Show Me The Water

A New Water Plan In California Could Mean a Real Reckoning, Plus A Reminder To Test Your Private Well Water.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Let me tell you something I don’t say very often. I’m cautiously hopeful about something the government just did.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched the California Water Plan 2028, and for the first time in this state’s history, there’s a real, measurable target attached to it—9 million acre-feet of additional water supply by 2040.

That’s not a press release talking point. That’s a number. And numbers, unlike promises, can be held to account.

Now, I have been publicly critical of Newsom and his administration on many issues in the state through the years, so I do stress the cautious part of my optimism.

I’ve spent decades watching communities get handed official-sounding documents while their tap water turned every color of the rainbow. When Sacramento starts talking about “the most ambitious water plan in state history,” I don’t reach for the champagne. I reach for my reading glasses and a highlighter. Because the devil, as always, is in the details.

But here’s the thing, what I’m reading in SB 72 and the framework around the 2028 Water Plan is different from the usual political theater. It’s got measurable benchmarks, a mandate to set localized targets, and an advisory committee that’s supposed to include tribal representatives, environmental justice groups, and labor, not just the water districts and agricultural lobbyists who’ve been running the show for generations.

That’s real.

Why This Plan Matters

California is in a genuine water crisis, whether or not you live in a county that’s feeling it yet. The state swings between biblical floods and multi-year droughts with almost nothing in between. Snowpack, the natural reservoir that’s fed this state’s farms and cities for centuries, is shrinking. And a shrinking snowpack isn’t just an inconvenience for skiers; it’s an existential threat to the 4th largest economy in the world.

“California’s hydrology is changing,” Department of Water Resources (DWR) director Karla Nemeth said in a statement. “We’re living that now. Extreme wet swings to intensely dry within the same season.”

The fact that someone at the top of California’s water apparatus is saying it out loud, on the record, is noteworthy.

California State Senator Anna Caballero, who authored SB 72, put it plainly: for the first time, California is setting a clear statewide target and establishing measurable benchmarks.

The mandate to transform the Water Plan from a passive descriptive document into an action-forcing directive is real. It’s in the law. That’s not nothing. That’s significant.

The Parts That Gives Me Pause

Now. Here’s where I put down my cautious optimism and pick up my magnifying glass. Because there are real questions this plan does not yet answer—and the communities that need clean, reliable water the most can’t afford to wait until 2028 to find out the plan has gaps in it.

Who enforces the targets? The 9 million acre-feet goal is described as an “interim statewide planning target.” Planning targets without enforcement teeth have a long history of being quietly set aside when they become inconvenient. What happens if California is 2 million acre-feet short in 2039? Who pays? Who’s held accountable?

Environmental justice isn’t window dressing. The advisory committee is supposed to include EJ representation, and that’s a step forward. But historically, these seats get filled with organizations that are well-networked in Sacramento but disconnected from the communities actually drinking polluted water. Hinkley wasn’t on anybody’s committee. Make sure the right voices are in the room, and that they have real power, not just a seat.

Agriculture’s water footprint needs honest math. The plan talks about supply, conservation, recharge, and storage. Agriculture accounts for roughly 40 percent of California's total water use, and about 80 percent of all developed water, the kind that gets collected, managed, and conveyed by agencies.

On top of that, agriculture draws on vast quantities of groundwater, with about 40 percent of its needs met through subterranean sources. That overdraft is hollowing out aquifers that communities depend on for drinking water and causing measurable ground subsidence across the Central Valley. If those realities aren't woven explicitly into the localized targets and cost-benefit analyses, this plan risks being a masterwork of creativity around the edges of the real problem.

Data collection is not the same as action. One of the three primary workstreams is improving data. We need that, absolutely. But data collection has a way of becoming a substitute for decision-making. I want to see aggressive timelines that prevent “we’re still gathering data” from becoming a decade-long delay tactic.

2040 is 14 years away. Not all communities have 14 years to wait. They need interim milestones that matter now, not just a finish line that politicians in 2040 may never have to answer for.

What Gives Me Hope

Despite those concerns, which I raise not to tear this plan down but because I’ve earned the right to ask hard questions, there are genuine signals that something different is happening here.

The language coming from DWR Deputy Director Joel Metzger gives me pause in a good way.

“The new California Water Plan is where vision meets accountability,” he said in a statement. “I’m inspired by the partnerships forming around this work and the shared commitment to long-term water resilience. Relationships, trust building, and compelling storytelling will be essential to moving this work forward successfully.”

He’s right. The communities that have been left out of water planning don’t need another technical document dropped on their doorstep. They need to be part of crafting the story. If DWR actually means that, it changes the nature of what this plan can become.

What You Can Do Right Now

The thing about these plans is that they become what the public makes them. The advisory committee holds its inaugural meeting in April, and those meetings are public. CaliforniaWaterPlan.com is live. The engagement window is open right now.

If you live in a community that’s been dealing with contaminated water, inadequate infrastructure, or systematic exclusion from water policy decisions, show up. Bring your neighbors. Make sure the people crafting this plan understand that accountability isn’t a footnote; it’s the whole point.

California is staring down a water future that is genuinely frightening if we don’t act with both ambition and honesty. The 2028 Water Plan represents a real attempt to do both. Governor Newsom and Senator Caballero deserve credit for putting a number on the wall and a legal mandate behind it.

Now comes the harder part. The follow-through. Fourteen years of follow-through, across changing administrations, in the face of drought years and flood years and all the lobbyists and competing interests that will try to water this plan down—pun fully intended!

I’ve been fighting for clean water long enough to know that the difference between a plan and a result is people who refuse to let the plan die quietly. Be those people. California’s water is worth fighting for. It always has been.

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Meanwhile in Mississippi…

U.S.EPA and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) will hold a community meeting on Thursday, March 5, to inform the community of the agencies’ response to trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination in private drinking water wells.

EPA is assisting MDEQ by working to provide bottled water and whole house filters to properties with TCE contamination above the Federal Drinking Water Maximum Contaminant Level for TCE of 5 parts per billion (ppb). EPA is continuing to sample residential wells in the area of interest and MDEQ is working to determine the source and extent of contamination.

When:
Thursday, March 5 at 6 p.m.

Where:
Byhalia Town Hall    
225 MS-309
Byhalia, Miss. 38611 

In Case You Missed It:
Community members in Marshall County are dealing with contaminated well water issues after high levels of TCE, a known carcinogen, were found when a resident recently tested their well water and detected dangerous.

EPA has distributed bottled water to homes with high levels of TCE and met with concerned homeowners. This water contamination specifically impacted those with private well water.

The mayor of Byhalia said that those on the public water system in Byhalia are safe.

Trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, is a colorless, nonflammable liquid solvent used in commercial, and consumer products, such as industrial cleaners, degreasers, lubricants, adhesives, automotive care products, and cleaning and furniture care items.

EPA issued a final rule regulating TCE under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in December 2024 to help protect people from health risks including liver cancer, kidney cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. TCE also causes damage to the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, immune system, reproductive organs, and causes fetal heart defects.

Let this be a reminder to everyone with private well water to regularly get your water tested at least once a year.

For those in the area impacted, our friends at MyTapScore have told us they’ve been fielding calls from residents about how they are being tossed from company to company trying to track down reliable testing for this contaminant.

They recommend that private well owners in the impacted areas use the VOC Water Test, which includes TCE in addition to a range of other VOCs.

Many well owners have either never tested their wells or have not tested in decades. If that’s the case, you might want to consider a more comprehensive test such as the Advanced Home Water Test, which also includes TCE.

This is not any kind of sponsored ad, we just know the people over there, and that their tests work. You can also check out this U.S. EPA site for more information about private water wells.

Stay safe, everyone! Suzanne always talks about a saying she leaned in journalism school, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

The same applies to your water. Always check your water report, and if you have private well water, it’s on you to get it tested and make sure it’s safe.

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