NEVADA CITY, CA — With California’s gubernatorial race taking shape, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) and water advocates across the state are drawing a clear line: before ballots are cast, voters deserve to know where candidates stand on clean water protection in California.
SYRCL, in its role as the Yuba River Waterkeeper, is a member of the California Coastkeeper Alliance (CCKA). SYRCL’s Executive Director, Dr. Aaron Zettler-Mann, sits on the CCKA Board of Directors. CCKA has just released a comprehensive blueprint for modernizing California’s water policy, a framework that SYRCL is calling essential to protecting the Yuba River watershed and ensuring safe, reliable water for future generations. This blueprint was developed alongside SYRCL’s Your Water, Your Vote campaign which launched in February at this year’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival. It calls on all gubernatorial candidates to publicly commit to clean water protection before the election. Voters deserve to know where candidates stand on this important issue.
The CCKA blueprint offers a practical, actionable roadmap organized around three priorities. First, break from costly, outdated supply infrastructure and invest in local water security through recycling, stormwater capture, and groundwater recharge. Second, enforce existing clean water laws and set enforceable standards that restore fisheries, protect coastal communities, and confront the pollution driving ecosystem collapse while investing in floodplain restoration and forest health to get ahead of billion-dollar climate disasters. Third, fix a fragmented water governance system by elevating environmental justice and Tribal leadership, bringing real accountability to water decision-making, and ensuring that polluters pay for the damage they cause.
The scale of California’s water challenges is far-reaching and urgent. More than 30,000 miles of California’s waterways fail to meet basic water quality standards. Over 80 percent of the state’s native fish species are threatened, endangered, or extinct in parts of their range. More than 1,400 dams block access to over 90 percent of historical salmon spawning habitat. One million Californians are served by water systems that consistently fail to meet safe drinking water standards, and low-income households can spend more than 5% of their income on water, far above federal affordability benchmarks. These are the conditions California’s next Governor will inherit. The blueprint makes clear what it will take to change them.
“California’s next Governor will define the state’s water future,” said Dr. Aaron Zettler-Mann, SYRCL’s Executive Director. “Our ability to live in balance with nature, continue as an economic powerhouse, and let future generations have swimmable, drinkable, fishable water is dependent on water policy which is grounded in the reality of climate change and responsive to 21st century demands.”
California’s water system was designed for a different era. The state’s economy was built by diverting water from distant sources, moving it at high energy cost, using it once, and releasing it. This approach is no longer sustainable in the face of climate change, prolonged drought, and the increasing frequency of extreme flooding events.
What This Means for the Yuba River Watershed
For communities along the Yuba River, this matters in real, everyday ways. The blueprint calls for science-based requirements for how much water needs to stay in our rivers to achieve endangered species’ recovery and revitalize the ecological health of historically over-diverted waterways. It also prioritizes investment in meadow and headwater forest restoration — work that SYRCL is already advancing on the ground — as a proven strategy for increasing late-season streamflow, improving salmon habitat, and reducing catastrophic wildfire risk.
“Your voice shapes your water’s future,” said Traci Sheehan, SYRCL Policy Director. “Decisions made in this election will shape the Yuba River’s future. We must ask every candidate where they stand on protecting the water that sustains us all.”
Your Water, Your Vote
Clean water is not a partisan issue. It is a public health necessity, an economic foundation, and a shared value across California’s regions, communities, and political affiliations. At a moment when federal clean water protections face active rollback, SYRCL and its coalition partners are calling on every candidate seeking California’s highest office to state clearly, publicly, and on the record where they stand on the water future of this state.
To stay informed, visit yubariver.org and sign up for the SYRCL bi-weekly eNews.
About SYRCL: The South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL, pronounced “circle”) is the leading voice for the protection and restoration of the Yuba River watershed. Founded in 1983 through a rural, grassroots campaign to defend the South Yuba River from proposed hydropower dams, SYRCL has developed into a vibrant community organization with over 3,500 members and volunteers based in Nevada City, CA. See: www.yubariver.org