On most mornings I start my day with my local paper (the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) and the New York Times. That’s a given. But for water news, I need other sources.  Fortunately, Twitter is the well that springs eternal for me.

Here are twelve of my favorite water Twitter personalities who are too good to keep to myself.  If you don’t already follow these news-makers, now’s the time to check them out. I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone, but most likely it’s because I don’t yet know about them.  If you have a favorite person that I’ve missed, please let me know!

• @CaptDocMike, aka Michael J. McGuire, is Editor in Chief of the Journal of the AWWA, and author of numerous publications including the 2013 book The Chlorine Revolution: Water Disinfection and the Fight to Save Lives. One of Mike’s unique contributions is his tweets about the history of water infrastructure – something you wont find anywhere else.
• @ChawagaOnWater, aka Peter Chawaga, Associate Editor for @WaterOnline, always seems to be the first on board with breaking water news.  That’s not surprising, given his position, but he has a fresh take that makes him one of my first stops each morning. He also tweets as @PeterChawaga, where he allows himself a bit more running room.
• @garyglx5, aka Gary Wilson, is a Chicago-based environmental commentator specializing in Great Lakes issues. Much of his work, including his “Great Lakes Month in Review” can be found on Great Lakes Echo. If you miss it there, you’ll always find it through his Twitter posts. I like Gary in part because he says it like it is and takes on some politically uncomfortable matters.  Oh yes, and because he says nice things about my writing.
• @jordanbrianl, aka Brian Jordan, is a V.P. with Tetra Tech, operating out of Los Angeles. His twitter feed is a mixture of infrastructure issues (not just water) and personal interests like UVA (my alma mater) sports but it’s all good.
• @katherinebaer, aka Katherine Baer or “KB” to her friends, is Director of Science and Policy for @RiverNetwork and brings a refreshing and intelligent filter to her tweets. I enjoy checking in on her because she often catches interesting water and sustainability news that I miss in the national publications.  She can bring the big stories down to local realities.
• @LSchulteMoore, aka Lisa Schulte Moore, is a farm owner and Associate Professor at Iowa State University who has a unique perspective on agriculture and water.  She doesn’t post a lot, but what she posts is very much worth paying attention to.
• @PeterGleick, highly regarded President of the Pacific Institute, is a no-brainer to include on this list.  His contributions to the Twitter-sphere are especially useful for California / western U.S. water issues, and climate change.
• @RadkeH2O, aka Christine Radke, a Research Program Director for the Water Environment Research Foundation, brings fun to Twitter.  She finds the links that translate water and sanitation into messages the next-door neighbor can appreciate, including this great video on why “flushable” wipes shouldn’t be flushed.
• @sarmje, aka Sara Jerome, is a freelance reporter who these days seems to be doing much of her work for Water Online.
• @waltonwater, aka Brett Walton, is a reporter for @CircleofBlue. In addition to broad-ranging coverage of other peoples’ water news, Brett has the rare luxury of being able to do investigative reporting on U.S. water issues, going deeper than just about anybody else out there that I know of.
• @water4point0, aka David Sedlak, professor at UC Berkeley and author of Water 4.0, is known for his expertise on sustainable water infrastructure. Like a few others on this list, he’s not prolific on Twitter, but when he posts it’s worth paying attention to.
• @WaterWired, aka Michael E. Campana, is a professor at Oregon State University and tweets prolifically about water and sustainability. He’s got a big following, but if you’re not following him yet it’s probably time to add him to your list.