Over the weekend The Nature Conservancy launched an interactive map that shows California residents where their surface water comes from and how far it’s traveled. The map also shows what level of protection the water has because though you pay for the water you consume the land it runs through may belong to someone else.

"The study is the first to aggregate California 's drinking water information at such a large-scale, and in an interactive and user-friendly way," said Kirk Klausmeyer, a San Francisco -based Nature Conservancy scientist and co-author of the study. "The maps enable residents across the state to understand the status of their local water sources, a key first step in taking action to protect these vital resources.”

They used information from the National Hydrology Datasets, State Department of Public Health Drinking Source Assessments, and 2010 Census information to create the map and conduct the study.

The website invites you to take an optional four question water quiz and test your California water acumen before proceeding to the map where you can search for one of 492 cities or towns currently represented. The organization has plans to regularly update the number of communities and watershed area data on the map.

Here are some important findings highlighted in the press release:

-82 percent of the water supplied by public water districts for domestic and other uses comes from rivers, lakes, reservoirs and other surface water sources.

-California requires nearly 157 million acres of land and multiple watersheds spanning eight states to collect and deliver drinking water. While water sources vary from city-to-city, much of our in-state surface water originates in the snowpack of the Sierra Nevada, whose runoff into rivers and streams provides drinking water to 65 percent of Californians.

-Only 16 percent of the watersheds that supply drinking water to Californians are fully protected from human threats. A little over half of the watersheds are under public management and have some level of protection. The remaining third is privately owned with variable levels of protections.

Do you know how far you water travels to get to your kitchen tap? Can you name the eight states that help supply California’s water?

For more information or to read the entire study titled "Where Does California's Water Come From?" in PDF format please visit conserveca.org. The website is managed by the Nature Conservancy but focuses on California environmental issues.