May 8, 2017 (Sunnyvale, Calif.) – Water systems in California have the nation’s ninth-worst record for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Researchers pored over Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data from 2015 and found more than 1,900 violations in 832 different water systems that together serve 2.5 million people – in the Golden State alone. Erik Olson, a report coauthor and director of the NRDC’s Health Program, said many of the violations are for water conditions that can make people sick, and listed a few of the concerns.