Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Act to Protect California's Drinking Water is Introduced in the State Assembly

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan has introduced the Nitrogen Pollution Reduction Act (AB 2447), sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Soil Health Team (NRDC). The bill requires the State Water Resources Control Board and California's regional water quality control boards to establish enforceable limits on nitrogen discharges from agricultural lands.

“I’m proud to author this legislation, in partnership with NRDC, and to be leading the charge to ensure that California’s water is clean and safe,” said Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan. “Nitrogen pollution is a public health crisis, an environmental justice crisis, and is contributing to the climate crisis, and for too long, the communities bearing the heaviest burden have been low-income families who can't safely drink the water from their own taps. California has had the legal authority and the data to fix this for years. This bill makes sure we finally take action and solve this problem for California families.”

“It’s unacceptable that many Californians lack access to clean water due to the state’s inaction,” said Arohi Sharma, Senior Policy Analyst for Nature at NRDC. “Other countries have shown that limits on nitrogen pollution work. Clean water and sustainable agriculture are not competing priorities. Californians deserve both.” 

When excess nitrogen fertilizer leaches into groundwater, it becomes nitrate, a contaminant linked to blue baby syndrome, preterm births, leukemia, and childhood brain cancers. It also fuels harmful algal blooms that devastate ecosystems and rural economies, and escapes into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. More than 735,000 Californians, predominantly low-income families in the Central Valley, currently lack access to safe drinking water, including as a result of nitrate contamination. Meanwhile, farmers who already practice responsible nitrogen management are left competing on an uneven playing field: penalized by a system that places no meaningful consequences on those who overapply.

The NPRA would direct the State Water Resources Control Board and regional boards to set enforceable nitrogen discharge limits, ending decades of regulatory inaction and delivering the clean water protections California's most overburdened communities have long been promised.

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).