Watch our series of short videos on the importance of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, how it works as a water hub for
California and the challenges it is facing.
Some people in California and across the West struggle to access
safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their everyday needs
for drinking, cooking and sanitation.
There are many ways to support our nonprofit mission by donating
in someone’s honor or memory, becoming a regular contributor or
supporting specific projects.
As atmospheric rivers blasted across California this year, they
brought epic amounts of rain and snow follwing a three-year
drought.
Devastating and deadly floods hit parts of the state and now all
eyes are on the potential for more flooding, particularly in
the San Joaquin Valley as the record amount of snow in the
Sierras melts with warmer temperatures.
With anticipated sea level rise and other impacts of a changing
climate, flood management is increasingly critical in California.
There is no need to wait to show
your love for the Water Education Foundation! Starting today, you
can donate to our Big Day of Giving campaign and help us reach
our fundraising goal of $15,000 by May 2.
Big Day of Giving is a 24-hour online fundraising marathon
for nonprofits. Donations will benefit our programs and
publications across California and the
West.
The Foundation’s Central Valley Tour at
the end of April is nearing capacity and while there’s still some
space on the tour, there’s another very exciting opportunity
on the horizon this summer to engage directly with
groundwater experts from California and across the world.
Atmospheric river storms are like punches in a boxing match. A
flurry of weak ones are OK. But it’s best to avoid the big
knockout blows. That’s exactly what happened in California this
winter. Scientists say that from Oct. 1 to April 1, the state
actually received more atmospheric rivers, the famous
moisture-laden meteorological events that are critical to the
water supply, than it did last year — 44 this winter compared
to 31 last winter. But the intensity made all the difference.
Statewide, California had just 2 strong atmospheric rivers this
winter, compared with 7 last year. Many of the biggest this
winter hit Washington and Oregon instead. The result was, for
the most part, a remarkably, blissfully average rainy season
for California. 3 were moderate and 7 were strong. This year,
26 were weak, 16 were moderate and 2 were strong.
With San Diego more than half done with the first phase of its
Pure Water sewage recycling system, city officials say they are
considering major changes to how they will handle the second,
larger phase. … Plans for the second phase, which were
mostly put in place 13 years ago, could change significantly
based on new state regulations and new information about how
much purified water the city is projected to need. … But
the city could abandon a plan to build the phase two
purification plant on a vacant 17-acre site in Mission Valley,
and plans to store purified water from that plant in either
Lake Murray or the San Vicente Reservoir.
After a decade in the works, California is getting a new state
park this summer. Dos Rios Ranch, a 1,600-acre plot west of
Modesto where the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers converge, has
long been slated to become the next state park. On Monday, the
Department of Parks and Recreation announced it would open June
12. … Department of Parks and Recreation Director
Armando Quintero has characterized Dos Rios as a needed
public investment in a “a park-poor region.” The site for
Dos Rios was donated by the Chico conservation group River
Partners, which spent $40 million restoring the
area from its previous incarnation as a dairy farm to its
more natural state as a floodplain, a transition that state
leaders have touted as climate-resilient. In Monday’s
announcement, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the Dos Rios restoration
“a key asset to fighting the climate crisis.”
Our popular water maps don the office walls of many in the
water world, and our Layperson’s Guides are the go-to
resource for impartial overviews of key water topics and
landmarks across California and the Southwest. In recognition
of Earth Day on Monday and National Environmental Education
Week, we’re offering a 20 percent discount through
April 27 on these educational products: Maps &
Posters, Layperson’s Guides:
Discount code NEEW2024 Map
& Guide Bundles: Discount code
NEEW2024-Bundles. Our book, Water & the
Shaping of California: Discount code:
NEEW2024-Book Take advantage of our discounted prices today!
Sale ends Saturday!
As the date of reckoning for excessive groundwater pumping in
Tulare County grows closer, lobbying by water managers and
growers has ramped up. The Friant Water Authority, desperate to
protect its newly rebuilt – yet still sinking –
Friant-Kern Canal, has beseeched the Water Resources Control
Board to get involved. Specifically, it has asked board members
to look into how the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA) has, or has not, curbed over pumping that affects
the canal. Meanwhile, the Eastern Tule groundwater agency has
been doing a bit of its own lobbying. It recently hosted all
five members of the Water Board on three separate tours of the
region, including the canal. Because the tours were staggered,
there wasn’t a quorum of board members, which meant they
weren’t automatically open to the public.
Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
Bay Model is a giant hydraulic replica of San Francisco
Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. It is housed in a converted World II-era
warehouse in Sausalito near San Francisco.
Hundreds of gallons of water are pumped through the
three-dimensional, 1.5-acre model to simulate a tidal ebb
and flow lasting 14 minutes.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
