Facing the challenges of sustainably managing and sharing water,
our most precious natural resource, requires collaboration,
education and outreach. Since 1977, the Water Education
Foundation has put water resource issues in California and the
West in context to inspire a deep understanding of and
appreciation for water.
Taking a steady pulse of the water world, the Foundation offers
educational materials, tours of key watersheds, water news, water
leadership training and conferences that bring together diverse
voices. By providing tools and platforms for engagement with wide
audiences, we aim to help build sound and collective solutions to
water issues.
What We Do
We support and execute a wide variety of programming to build a
better understanding of water resources across the West,
including:
Mission: The mission of the Water Education
Foundation, an impartial nonprofit, is to inspire understanding
of water and catalyze critical conversations to build bridges and
inform collaborative decision-making
Vision: A society that has the ability to
resolve its water challenges to benefit all
Where We Work
Our office is located in Sacramento, CA.
Connect with Us!
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about upcoming workshops, tours and new publications.
You can learn more about the daily comings and goings of the
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LinkedIn.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
From the technology hub of San Jose
to the coastal enclave of Monterey and from the productive
agriculture of the Salinas Valley to the rolling vineyards of
Paso Robles, participants on our Central Coast Tour Nov. 6-7
will learn about efforts by water users to achieve sustainability
in a region grappling with limited local water supplies.
A diverse roster of top
policymakers and water experts are on the
agenda for the Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit. The conference, Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning, will feature compelling conversations
reflecting on upcoming regulatory deadlines and efforts to
improve water management and policy in the face of natural
disasters.
Tickets for the Water Summit are sold out, but by joining the waitlist we can
let you know when spaces open via cancellations.
The sustainable management of
groundwater is an important issue across California, but water
users along the coast also must deal with seawater intrusion when
their basins become imbalanced. Learn how one water district is
working to quantify the problem and address it on our Central Coast Tour Nov. 6-7.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
A UC Berkeley symposium in which water managers and others
from across the West assessed the opportunities and challenges of
improving troubled aquifers through managed aquifer recharge is
the focus of our latest article in Western
Water, our flagship publication.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
Our last tour of 2019 is all new and
will journey through a region grappling with limited local water
supplies. Solutions to issues surrounding urban, agricultural and
environmental water use on the scenic Central Coast involve
potential lessons for all of California.
Get a firsthand look at a completed
dam removal project near Monterey on our Central Coast Tour Nov. 6-7.
The removal of San Clemente Dam on the Carmel River in 2015 was
the largest project of its kind in California, and lessons
learned from it are being applied to other projects across the
state and the nation.
Although safety concerns from sediment buildup and seismic
activity were the primary drivers for the dam’s removal, it also
opened up miles of spawning habitat for salmon and steelhead on
the Carmel River that had been blocked for nearly 100 years.
California experienced one of the
most deadly and destructive wildfire years on record in 2018,
with several major fires occurring in the wildland-urban
interface (WUI). These areas, where communities are in close
proximity to undeveloped land at high risk of wildfire, have felt
devastating effects of these disasters, including direct impacts
to water infrastructure and supplies.
One panel at our 2019 Water
Summit Oct. 30 in Sacramento will feature speakers
from water agencies who came face-to-face with two major fires:
The Camp Fire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise in
Northern California, and the Woolsey Fire in the Southern
California coastal mountains. They’ll talk about their
experiences and what lessons they learned.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Atmospheric rivers, the narrow bands
of moisture that ferry precipitation across the Pacific Ocean to
the West Coast, are necessary to keep California’s water
reservoirs full.
However, some of them are dangerous because the extreme rainfall
and wind can cause catastrophic flooding and damage, much
like what happened in 2017 with Oroville Dam’s spillway.
Learn the latest about atmospheric river research and forecasting
at our 2019 Water
Summit on Oct. 30 in Sacramento, where
prominent research meteorologist Marty Ralph will give the
opening keynote.
A multiphased project to remove
a levee along the Sacramento River north of Sacramento and
restore hundreds of acres of floodplains to reconnect to the
river is now underway.
Participants on our Northern California
Tour Oct. 2-4 will visit the site of the
restoration project near Hamilton City led by River Partners. The
project also involves the construction of a setback levee
to provide more reliable flood protection to the community
and agricultural areas along the river.
The Foundation’s final tour of 2019
is all new and will highlight urban, agricultural and
environmental water use on California’s scenic Central Coast,
traveling from the technology hub of Silicon Valley’s San Jose to
the coastal enclave of Monterey and to the wine country of Paso
Robles.
Participants on our Nov. 6-7 Central Coast Tour will learn
about the challenges of a region struggling to be sustainable
with limited local supplies and the efforts to address them.
Participants on our Northern California
Tour Oct. 2-4 will get updates on changes planned or
completed at key dams that anchor California’s two major water
delivery projects — Shasta Dam and Oroville Dam.
The tour will visit Shasta Dam, keystone of the federal Central Valley Project,
for a firsthand look at plans to raise the height of the
structure and increase storage capacity, and hear from some who
oppose the expansion. A tour of the Shasta Powerplant and a
houseboat outing on Shasta Lake, already California’s largest
reservoir, are also part of the tour.
The Colorado River Basin’s 20 years
of drought and the dramatic decline in water levels at the
river’s key reservoirs have pressed water managers to adapt to
challenging conditions. But even more extreme — albeit rare —
droughts or floods that could overwhelm water managers may lie
ahead in the Basin as the effects of climate change take hold,
say a group of scientists. They argue that stakeholders who are
preparing to rewrite the operating rules of the river should plan
now for how to handle these so-called “black swan” events so
they’re not blindsided.
The deadliest and most destructive
wildfire in California history had a severe impact on the water
system in the town of Paradise. Participants on our Oct. 2-4
Northern California
Tour will hear from Kevin Phillips, general manager of
Paradise Irrigation District, on the scope of the damages, the
obstacles to recovery and the future of the water district.
The Camp Fire destroyed 90 percent of the structures in Paradise,
and 90 percent of the irrigation district’s ratepayer base. The
fire did not destroy the irrigation district’s water storage or
treatment facilities, but it did melt plastic pipes, releasing
contaminants into parts of the system and prompting do-not-drink
advisories to water customers.
Dates are now set for two key
Foundation events to kick off 2020 — our popular Water 101
Workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, and our Lower Colorado River Tour, which will run
from March 11-13.
In addition, applications will be available by the first week of
October for our 2020 class of Water Leaders, our competitive
yearlong program for early to mid-career up-and-coming water
professionals. To learn more about the program, check out our
Water Leaders program
page.
With a key deadline for the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in January, one of the
featured panels at our Oct.
30thWater
Summit will focus on how regions around California
are crafting groundwater sustainability plans and working on
innovative ways to fill aquifers.
The theme for this year’s Water Summit, “Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning,” reflects critical upcoming events in California
water, including the imminent Jan. 31, 2020 deadline for
groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in high- and
medium-priority basins.
Executive Director Jennifer Bowles
stressed the importance of impartiality — a value she has
embraced throughout her journalism career — in explaining
the Water Education Foundation’s role as a source of water news
and information in California and the West during a podcast
interview published last week.
During the
Talk+Water podcast by the Texas + Water newsletter, Bowles talked about
serving as executive editor of the Foundation’s flagship
publication, Western Water, whose
most recent article explored how private capital is speeding
up forest restoration in the Sierra Nevada that could benefit
water quality and supplies.
Get an up-close look at some of
California’s key water reservoirs and learn about farming
operations, salmon habitat restoration, flood management and
wetlands on our Northern California Water Tour Oct. 2-4.
Each year, participants on the tour enjoy three days exploring
the Sacramento Valley during the temperate fall. Join us as we
travel through a scenic landscape along the Sacramento and
Feather rivers to learn about issues associated with storing
and delivering the state’s water supply.
The Water Education Foundation’s tours offer participants a
first-hand look at the water facilities, rivers and regions
critical in the debate about the future of water resources.
From recent news articles to publications, maps and tours, Water
Education Foundation has everything you need, including the
award-winning Layperson’s Guide to the Delta.
