Find out what the Water Education Foundation is up to with
announcements about upcoming events, tours, new Western
Water articles on key water topics and more!
Sign up here to get announcements sent to
your inbox.
Global groundwater issues are a major focus of the June
28-30 International
Groundwater Conference in San Francisco. This event will
provide participants with, among other things, the
opportunity to hear the latest scientific and policy information
about common problems worldwide and learn about possible
solutions from international experts.
Groundwater constitutes nearly half the world’s drinking water
and much of the world’s irrigation water supply. Agricultural
regions in all countries face similar challenges experienced
in California: drought, overuse, groundwater salinity,
nitrate pollution and ensuring a sustainable supply for the
future.
In the Spring 2016 issue of the Water Education
Foundation’s Western Water, Writer Gary Pitzer delves
into the dilemma of balancing needs for the economy and the
environment in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the
importance of transporting water to the south.
Pitzer discusses the California WaterFix, a $15 billion plan
supported by the state of California and the federal government
that would involve a major re-working of the Delta plumbing
system.
Nitrate in groundwater is one of the most pressing contamination
issues in agricultural areas around the world, from California’s
Central Valley to Denmark and New Zealand. Nitrate pollution
threatens both people and the environment, and preventing it from
seeping into aquifers and removing it from groundwater is one of
the top water quality issues around the globe.
Join the law firm of Best Best &
Krieger LLP in providing a scholarship for a university
student to experience this pivotal, three-day conference
organized by the Water Education Foundation and the UC Davis
Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair.
The Water Education Foundation is active on social media and has
free resources available to help you learn more about water in
California and the Southwest.
You can sign up to get our announcements about upcoming tours and
events emailed directly to you by clicking here.
There, you can also sign up to get the Aquafornia email delivered to your inbox each
weekday with the top water news articles of the day so you can
keep abreast of what’s going on.
Speakers from the California Department of Water Resources,
NASA/JPL, Fresno County and the Kings River Conservation District
will be on tap at
a free briefing June 1 in Fresno to give the latest
information on the state’s current hydrologic/drought conditions
and the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater.
Hear how a local agency is implementing the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act and how remote sensing is helping
to monitor San Joaquin Valley land subsidence. Attendees
will also get the latest conditions of the
region’s groundwater supply, use and overdraft.
Water year 2016 is an improvement over the previous four severely
dry years, but drought conditions persist in the San Joaquin
Valley. As growers confront reduced surface water allocations,
they continue to turn to groundwater. This heavy reliance on
groundwater has resulted in declining water
levels, increased overdraft and a heightened awareness of
the new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
California’s new landmark groundwater rules will be a key focus
during Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: 2nd
International Conference Linking Science and Policy June
28-30 in the San Francisco area.
Glenda Humiston, vice president of Agriculture & Natural
Resources at UC Davis, will deliver a keynote address on the
opening day: “California Perspectives: Agriculture at a
Crossroads to Groundwater Sustainability?”
Our annual Bay-Delta Tour is our most popular tour. Last year it
sold out with almost 100 participants! Don’t miss your
opportunity to reserve a seat for this year’s June 15-17 tour –
this Monday is the deadline for an early-bird discount on
tickets.
During this contentious year for Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
water policy, this tour will offer you the chance to hear
from a diverse selection of experts on all sides of the proposed
WaterFix/Delta tunnels project, including water administrators,
environmentalists, farmers, engineers and scientists.
Go beyond the basics of drought-tolerant landscaping and learn
the latest on sustainable landscapes, hear about plant selection
and constraints, and get tips from nursery and landscape experts
at our May 18 workshop in Southern California.
As California continues to suffer from a drought, now in its
fifth year, outdoor watering is one of the biggest ways to reduce
water use at homes and businesses. Outdoor watering can account
for 50 percent or more of a home’s total water use.
Join us on our Bay-Delta
Tour as we start out exploring the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals that provides
a funnel for drinking water for more than 25 million Californians
and irrigation water to 3 million acres of farmland.
Join us May 18 in Escondido for a
free workshop that will examine the latest trends in
sustainable landscapes, constraints on plant availability and
ways to transform lawns with little cash.
The workshop will also include a field trip to a local nursery to
tour demonstration gardens and growing grounds.
Water management challenges on the farm and in the city will be
the focus of two special free briefings – in Fresno and
Escondido - cosponsored by the Water Education
Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
In Fresno next Tuesday, this year’s
challenges of water project operations for the San Joaquin Valley
will be discussed by speakers from DWR and the Bureau of
Reclamation.
Attendees will also get the opportunity to learn about research
on a host of international groundwater topics during two poster
sessions. More than 150 speakers from around the world are on the
agenda.
For the first time in five years, the Water Education Foundation
is conducting a tour of key infrastructure and other
water-related sites in San Diego County.
The two-day tour May
19-20 will offer a look at a unique mix of high-tech strategies
to modernize urban water systems and increase resiliency against
future drought and shortages. The tour also will stop at natural
water-related landscapes such as rare coastal wetlands.
Media Contact:
Rita Schmidt Sudman
916-799-6503
sudman.rita@gmail.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Rita Schmidt Sudman, former
executive director of the Water Education Foundation, and
artist/essayist Stephanie Taylor are coauthors of the newly
published “Water: More or Less,” an anthology of story, art and
policy about water in California.
