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announcements about upcoming events, tours, new Western
Water articles on key water topics and more!
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Join us May 5 for an open house and
reception at our new Sacramento office near the
confluence of the Sacramento and American
rivers. Stop by anytime between 2:30 and 5:30
p.m. to meet our staff and learn more about what we
do to educate and inspire understanding of California’s most
precious natural resource — water.
If you are attending the ACWA conference that week in Sacramento
and heading back to the airport Thursday afternoon we are right
on the way!
Follow us on social media channels
to learn about issues key to understanding water and to get the
latest on workshops and tours being planned at the Water
Education Foundation.
We regularly post on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and
Instagram to cast a wider net in our efforts to
educate the public about critical water resource
information, such as conservation tips to help with the
drought gripping California and the West.
As drought grips California and much of the West, water
challenges intensify. Our Water 101 Workshop on April
8 is your once-a-year opportunity to
gain a foundational understanding of water in California and
learn more about the drought and other hot topics. You can also
visit ground zero for drought impacts as we tour the San Joaquin
Valley next month during our Central Valley
Tour.
And in May, visit our new office and meet the people who
carry out our programs and keep our nonprofit humming along
during our Open House. You can read the latest
Western Water article by our journalism
team on the new head of the Environmental Protection
Agency’s Region 9 office, Martha Guzman, who happens to be a
graduate of our premier Water Leaders class.
Water 101 Workshop – The Basics & Beyond: April
8
Our annual Water
101 Workshop in Sacramento will help you gain a
deeper understanding of the state’s most precious natural
resource. The workshop is taught by some of the leading policy
and legal experts in the state and will provide critical
background on California’s water basics, such as:
• California’s water geography, history and
hydrology
• California’s complex water rights system
• Regulatory agencies and their roles at the
state and federal levels
• Navigating the state’s legislative process
relative to water policy
Go beyond the headlines and learn
more about how California is adjusting to the grim reality of a
third year of drought while keeping an eye on groundwater use,
often the go-to source when surface supplies run dry.
Some of California’s top experts will address a variety of
critical issues affecting the state’s most precious natural
resource at our
April 8 Water 101 Workshop in Sacramento. But
space is limited!
Don’t miss your once-a-year opportunity
to learn more about topics in the news such as the statewide
drought, water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
efforts to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
by registering
today.
As a third year of drought looms,
Central Valley farmers and water managers are bracing for little
to no water deliveries from state and federal projects this year.
Aquifers are under stress and pressure is growing to reduce
groundwater depletion and the resulting ground subsidence. How is
the region meeting the requirements of the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act? And will there be enough water this
year to satisfy the competing needs of farms, people and the
environment?
Your best opportunity to understand the challenges and
opportunities of this vital resource in the nation’s breadbasket
is to join us on our Central Valley
Tour April 20-22.
Thirteen early
to mid-career water professionals from across the West have
been chosen for the Water Education Foundation’s
inaugural 2022 Colorado River Water Leaders Class.
Modeled after our California Water Leaders program, now marking
its 25th anniversary, the Colorado River Water Leaders class also
includes engineers, lawyers, resource specialists, scientists and
others working for public, private and nongovernmental
organizations from across the river’s basin. The 2022 class
roster can be found
here.
World Water Day is Tuesday, March
22, and to mark the occasion the Foundation is offering a
limited-time 30 percent discount on our beautiful
poster-size maps, Layperson’s Guides, map and guide bundles
and our book, “Water & the Shaping of California.”
Use the promo code WORLDWATERDAY2022 when checking
out of our online store.
As drought tightens its grip on
California, our Water
101 Workshop on April 8 is your once-a-year
chance to get beyond the headlines to learn more about the
state’s most precious natural resource and the hot issues
confronting the state, like groundwater sustainability, water
rights, and clean, safe and affordable drinking water.
This week’s National Groundwater
Awareness Week is a reminder of just how important groundwater is
for nearly 85 percent of California’s residents who depend on it
for some portion of their supply. In all, groundwater quenches
some 40 percent of the state’s freshwater needs — even more in a
drought year like we’re having now.
With California diving deeper into a
drought, take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity to attend
our Water
101 Workshop on April 8 and gain a
deeper understanding of the history, hydrology and law
behind California’s most precious natural resource.
And go beyond the headlines to learn more about the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, disadvantaged communities and the
latest on efforts to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act.
Register today for the return
of our most popular in-person tour, the Bay-Delta Tour May
18-20, and join us as we venture into the most
critical and controversial water region in California, the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The 720,000-acre network of islands and channels supports
the state’s two large water systems – the State Water Project and
the federal Central Valley Project – and together with the San
Francisco Bay is an important ecological resource. You’ll learn
firsthand how the drought is affecting water quality and supply
that serves local farms, cities and habitat. Much of
the water also heads south via canals and aqueducts to provide
drinking water for more than 27 million Californians and
irrigation to about 3 million acres of farmland that helps feed
the nation.
Once uncountably numerous, the
native Delta smelt since 2016 has largely vanished from most
annual sampling surveys in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. But in December, state and federal biologists began
for the first time ever releasing captively bred adult Delta
smelt into the Delta’s waterways in a three-year effort to draw
the species away from the brink of extinction.
One of our most popular events,
Water
101 offers a once-a-year opportunity for anyone new
to California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and really anyone who wants a refresher — to
gain a deeper understanding of the state’s most precious
natural resource.
Water 101, to be held April 8 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, details the history, geography, legal and political
facets of water in California, as well as hot topics currently
facing the state. The workshop is taught by some of California’s
leading policy and legal experts.
As COVID-19 restrictions start to loosen up for most indoor
settings, we are cautiously moving toward a return
of our popular in-person programming this spring starting
with our Lower Colorado River Tour in March, our
Water 101 Workshop and Central Valley
Tour in April and our Bay-Delta Tour in
May.
Participants on our
in-person Lower Colorado
River Tour March 16-18 will enjoy a scenic
journey on the iconic river aboard an open-air vessel traveling
through the natural wonders of Topock Gorge and the Havasu
Wilderness Area.
Itineraries for this year’s slate
of water tours have been adjusted to
maximize the use of outdoor/open-air venues when possible, in
addition to other precautions, including enhanced sanitation
protocols and a mask requirement aboard the motorcoach and within
indoor spaces until further notice by health officials. Find more
details here.
Seating is limited, so register
here to reserve your spot today!
Twenty early to mid-career
water professionals from across California have been chosen for
the 2022 William R. Gianelli Water Leaders Class, the Water
Education Foundation’s highly competitive and respected career
development program.
This Water Leaders class, which marks the program’s 25th
anniversary, includes engineers, lawyers, resource
specialists, scientists and others from a range of public and
private entities and nongovernmental organizations from
throughout the state. The roster for the
2022 class can be foundhere.
Four new members bringing a wide
range of water resource experiences and perspectives have joined
the Water Education Foundation Board. They include
representatives from a Native American Tribe and the Nature
Conservancy, a lawyer specializing in water resources and a
communications and outreach manager for a Southern California
water agency.
They join a board led by Mike Chrisman, who served as California
natural resources secretary for seven years under former Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As 2022 unfolds at the Water Education Foundation, we are
planning for a cautious return to in-person events starting in
March with our Lower Colorado River Tour. Save the dates for our
other spring tours that are noted below. We’ve also got some new
publications to beef up your water knowledge and a job opening
for a writer.
There is just about a week left to
apply for our inaugural Colorado River Water Leaders
program in 2022, which marks the 100th anniversary
of the Colorado River Compact.
The biennial program is modeled after our highly successful
Water Leaders
program in California, now 25 years strong.
Our Colorado River program will select rising stars from the
seven U.S. states and tribal nations that rely on the river -
California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New
Mexico – to participate in the seven-month class designed for
working professionals. Class members will explore issues
surrounding the iconic Southwest river, deepen their water
knowledge and build leadership skills.
In the centennial year of the 1922 Colorado River
Compact that established a framework for management of the
river, the tour will take participants from Hoover Dam downstream
to the Mexican border and through the Imperial and Coachella
valleys to learn firsthand about the challenges and opportunities
now facing the “Lifeline of the Southwest” a hundred years later.
