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.
Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and
conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground,
though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of
underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed
to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and
leader in high-tech industries.
A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 in California
with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The landmark law
turned 10 in 2024, with many challenges still ahead.
Registration is now open for our next slate of spring programs,
part of a year packed with engaging tours, workshops and
conferences on key water topics in California and across the
West.
Seating is always limited for our events and tickets for our
first water tour of 2025 – along the Lower Colorado
River in March – have been going fast!
Current Foundation member organizations receive access to
coveted sponsorship opportunities for our tours
and events, all of which are prime networking
opportunities for the water professionals in attendance! Contact
Nick Gray for more information.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers and participants of the tours, articles and workshops we featured in 2024! We’re grateful to each and every person who engaged with us last year.
As we turn the page to 2025, one of our most exciting projects will be a first-ever Klamath River Basin Tour in September. We’ll visit some of the sites where four dams came down along the river’s mainstem, and talk to tribes and farmers in the region and learn from scientists watching the river’s restoration unfold.
While most of our tours span three days, this one will likely stretch to four or possibly five days to accommodate the time to get to this remote watershed straddling the California/Oregon border. Stay tuned for more details!
Our array of 2025 programming begins later this month when we welcome our incoming California Water Leaders cohort. We’ll be sure to introduce them to you and let you know what thorny California water policy issue they’ll be tackling.
In March, we return to the Southwest’s most important river with our Lower Colorado River Tour, and the bus is quickly filling up! We then journey across the San Joaquin Valley on our Central Valley Tour in April and take a deep dive into California’s water hub in May with our signature Bay-Delta Tour.
… Decisions by the [Department of Water and Power], both in
the years before the Palisades fire and in the hours after it
exploded, have generated stinging criticism, prompting Gov.
Gavin Newsom to order an inquiry. On Tuesday, the L.A. City
Council voted unanimously to demand that the DWP publicly
present an analysis of its actions during the Palisades fire.
Water officials and experts interviewed by The Times said that
municipal water systems in L.A. and elsewhere, even in areas
with greater wildfire risk, generally are not designed to fight
firestorms that rage through entire neighborhoods. Collins’
remarks offer the first detailed account of the DWP’s response
to the most destructive fire in L.A. history.
About 27 million people live in parts of the U.S. where water
availability is limited, according to a first-of-its-kind
federal assessment. The analysis from the U.S. Geological
Survey compared water supply and demand from 2010 to 2020. It
found “severe” limitations on the amount of available water in
groundwater and surface waters in California, the arid
Southwest, and much of the Great Plains and Texas. Other
regions facing slightly less severe water constraints include
Florida and eastern Washington state and Oregon. The
report is the most comprehensive federal study to date on
whether the U.S. has enough water to power the economy,
researchers said during a call Thursday.
These are contentious times for Colorado River policy, with
strained relations between the Upper and Lower Basin states in
public view. It is, therefore, perfect timing for me to
recommend adding the book, Sharing the Waters:
Reflections on Developing Colorado River Policy 1988–2008,
by Robert W. “Bob” Johnson, to your 2025 reading list.
At only 124 pages, this powerful little book is packed with
concise explanations of key Colorado River management matters,
along with personal insights on how highly contentious river
matters have been effectively navigated in the past— insights
that are highly relevant today. The book, published
posthumously, also features many great photos, including this
review’s accompanying photo heralding peace on the Colorado
River.
Registration is now open for our next slate of spring programs,
part of a year packed with engaging tours, workshops and
conferences on key water topics in California and across
the West. Seating is always limited for our events and tickets
for our first water tour of 2025 – along the Lower Colorado
River in March – have been going fast!
Registration is now open for our Water
101 Workshop and our Central Valley
Tour, both in April.
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.
Drought—an extended period of
limited or no precipitation—is a fact of life in California and
the West, with water resources following boom-and-bust patterns.
During California’s 2012–2016 drought, much of the state
experienced severe drought conditions: significantly less
precipitation and snowpack, reduced streamflow and higher
temperatures. Those same conditions reappeared early in 2021
prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom in May to declare drought emergencies
in watersheds across 41 counties in California.
