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.
When a person opens a spigot to draw a glass of water, he or she
may be tapping a source close to home or hundreds of miles away.
Water gets to taps via a complex web of aqueducts, canals and
groundwater.
Learn more about our team in the office and on the Board of
Directors and how you can support our nonprofit mission by
donating in someone’s honor or memory, or 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.
Calling all future water leaders! Are you an emerging leader
passionate about shaping the future of water in California
or across the Colorado River Basin?
The Water Education Foundation will
be hosting two dynamic water leadership programs in 2026 – one
focused on California water
issues and the other on the Colorado River
Basin. These competitive programs are designed for
rising stars from diverse sectors who are ready to deepen their
water knowledge, strengthen their leadership skills and
collaborate on real-world water challenges.
Are you an
up-and-coming leader in the water world? The application
window is now open for our 2026 California Water
Leaders cohort, and submissions are due no later than Dec.
3, 2025.
If interested in applying, start by checking out the
program
requirementsand look at the
frequently asked questions and mandatory
dates on
the application page. Make sure you have the time to
commit to the program next year and approval from your
organization to apply.
Then sign
up here to join a virtual Q&A
session on Nov. 5 at noon with Jenn Bowles,
our executive director, and other Foundation team members to get
an overview of the program and advice on applying.
… [S]tate and local water managers are battling to keep
golden mussels from reaching uninfested
lakes and reservoirs. They’re racing to keep them from damaging
the pumping facilities that send Delta water to farms and
cities in Central and Southern California. … In the
urgency to stop the spread, state agencies have
prioritized protecting the rest of the state from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, over protecting the Delta itself.
Residents and local leaders feel overlooked. And they fear that
the stigma of a golden mussel infestation will drive visitors
and boaters away from one of the country’s largest
estuaries.
The Utah Division of Water Rights is reviewing an application
to repurpose a Green River–basin water right for municipal use
that could draw from the Colorado River near
Cisco, where a new residential community is proposed off
Interstate 70 about an hour from Moab. The San Juan Water
Conservancy District filed the change application July 1,
requesting permission to convert Water Right 91-5233 from power
generation — originally allocated for a nuclear power plant
that was never built — to municipal use.
The Bay Area is in for another atmospheric river storm this
week, and forecasters expect the North Bay to receive the bulk
of the wet weather. … While the rain will mostly be
beneficial, localized nuisance flooding is possible. Minor
coastal flooding could also occur Tuesday through Saturday due
to spring tides. … The warm storm will push snow
levels in the Sierra Nevada to above 7,500 feet,
resulting in the bulk of the snowfall at higher elevations.
Lassen National Park and the highest peaks of the Sierra could
see some snowfall, and snow levels could dip below 7,000 feet
on Wednesday night if temperatures fall.
A new University of California San Diego study uncovers a
hidden driver of global crop vulnerability: the origin of
rainfall itself. Published in Nature Sustainability, the
research traces atmospheric moisture back to its source.
… They discovered that when more than about one-third of
rainfall originates from land, croplands are significantly more
vulnerable to drought, soil moisture loss and yield declines –
likely because ocean-sourced systems tend to deliver heavier
rainfall, while land-sourced systems tend to deliver less
reliable showers, increasing the chance of water deficits
during critical crop growth stages.
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.
