Stakeholders should stay informed as state and federal officials advance plans and policies for water conservation, water quality, and climate resilience in California.
By Mike Romey, Lucas Quass, Nolan Fargo, Cody Kermanian, and Samantha Yeager
Following consecutive years of heavy rainfall, California experienced record heat and dry conditions during the summer of 2024, which led parts of the state back into drought. Despite late 2024 storms in Northern California, January 2025 saw statewide precipitation fall below
Mark Twain is often credited with saying, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” This remains true in California, where drought conditions, climate change, and population growth throughout the state’s history have made water an increasingly valuable and regulated resource. The legal landscape involves complex questions related to water quality, water sustainability, and competing claims to water rights. One notable area of controversy involves the adequacy of water supply for new development projects.
Over the past month, two US Courts of Appeals have rejected Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suits seeking to hold power companies liable for discharges of pollutants from coal ash disposal facilities “through” groundwater to waters of the US. Although the Fourth Circuit accepted that discharges through groundwater could be the basis for liability, it held that the relevant ash piles and impoundments were not “point sources” for purposes of the CWA. The Sixth Circuit likewise held that the ash disposal facilities at issue were not point sources, but — contrary to the Fourth Circuit — also held that discharges through groundwater were not actionable under the Act. Collectively, these recent decisions stand as a significant new obstacle to citizen suits against owner/operators of coal ash impoundments. At the same time, the decisions deepen a circuit split on the so-called “groundwater conduit” theory of CWA liability, helping to tee the issue up for possible Supreme Court resolution. If the Court does take this question up, the outcome will be critically important for many industry sectors, including electric power, oil and gas, manufacturing, and mining companies, among others. The CWA imposes strict liability, and citizen suits based on groundwater conduit claims can result in extremely costly remedies — including large civil penalties and injunctive relief.
New regulations governing the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop 65) will go into effect on August 30, 2018 that apply to products manufactured after the operative date of August 30, 2018. The new regulations update the content of the Prop 65 warning label that appears on products, in addition to other substantive changes.
Enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, commonly known as Proposition 65 (Prop 65), will change significantly on August 30, 2018. Two years earlier, on August 30, 2016, California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), the agency responsible for implementing Prop 65, issued regulations that increased businesses’ responsibility to provide a “clear and reasonable” warning to consumers for products that contain carcinogens and/or reproductive toxicants. Among other requirements, under these new regulations (2016 Regulations) businesses must provide consumers in California with more specific information about potentially harmful chemicals in their consumer products. The 2016 Regulations also specify which entities in the stream of commerce are responsible for providing the Prop 65 warnings and the information that goes into the warnings.
China’s water supply problems are well-known globally. However, the main problem facing China is how to distribute its water, rather than lack of water per se. 80% of China’s water supply lies in southern China. But this water cannot be used by the population of 12 Chinese provinces representing 41% of its total population, 38% of Chinese agriculture, 46% of its industry, and 50% of its power generation. Eight of these provinces are currently experiencing acute water scarcity, while in four provinces water is merely “scarce,” and two provinces are largely desert. Moreover, the problem is getting worse, with 28,000 rivers in China having dried up over the past 25 years. And China’s appetite for water continues to grow, with consumption forecast to rise to 670 billion cubic meters a year by the early 2020s.