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Opinion: California has work to do to provide clean water for all

50 years after Clean Water Act, your zip code shouldn’t determine whether you have access to safe drinking water

Source: The Mercury News

"As we celebrate the anniversary of the Clean Water Act, it is time to guarantee that every Californian has equal access to clean water."

On the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, we should celebrate its successes. San Francisco has stopped the dumping of raw sewage into the Bay. Rivers no longer catch on fire due to flammable contaminants. Wildlife has returned to once abandoned estuaries and wetlands. California has made great strides in protecting our waters for swimming, fishing, and other human activities — in affluent areas.

California’s disadvantaged and black and brown communities continue to deal with unacceptable and dramatic levels of water pollution. The sad truth is, 50 years after the enactment of the Clean Water Act, we simply have not taken pollution in disadvantaged communities as seriously as in affluent areas.