CENTRAL COAST REGION, Calif. (KEYT) – On Friday, an enforcement advisory was issued regarding free water quality testing available for well-based drinking water at rental properties across California.

According to a June 2025 report by the California State Water Resources Control Board, about 95 percent of Californians get their drinking water from a public or municipal source.

If you get your drinking water from a private well, the state water management organization recommends testing your well water once a year.

Some cities, such as Santa Barbara, have decades-long programs established to ensure long-term access to drinking water.

For those who get their drinking water from a well at a rental property, a state law passed in 2024, AB 2454, created a free well water quality testing program that requires landlords test the drinking water wells at their rental properties.

Landlords are legally required to share the results with current residents within ten days, particiapte in any available free remediation program as well as provide information to tenants from the State Water Board's website on how to read the results shared the Attorney General's Office.

Additionally, landlords are prohibited from charging tenants any fees or increasing rent for participating in the water testing program added the Attorney General's Office.

"Access to safe drinking water is a fundamental human right. Everyone deserves clean, safe water in their home. Without systematic testing, contamination can remain hidden, leaving households unknowingly exposed and cut off from solutions that already exist," explained California Attorney General Rob Bonta in an enforcement letter about the water testing program. "AB 2425 ensures that free, accessible water testing and treatment programs are available, so no one is left in the dark about their water quality and every community has the opportunity to protect their health and well-being. I urge landlords with drinking water wells to follow the law and test their wells to provide safe drinking water to protect public health and the environment from the threat of water contamination."

The state law applies to an estimated one million Californians and the regions most impacted include the Central Valley and Central Coast regions were wells are commonly used to tap into local groundwater noted the Office of Attorney General in an enforcement letter issued Friday.

"I am issuing this enforcement advisory to remind landlords with drinking water wells on their properties of the requirements established under Assembly Bill 2454 (2024) ("AB 2454"), codified in Health and Safety Code section 116688, and to help tenants understand their rights," opened Friday's letter. "AB 2454 requires landlords with wells to participate in free programs for well testing that are available in
their region and, where applicable, provide tenants with access to safe drinking water. The State Water Board's 2025 Drinking Water Needs Assessment found that nearly one-third of private wells are at ris

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By Tierney Sneed, Jake Tapper, Bryan Mena, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge has quashed subpoenas the Justice Department had issued against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, according to court documents unsealed Friday.

The ruling is a major blow to President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Powell for not lowering interest rates and urged the Justice Department to investigate the outgoing chair.

US District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg wrote in the new opinion that a “mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.”

“On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual,” Boasberg said.

The federal probe underscores the Trump administration’s intense pressure campaign Powell and the Fed in a bid to get the politically independent central bank to lower interest rates.

Trump continues to insult Powell on social media, calling him every name in the book, and his administration is currently trying to push out Fed Governor Lisa Cook, appointed by then-President Joe Biden, in a landmark case at the US Supreme Court.

Powell had stayed mostly mum in the face of Trump’s attacks, but just a few days after he was served with a subpoena in early January, the Fed chief released a remarkable video calling out the investigation as an affront to the Fed’s independence.

Powell’s term as chair expires in May and Trump in January nominated former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh to run the central bank. But Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, a key vote on the Senate Banking Committee that would confirm the nomination, has said the committee should not consider a vote until the criminal probe of Powell is resolved.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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