California has been suffering an extended drought that has endured for three years. Recently, heavy rains have alleviated this some of this, but there is still severe drought conditions in many parts of the state. During this drought, the government agencies responsible for protecting freshwater systems that serve as recreational waters and sources of drinking water to Californian residents have simply failed to do so, with disastrous results.

California's waterways are infested with more toxic algal blooms than ever witnessed before; many native plant and animal species facing extinction; and the livelihood of thousands of fisherman, who depend on salmon catches as their sole source of income, hangs in the balance. But last week, a federal district court ruled that the US Environmental Protection Agency and California's State Water Control Board need to comply with the Clean Water Act, and must implement measures to address the devastating impact that waiving water quality standards in times of drought has had on water quality and natural ecosystems in the Bay-Delta, ultimately impacting the quality of water used as a source of food (fishing), recreation (swimming) and drinking water by local communities.

California lake bed drying up

The court's decision was made in response to a lawsuit filed by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife, and The Bay Institute.

"We filed this action after the State Board made 14 separate decisions over the last three years that allowed massive state and federal water diversion projects in the Bay-Delta to violate more than 24 water quality standards," said Kate Poole, Senior Attorney, Water and Wildlife Project Director, Water program at the NRDC.

The decisions in question were responsible for redirecting an astronomical volume of water to the corporate agricultural sector, putting environmental integrity and drinking water quality at risk. According to the NRDC, the volume of water diverted is so large that it could provide Los Angeles with water for at least two years. In 2014 and 2015, 1.083 million acre-feet of water was diverted, while in 2016 California's State Water Control Board allowed a further 258,000 acre-feet of water to be diverted from rivers, while simultaneously lifting water conservation requirements throughout the state.

The Clean Water Act was implemented to prevent negative impacts on water quality by requiring the EPA to assess proposed changes to water quality standards, ensuring that any proposed changes do not have a negative impact on beneficial water uses, such as salmon habitat and drinking water, before they go ahead and implement the changes. The Act is in place to prevent precisely this kind of deterioration to water quality. Both the EPA and California's State Water Control Board failed to do this before relaxing California's water quality protection standards over the past three years, but according to Poole, the NRDC intends to make sure they do so in future. Source: NRDC