Environmental Justice Advocates Urge California Water Board to Protect Groundwater From Dairy Nitrate Contamination
For Immediate Release
Environmental Justice Advocates Urge California Water Board to Protect Groundwater From Dairy Nitrate Contamination
New findings show widespread contamination across Central Valley, disproportionate impact on Latine communities.
Tulare, CA — On July 30, 2026, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (“CRLA”) and Santa Clara University (“SCU”)’s Water and Climate Justice Lab submitted groundbreaking data analysis in a public comment letter to the State Water Resources Control Board (“State Board”) regarding its revised draft Dairy Order, which proposes a framework to regulate dairy waste discharges.
Joined by La Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua, (“AGUA Coalition”) a coalition of residents advocating for clean water, and individual Tulare County residents living near dairies, CRLA and SCU are urging the State Board to significantly improve the Revised Draft Dairy Order in order to protect the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on groundwater for drinking and other domestic uses in the Central Valley.
Drinking nitrate-contaminated water poses significant health risks and harm, including methemoglobinemia (commonly known as “Blue Baby Syndrome), as well as increased risks of preterm births and low birth weights, neural tube birth defects, and cancers — including thyroid, colorectal, and gastric cancer — from exposure over a long period of time.
The advocates’ recommendations are supported by new data findings by SCU’s Water and Climate Justice Lab and CRLA highlighting the pervasiveness of nitrate contamination across the Central Valley and that nitrate contamination is not spread across the Central Valley equally.
The analysis found that nitrate concentration is widespread across the Central Valley with nitrate levels averaging 9.6 mg/L for domestic wells, nearly the 10 mg/L maximum contaminant level (“MCL”). Nitrate contamination is substantially worse for residents located on or within the boundary of a dairy where the average nitrate level is 20.2 mg/L—twice the MCL.
Central Valley residents living within two miles of one or more concentrated animal facilities (“CAFs”) are exposed to an average nitrate level of 12.6 mg/L, and are twice (1.98 times) as likely to be exposed to groundwater nitrate concentrations above the MCL compared to residents living more than two miles from a CAF.
Latine communities experience a disproportionate burden of dairy nitrate contamination. In predominantly (>80%) Latine census tracts that contain at least one CAF and have no public water system, the average nitrate concentration is 11.27 mg/L, above the MCL, while in census tracts that have less than 50% Latine residents, the average nitrate contamination level drops to 5.01 mg/L. Even more alarmingly, domestic wells in census tracts that are almost exclusively (>90%) Latine, nitrate concentration averages to 14.8 mg/L— almost 1.5 times the MCL.
The Revised Draft Dairy Order does not adequately or effectively protect Central Valley groundwater from nitrate contamination. For instance, the State Board does not propose any specific dairy nitrate discharge limits and instead directs the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to create interim limits while proposing to take until 2032 to develop final limits. The State Board also proposes an overlong compliance schedule of 35 years.
Additionally, the Revised Dairy Order continues to rely primarily on dairy self-reporting rather than requiring independent verification of reported data, and it also does not commit to making data readily accessible to the public. The State Board also fails to propose that dischargers pay for long-term alternative drinking water supply for nitrate-impacted residents.
In light of the urgent risks posed by dairies to Central Valley drinking water, CRLA is advocating the State Water Board to strengthen the Revised Draft Order by acting immediately to minimize further dairy nitrate contamination and to require the Central Valley Water Board to provide both short- and long-term clean drinking water to residents.
This recent public comment submission is a continuation of decades-long advocacy by Central Valley environmental justice advocates, work which will not end until every Central Valley resident has reliable access to clean, safe sources of drinking water.
“The communities being affected by nitrate issues are thirsty for justice,” community resident Tutuy Montes said. “We’ve been fighting for years and will continue to fight.”
###
Media Contacts
Angelica Rodriguez
California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.
(559) 235-8553, anrodriguez@crla.org
Iris Stewart-Frey
Santa Clara University, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, and the Water and Climate Justice Lab
(408) 551-7186, istewartfrey@scu.edu
About California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.
Founded in 1966, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) is a nonprofit, anti-poverty law firm that dismantles unjust systems through community lawyering in California’s historically rural areas. We work with people priced out of private legal representation so they can uphold civil rights in housing, employment, health, and public education. Through our 17 service locations, communities can access a broad range of legal tools, including direct legal services, place-based advocacy to expand equity in civic institutions, and specialized litigation to advance civil rights.
crla.org
About Santa Clara University Water and Climate Justice Lab
Santa Clara University (“SCU”)’s Water and Climate Justice Lab, which is a research lab in collaboration with the Frugal Innovation Hub and SCU’s Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative, fosters community-driven research and learning to advance social and environmental justice. The Water and Climate Justice Lab has conducted multiple collaborative studies throughout the Central Valley to strengthen disadvantaged communities’ access to clean water in the face of severe drought and climate change, and to address water contamination from nitrates, uranium, pesticides, and other pollutants by providing expertise, analysis, and other support to community partners. By doing so, the Water and Climate Justice Lab empowers communities to advocate for greater consideration of environmental justice in the regulatory process, ultimately contributing to a more just, resilient and sustainable water system.
