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.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers and participants of tours and workshops! We’re grateful to each and every person who interacted with us in 2023.
As we turn the page to 2024, California marks the 10th anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Many of our events and tours this year will take a look at the progress made and the work that still needs to be done to bring aquifers into balance.
Registration now open for our annual Lower Colorado
River Tour
Get an overview and tips for applying to our Colorado
River Water Leaders program by Jan. 22
Read our latest Western Water story on
Southwestern cities looking to turn sewage into drinking water
Lower Colorado River Tour: March 13-15
Don’t miss the return of our
Lower
Colorado River Tour as we take you from Hoover
Dam to the U.S.-Mexico border and through the Imperial and
Coachella valleys to learn about the challenges and opportunities
facing the “Lifeline of the Southwest.”
Following the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada,
Arizona and California, the tour explores infrastructure,
farming regions, wildlife refuges and the Salton Sea. Experts
discuss river issues, such as water needs, drought management,
endangered species and habitat restoration. Space is
limited & tickets go quickly soregister
here!
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
As 2023 winds down, the Water Education Foundation team is
revving up for a robust 2024 programming year with tours,
conferences and workshops on key water topics. Mark your
calendars now so you don’t miss these engaging,
once-a-year opportunities!
Organizations that are current Foundation members receive access
to coveted sponsorships opportunities for our
tours and events throughout the year. Both exclusive and general
sponsorships are available for our programs that are prime
networking opportunities for the water professionals in
attendance. Contact Programs Director Nick Gray
via email with any questions about our sponsorship program.
Lower Colorado River Tour: March 13-15
Don’t miss the return of our
Lower
Colorado River Tour as we take you from Hoover
Dam to the U.S.-Mexico border and through the Imperial and
Coachella valleys to learn about the challenges and opportunities
facing the “Lifeline of the Southwest.”
Following the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada,
Arizona and California, the tour explores infrastructure,
farming regions, wildlife refuges and the Salton Sea while
discussing water needs in the Lower Basin, drought management,
endangered species and habitat restoration. Registration opens
December 20!
Our 2023 California Water Leaders
cohort completed its year with a report outlining policy recommendations
for leveraging green infrastructure, such as restoring
floodplains, meadows and wetlands, to help manage water
statewide.
The cohort of
22 up-and-coming leaders – engineers,
attorneys, planners, scientists, water managers and other
professionals from water-related organizations – worked
collaboratively and had full editorial control on the
report.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview comes as
the nation’s largest dam removal project is underway with
the first of four Klamath River hydropower dams
demolished this year.
The Layperson’s Guide covers the history of the region’s tribal,
agricultural and environmental relationships with one of the
West’s largest rivers. The river’s vast watershed straddles
Cailfornia and Oregon and hosts one of the nation’s oldest
and largest reclamation projects.
Today on Giving Tuesday, a global
day of philanthropy, you can support impartial education and
informed decision-making on water resources in California and the
West by making a tax-deductible
donation to the Water Education Foundation.
Your support ensures that our legacy of producing in-depth news,
educational workshops and accessible and
reliable information on water reaches new heights in 2024.
The climate-driven shrinking of the
Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American
tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms
and reservations across the Southwest.
The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river
water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are
gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as
government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.
Mark your calendars now for June 17-20,
2024, and the return of our international
groundwater conference, Toward Sustainable
Groundwater in Agriculture: Linking Science and
Policy.
If you missed our virtual Q&A session
for those interested in applying or supporting a candidate for
our 2024 California Water Leaders cohort, a
recording is now available to view.
Applications for our 2024 Colorado River Water
Leaders cohort are coming soon!
Kurtis Alexander, an enterprise
reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle with a focus on natural
resources and the environment, was named the 2023 recipient of
the Water Education Foundation’s Rita Schmidt Sudman Award for
Excellence in Water Journalism.
Alexander said he was honored to receive the award, which
acknowledges outstanding work that illuminates complicated water
issues in California and the West.
“Recognition from one of the state’s top authorities on water
really means something,” Alexander said. “Covering water as a
journalist is not always glamorous or easy. But the Water
Education Foundation has long helped promote the work of
journalists and others examining water issues as well as offered
a wealth of helpful information through its website, newsletters
and education programs.”
Exclusive Water Summit Sponsorship Opportunities Available
The Water Education Foundation’s
39th annual Water
Summit will be held Wednesday, Oct. 25,
in Sacramento with the theme, Taking On the
Improbable in Western Water. Exclusive sponsorships
are available for the breaks, lunch and evening reception, all of
which are prime networking opportunities for the water
professionals in attendance.
In this Issue: Water leader applications for
2024 will be coming out soon! And don’t forget to join us at our
annual Water Summit Oct. 25 when we’ll be talking about taking on
the improbable; and check out our latest Western Water
article about a little-known change in law that will benefit
groundwater in California.
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
You can now register for the Water Education Foundation’s 39th
annual Water
Summit. The one-day conference will have
leading policymakers and experts sharing the latest
information and insights on water in California and the West. The
event includes an evening reception for networking with
speakers and fellow attendees from a variety of backgrounds.
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
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.
