Our California water map, recently updated, is one of our
most popular products. We also offer magazines, documentaries,
posters, layperson guides and more. Our catalog offers a wide
array of resources to help you understand the complex issues of
water in California and the Southwest.
Project WET is an award-winning, nonprofit water education
program and publisher. The program facilitates and promotes
awareness, appreciation, knowledge, and stewardship of water
resources.
Join the Water Education Foundation, an impartial
nonprofit, in its mission to create a better understanding
of water issues and help resolve water problems through
educational programs.
California’s groundwater is a great natural resource and has
contributed to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural
producer and a leader in high-tech industries. Groundwater is an
asset that is increasingly relied upon by municipalities,
industry and agriculture and it will play an important role in
the future sustainability of California’s overall water supply.
The islands of the western
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta release tons of carbon dioxide — a
greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere as the rich peat soil that
attracted generations of farmers dries out and decays.
An ambitious plan now in the works could halt the decay,
sequester the carbon and — just as important — help protect
California’s vital water conveyance system by offering farmers
and landowners an incentive to change how they use their land.
The
latest article in Western Water explores how the
plan would work, looks at the concerns of some in agriculture,
and talks with one farmer who’s willing to give it a try.
Weave through the nation’s
breadbasket and gain a better understanding of water issues
and challenges in the San Joaquin Valley on the Foundation’s
Central Valley Tour
April 22-24.
This tour visits farms and major infrastructure, such as
Friant Dam near Fresno and San Luis Reservoir, the nation’s
largest off-stream reservoir near Los Banos and a key water
facility serving both the State Water Project and the federal
Central Valley Project.
States around the country say they won’t penalize water and
wastewater utilities for failing to meet Clean Water Act permit
requirements due to delays caused by the deadly coronavirus if
those delays are justified and documented. Delays, for example,
could be caused by utility staff who test and monitor water
quality—or lab workers who analyze it—being quarantined with
Covid-19.
While snow cover has increased thanks to a series of March
storms, the Northern Sierra 8-Station Index stands at 56% of
normal for the season. As of March 24, another 29.25 inches
would be needed to reach the season normal of 54.52 inches. But
the area normally gets just 9.42 inches from March 24 through
June 30. So a daunting 310% of normal precipitation would be
required to make up the deficit, according to Jan Null of
Golden Gate Weather Services.
As the coronavirus spreads across the country, water utility
leaders say that potential staffing shortages due to illness
and quarantine are their biggest current concern in the
Covid-19 pandemic. That conclusion comes from interviews with
water utility representatives and data from an American Water
Works Association survey of several hundred water utilities…
Thanks to people hoarding toilet paper during the coronavirus
pandemic, some Californians have completely run out of bathroom
tissue. So what do they do when nature calls? They improvise.
And that, communities are discovering, can cause problems. Big,
stinky, overflowing problems.
Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems in the world.
They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of
water, sequester carbon, reduce flooding and erosion, recharge
groundwater and provide a
diverse range of recreational opportunities from fishing and
hunting to photography. They also serve as critical habitat for
wildlife, including a large percentage of plants and animals on
California’s endangered species
list.
As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea
regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its
elevation of 237 feet below sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
Drought— an extended period of limited or no precipitation— is a
fact of life in California and the West, with water resources
following boom and-bust patterns.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last
century and drought occurs with much greater frequency in the
West than in any other regions of the country.
