About Us

The Community Water Center (CWC) acts as a catalyst for community-driven water solutions through organizing, education, and advocacy. We seek to build and enhance leadership capacity and local community power around water issues, create a regional movement for water justice in California, and enable every community to have access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water. At CWC, we believe that safe, clean, and affordable water is a human right, not a privilege.

Groundwater is a primary drinking water source for many communities across the state. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) provides a historic opportunity to protect drinking water supplies and provide other beneficial uses. Now that many Groundwater Sustainability Agencies have finalized their draft Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs), it is critical to continue building the capacity of disadvantaged and rural community stakeholders to participate in the planning and GSP review process to ensure safe, reliable and affordable drinking water.

CWC led the development of this tool with research support from UC Berkeley’s Water Equity Science Shop (WESS), Dr. Amanda Fencl and Dr. Rob Gailey, and with feedback from many stakeholders. The core research team developed data layers and through a series of webinars, Advisory Committee members shared feedback throughout the development of the tool.

Community Water Center Team

The following current and former CWC staff played a role in helping develop this tool:

• Adriana Renteria, Drinking Water Tool Project Manager & (former) Regional Water Manager  
  Anavel Valdez-Lupercio, Director of Operations
  David Okita, Senior Fellow 
  Debi Ores, Senior Attorney
  Heather Lukacs, Director of Community Solutions
  Laurel Firestone, Co-Founder & (former) Executive Director
  Natalie Garcia-Grazier, Director of Strategic Partnerships
  Ryan Jensen, Community Water Solutions Manager
  Susana De Anda, Executive Director & Co-Founder

Research and Webtool Team

UC Berkeley – Water Equity Science Shop (WESS)

WESS is a community-academic partnership that conducts research and multi-level public health actions to address the health risks associated with drinking water contamination among California residents in rural, agricultural, and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities that are served by small drinking water systems and private domestic wells that fall outside the purview of drinking water regulations and monitoring requirements. The WESS team helped shape and develop this tool, by contributing data on the domestic well community layer, groundwater quality estimation layer, and demographics layer. Learn more about WESS here.

• Clare Pace, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Berkeley
  Carolina Balazs, Research Scientist, California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
  Lara Cushing, Professor, San Francisco State University
  Rachel Morello-Frosch, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
  Jessica Goddard, University of California, Berkeley
  Jenny Rempel, University of California, Berkeley
  Kallista Bley, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Community Water Center Consultants

The following consultants were critical in helping shape and develop this tool. Dr. Amanda Fencl coordinated and guided the technical aspects of the tool as well as contributing to the content of the tool and overall framework. Dr. Rob Gailey developed the drought supply well impact analysis for small water systems and domestic wells in the Central Valley.

• Amanda Fencl, Ph.D., Technical Project Manager
  Rob Gailey, Ph.D., P.G., C.HG., Consulting Hydrogeologist

GreenInfo Network

The following current and former GreenInfo Network staff played a role in developing the webtool and data processing. 

Stephen Smith, Project Management and Data Development
Dan Rademacher, Project Management and Oversight
Tim Sinnott, Design
Gregor Allensworth, Development
Amanda Damewood, User Research
María Lamadrid, User Research
Maianna Voge, Data quality review
Yessenia Chaiu Zhang, Data Development

Funders

California Department of Water Resources (DWR)

Funding for this project has been provided in full or in part from the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 and through an agreement with the State Department of Water Resources.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

Funding for the participation of the UC Berkeley Water Equity Science Shop (WESS) was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences through a Superfund Research Program Community Core Engagement grant.

Advisory Committee

We are grateful to everyone who participated in our advisory committee webinars and contributed to this tool, including the following individuals:

Alta Irrigation District and Kings River East Groundwater Sustainability Agency: Chad Wegley

Association for California Water Agencies: David Bolland; Melissa Sparks-Kranz

California Department of Public Health: Heather Amato; Paul English; Kelly Torres

California Department of Water Resources: Alena Moshir; Diana Brooks; Julie Ekstrom; Michael McGinnis; Paul Wells; Siran Erysian; Wyatt Arnold

California State University Sacramento: Erik Porse

Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board: Denise Kadara; Walter Plachta

Clean Water Action: Jennifer Clary

East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency: Michael Hagman

Environmental Defense Fund: Adriana Fernandez; Ana Lucia Garcia; Christina Babbitt; Sarah Fakhreddine

GreenInfo Network: Amanda Damewood; Dan Rademacher; Maianna Voge; Stephen Smith; Tim Sinnott; Yessenia Chaiu Zhang

Governor’s Office of Planning and Research: Debbie Franco

Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability: Amanda Monaco; Pedro Hernandez;

Luhdorff & Scalmanini, Consulting Engineers: Vicki Kretsinger Grabert

The Nature Conservancy: Sandi Matsumoto

Mid-Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency: Paul Hendrix

Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment: Carolina Balazs; John Faust; Komal Bangia; Laura August

Openthink: Robin Debold; Thomas Newman

Plainview Mutual Water Company and East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency: Cruz Rivera

State Water Resources Control Board: Andrew Renshaw; Betsy Lichti; Bill Brewster; Carol Cantwell; Chad Fischer; Dorian Bellan; Gita Kapahi; Jeanne Chilcott; Jessica Bean; John Borkovich; Liz Haven; Marina Perez; Mary Yang; Max Gomberg; Moises Moreno Rivera; Morgan Johnson; Natalie Stork; Scott Seyfried; Wendy Killou

Self-Help Enterprises: Liesbet Olaerts; Paul Boyer

Stanford’s Water in the West: Tara Moran

Sustainable Conservation: Daniel Mountjoy; Joe Choperena

Tri-County Water Authority: Kayode Kadara

Tulare Kern Funding Area IRWM Disadvantaged Community Involvement Project: Mark Thompson

UC Berkeley: Nell Green Nylen; Glen Low

UC Davis: Clare Gupta; Helen Dahlke; Kristin Dobbin; Jose Flores; Jonathan London; Nisha Marwaha; Sarah Brown Blake; Sheryl-Ann Simpson; Thomas Harter

UC Santa Cruz: Ruth Langridge; Nathan Van Schmidt

Union of Concerned Scientists: Coreen Weintraub

US Geological Survey GAMA: Miranda Fram; Sylvia Stork; Kim Taylor

Water Foundation: Mike Myatt; Alesandra Najera

Yettem-Seville Community Services District: Linda Guttierrez