Spring is generally a time of renewal for the watersheds of the western United States. This year, though, the cycle is in disarray.

In the last decade, Brett Walton has reported extensively for Circle of Blue on pollution and health risks linked to U.S. drinking water and sewer systems.  This week, the National Journalism Institute and National Press Foundation recognized Brett's persistently groundbreaking coverage with a Kozik Grant for Environmental Justice Reporting. The grant will support journalism at the intersection of health, drinking water, agriculture, disadvantaged communities, and public policy.

Brett has distinguished himself as an insightful and prolific journalist whose reporting combines first-rate explanation of technical details with the skills of metaphor and narrative. He’s responsible for award-winning articles on a broad range of topics, most recently on the rising cost of municipal water service in the United States and the health and environmental damage from broken septic systems. 

And this reporting helps get work done: It has informed policy at the local, state, and national levels, having been cited just in the last two years by Sen. Kamala Harris, in her Water Justice Act; by the California Water Resources Control Board, as it designed a statewide water-bill assistance program; by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in a report on Legionnaires’ disease; and by the NAACP, in a lawsuit against the City of Cleveland for unfair billing practices.

But it's your support that really makes this possible. Grants like this are few. Join us on the frontlines for trusted reporting about the world’s water. Your support will help us tell this profound story that is reshaping the American West. 

Then, on August 4, join a special live briefing with leading experts to get the latest news and context about the drought. And learn about ways to create a better water future.