A project of the Water Education Foundation. Funded by
grants from the U.S. Geological Survey, California Water Science
Center and California Department of Water Resources.
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“By the law of nature these things are common to mankind – the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the shores of the sea.” — Justinian Code, 530 AD
I’m sure a few of you reading the title of this article and the current headlines related to California water will be wondering if my brain may be suffering from lack of water as much as the state. The few storms we have had since December will allow the California Department of Water Resources to send a little more water to most State Water Project customers than last year, but the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced a second year of a zero initial water allocation from the Central Valley Project for many agricultural users north and south of the Delta.
I can already sense the hackles rising with the tone of disgust escaping the lips of the most hardcore science advocates among us at the mere sight of the article title.
Earth Science Week occurs annually in the second week of October and is designed to promote awareness of the dynamic interactions between natural and human systems, while engaging students in exploring how this knowledge is applied in the geosciences.
Every one of the Project WET Facilitators I had the privilege of
working with in California are a unique and special caliber of
educator, volunteering their time and resources to provide some
of the most engaging, experiential and content –rich water
education professional development workshops and school education
programs on the planet – and I do mean this literally, as several
California Facilitators led Project WET trainings in a number of
other countries!
The world outside my home office window in the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada is a sea of green quilted with brilliant patches of
wildflowers like the shards of a shattered rainbow come to Earth
on this St. Patrick’s Day. It is hard to believe California
is in the grip of a withering drought once more, as the scent of
new mown grass heavy with dew fills the air. If one simply
turned off the news and laid their head in the grass, all would
seem right in the world – no drought, no more fire danger and no
need to heed warnings to conserve water. But it’ll take
more than wishful ignorance and a four-leaved shamrock to get us
through the upcoming summer. California remains in the grip
of drought,
and the recent rains did little more than change the landscape
from brown to green in much of the state. Our major
reservoirs remain well below historical average capacity for this
time of year at
40% to 50% of capacity, snowpack is at 28% of
normal and disturbing reports have been coming out regarding
groundwater levels throughout the Central Valley.
