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!
Sign up here to get email announcements
about upcoming workshops, tours and new publications.
You can learn more about the daily comings and goings of the
Foundation by following @WaterEdFdn on Twitter,
liking us on Facebook or
following us on
LinkedIn.
A science journalist and author
whose new book highlights efforts to reshape how we think about
and work with water will provide the keynote address at the
Foundation’s 2022 Water
Summit on Oct. 27 in Sacramento.
Author Erica Gies, whose new book is titled Water Always Wins: Thriving in an
Age of Drought and Deluge, explores what she calls “Slow
Water” innovations that can potentially offer resilience to the
increasing severity of droughts and floods brought on by climate
change.
As our programs team at the Water
Education Foundation is busy this summer putting together
fall events such as tours, our annual Water Summit and our Water
Leader alum reunion, our journalism team is helping to raise
water awareness every day.
You can access our newsfeed each
morning of the top articles on water issues in
California and the West and even get it sent to your inbox. You
can also find interactive maps showing reservoir levels,
water-savings tips and more on our special online drought resource
page.
And we just published our latest Western Water
article focused on a pilot program in the Salinas
Valley that is run remotely out of Los Angeles. It’s offering a
test case for how California could provide clean drinking water
for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated
groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect
to a larger water system.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
You can now register for the in-person return of the
Foundation’s 38th annual Water Summit, a one-day
conference highlighting the latest information and
perspectives on water resources in California and the West.
The event includes an evening reception along California’s
largest and longest river, the Sacramento River, for an
opportunity to network with speakers and other attendees from a
variety of backgrounds.
Our fall schedule also includes:
A reunion for our Water Leaders graduates to
celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program
Tours exploring California’s two largest
rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, to learn
more about infrastructure, the impacts on farms,
cities and habitat from a third year of drought and salmon
restoration efforts.
Check out the details below to learn more about these fall
programs.
We are gearing up to mark the 25th anniversary of our
Water Leaders class by holding a reunion this
fall for the many scientists, farmers,
environmentalists, water managers, lawyers, engineers and others
who have gone through our program over the years.
The Oct. 26 reunion by the American River
will be held the day before our annual Water
Summit, which will be open to all interested.
Registration is coming soon for the reunion and the Water Summit,
but you can sign up now for our fall tours,
which will take journeys along California’s two longest rivers.
Seats are already filling up! Check out the details below to
learn more about these upcoming programs.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
Register today for the return of our
in-person fall tours offering
participants a firsthand look at issues such as drought
along California’s two longest rivers, which have
implications for the entire state.
Our Northern
California Tourexplores the Sacramento
River and its tributaries to learn about key reservoirs and
infrastructure that conveys vital water resources across
California. Our San Joaquin River
Restoration Tourreturns this year to dive
into the story of bringing back the river’s chinook salmon
population while balancing water supply needs.
Mark your calendars now for our full schedule of fall programs,
including a reunion of our Water Leaders graduates to celebrate
the 25th anniversary of the program as well as the in-person
return of our 38th annual Water Summit.
Our fall programming also includes tours exploring California’s
two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, to learn
more about infrastructure, the impacts on farms and habitat from
a third year of drought and salmon restoration efforts.
Check out the details below to learn more about these fall
programs.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. Altogether, they submitted plans for 20
basins for review by the California Department of Water Resources
in January 2020. Earlier this year, DWR rendered its verdict:
Most of the basin plans were incomplete.
Now groundwater agencies responsible for 12 of those basins are
racing to meet a late July deadline to submit revised plans that
measure up to SGMA’s requirements or risk the state stepping in
to manage their groundwater basins. Despite the state’s verdict,
some groundwater managers say they believe they’re well on their
way to making the changes needed to ultimately win the state’s
approval.
In our latest article, Western Water
explored the array of challenges these groundwater managers
face in getting their sustainability plans to fulfill the state’s
requirements, how some agencies were able to largely meet the
state’s expectations, and what lies ahead for those plans that
fell short.
The Water Education Foundation’s
just-released 2021 Annual Report recaps how,
even amid the ongoing global pandemic, we continued
educating about the most crucial natural resource in California
and the West — water.
The annual report takes readers along to see the array of
educational events, trainings and articles we produced last year,
including engaging virtual water
tours that educated participants on pressing water
issues and allowed them to interact with each other and a wide
range of experts offering different viewpoints.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
Join the team at the Water Education
Foundation, a highly respected and impartial nonprofit
that has been a trusted source of water news and educational
programming in California and across the West for more than 40
years.
We have a full-time opening for a dynamic, strategic and
energetic development director to
generate grant support and other funding for programs carried out
by our events and journalism teams.
Mark your calendars now for our upcoming fall 2022
tours exploring California’s two largest rivers – the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers!
On our Northern
California Tour, Oct. 12-14, participants
can learn about key reservoirs and infrastructure that transports
vital water resources statewide. Our San Joaquin
River Restoration Tour Nov. 2-3 returns this
year to tell the story of bringing back a river’s chinook
salmon while balancing water supply
needs. Registration is coming soon!
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
Don’t miss your once-a-year chance to go on our
Central Valley
Tour and visit the epicenter of California’s drought
and groundwater sustainability efforts across one of the nation’s
most critical agricultural landscapes. Registration ends
this Friday, April 15, at noon.
If you’re a graduate of our Water Leaders
program, save the date for a reunion event in October to
mark the 25th anniversary of our program!
Swing by our new Sacramento office during our May 5
open house.
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!
The San Joaquin Valley is at the
epicenter of California’s myriad water challenges, confronting
little to no water deliveries and increasing pressure to reduce
groundwater usage to sustainable levels. A third straight
disappointingly dry winter is deepening water security concerns
across one of the country’s most critical agricultural
landscapes.
How are the water suppliers that have been largely cut off from
state and federal projects going to get through the summer? And
will there be enough water this year to satisfy the competing
needs of farms, people and the environment?
Your best opportunity to understand this region’s challenges and
opportunities is to join us on our Central Valley Tour April
20-22.
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
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
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.
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.
