Where Does Our Water Come From? Featuring Nina Gordon-Kirsch

In July 2022, Nina Gordon-Kirsch hiked 240 miles, tracing the Mokelumne River, the source of our tap water. Starting in Oakland, she walked along the Bay Trail and through the Delta Islands — she swam a few river crossings! — kayaked upstream for two days, and backpacked off-trail in a remote canyon. Thirty-three days later, she arrived at the headwaters of the Moklumne in the Sierra Nevada. “I felt like I was a salmon swimming home upstream,” she says.

Along her journey, Nina spoke with farmers, conservationists, employees at hydropower plants, and local residents, collecting stories about how people relate to water. A documentary film crew followed her and now is in post production and raising money to finish the documentary. They hope the film and its corresponding curriculum will make their way into all Bay Area schools.

In an illustrated talk at Arts & Culture on Wednesday, December 4, at 7 p.m., Nina will discuss her life-altering trek and share the important lessons she learned.

Tickets for this program are $5 for club members and $10 for non-members. Please register early so we can be sure to accommodate everyone comfortably. Wearing masks for this event is strongly encouraged.

Nina grew up in Berkeley, graduated from Berkeley High School and earned a bachelor of science degree in Environmental Science at the University of Southern California. She won a Fulbright Scholarship to study plastic and hormone residues in wastewater systems in Israel and the West Bank, eventually earning a master of science degree in water resources.

Even before her water walk, Nina’s fascination with water shaped her professional life. She monitored water quality for recycled-water projects for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and worked for Walking Water, encouraging people to see their water as a precious and endangered resource rather than a commodity. She also taught a field course for high school students on natural and constructed water systems in California. She even earned a certification to design and install laundry-to-landscape greywater systems so wastewater can be reused for irrigation.

Nina recently moved to Western Massachusetts, where she works as the Massachusetts River Steward for the Connecticut River Conservancy. She does a wide array of work on river protection, including educating people about the river, lobbying legislators, and monitoring federal hydropower projects.

Encourage your friends and family — especially high school students — to attend Nina’s talk. You are likely to remember it each time you turn on your tap.

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