all. The potential to address affordability exists in SB 1125 by Senator Menjivar and AB 2739 by Assemblymember Soria, which establishes the framework for a Statewide Water Rate Assistance Program and the basis to secure funding for it. While most essential utilities offer broadbased affordability programs to provide much needed relief, water remains an exception. This isn’t a novel concept — California has established low-income rate assistance programs for most essential costs like healthcare, groceries, gas, electricity, and broadband. With almost 1 million Californians facing extreme water bills that exceed the already high average of $75 a month, the time to address affordability is now by signing these bills approved by both the Assembly and Senate.
“We work alongside low-income families paying well over $100 a month for tap water, an essential service that can be shut off when a household falls behind on bills,” said Michael Claiborne, Directing Attorney for Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. “After over a decade of studies, stakeholder meetings, and negotiations, SB 1125 now represents a consensus approach to establishing a statewide low-income rate assistance program for water. We urge the Governor to sign it.”
California leadership is working towards securing safe and affordable drinking water for all and funding SAFER this year is a promising start. However, we need long-term funding guarantees for SAFER along with urgency to address water affordability with the strong opportunity available in SB 1125 and AB 2739. We look forward to working with California leadership towards viable solutions that guarantee permanent funding and make the Human Right to Water for all Californians a reality they can count on.
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Community Water Center (CWC) works to ensure that all communities have reliable access to safe, clean, and affordable water. Founded in 2006, CWC is a not-for-profit environmental justice organization, whose mission is to act as a catalyst for community-driven water solutions through education, organizing, and advocacy.
Web: www.communitywatercenter.org.
Twitter: @CWaterC
Facebook: @CommunityWaterCenter
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability works alongside the most impacted communities in the San Joaquin Valley and Eastern Coachella Valley to advocate for sound policy and eradicate injustice to secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income, and place. Leadership Counsel focuses on issues like housing, land use, transportation, safe and affordable drinking water and climate change impacts on communities. Twitter: LCJandA FB: @lcjacalifornia IG: @leadership_counsel Web: leadershipcounsel.org
Clean Water Action - Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table.
Our Mission is to protect our environment, health, economic well-being and community quality of life. Clean Water Action organizes strong grassroots groups and coalitions, and campaigns to elect environmental candidates and to solve environmental and community problems.
For more information, visit our website at www.cleanwater.org or follow us on Twitter @cleanh2oca and Facebook @CleanWaterActionCalifornia.
