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.
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.
The coming winter is likely to be dry in California, and
drought conditions may begin to emerge in the central part of
the state, federal climate experts warned Thursday. But
forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration also said weather patterns are fickle this year,
and there’s no clear sign that another prolonged drought like
the one that squeezed California earlier this decade will
settle in.
The California State Board of Food and Agriculture called out
San Luis Obispo County in a letter expressing concern about
irrigated agriculture’s “limited” involvement in crafting
groundwater plans over the Paso Robles basin.
Audubon California’s Salton Sea Program Director Frank Ruiz
served as the guide for this trip. Ruiz says the Salton
Sea is receding at an alarming rate, about 6-inches a year,
exposing toxic lake bed which is evident from the air.
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.
Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems in the world.
They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of
water, 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.
