Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)
Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education (JCWRE)
Issue 182, Pages 3-11, April 2025
The Golden Age of Water (1964-2025)
Dr. Gerald Joseph McAdams Kauffman, Jr.
University of Delaware
Six decades ago, the golden age of water began in the United States when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) of 1964. This led to the founding of the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) and Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR). Sixty years ago, these two water organizations formed to represent the 54 water research institutes at land grant universities (NIWR) authorized by the WRRA and the over 60 water research institutions of higher learning in North America (UCOWR). This paper traces the 60-year evolution of these associations that conduct water research locally, regionally, and nationally in the United States, from the Great Society of the 1960s, the Clean Water Act years of the 1970s and 80s, and the watershed movement of the 1990s into the 21st century.