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.
California Natural Resources
Secretary Wade Crowfoot will be the keynote speaker at our
2025 Water
Summit where leading experts and top
policymakers will explore how to move forward with critical
decisions despite myriad unknowns facing the West’s most precious
natural resource.
Now in its 41ˢᵗ year, the Foundation’s premier annual event on
Oct. 1 in downtown Sacramento will focus on the theme,
Embracing Uncertainty in the West. A
full agenda featuring a slate of engaging panelists will be
available soon, but the day will be filled with lively
discussions on topics such as:
Only a handful of seats are left on the bus for our
first-ever and only Klamath River Tour and
spots are now available first come, first served! This
special water tour, Sept. 8 through Sept. 12, will not be offered
again so grab a ticket here while
they last.
You don’t want to miss this
opportunity to examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath
River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to
its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California,
including a look at the nation’s largest dam removal
project.
… [F]or wetland biologists and others with a stake in the
health of the surrounding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the
largest estuary on the West Coast, the birds represent the
latest – and an exponentially growing – threat to the few
remaining wetlands left in California. … Mute swans
also feed gluttonously on submerged vegetation, destroying the
plant life on which other native wetland species depend. … A
measure before the state Legislature aims to allow hunters and
landowners to shoot the swans for the next five years to try to
bring their numbers down to more manageable levels in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and beyond.
Climate change appears to have driven an ongoing 25-year
shortfall in winter rains and mountain snows across the U.S.
Southwest, worsening a regional water crisis that’s also
related to hotter temperatures and growing demand. Multiple
studies now suggest that human-caused climate change is
boosting an atmospheric pattern in the North Pacific that
favors unusually low winter precipitation across the Southwest.
… A study published in Nature on Wednesday, August 13,
finds that emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases and
tiny sun-blocking particles called aerosols have driven
long-term PDO [Pacific Decadal Oscillation] changes over the
last few decades, depriving the Southwest of much-needed winter
rain and snow.
Other drought, rain and snow news around the West:
A trial over flows in the Kern River, originally set for
December 8 this year, was kicked 15 months into the future to
Feb. 8, 2027 on Wednesday. Kern County Superior Court Judge
Gregory Pulskamp wanted to give all the parties and their many
lawyers enough time to do the proper “homework,” including
numerous depositions of expert witnesses, and await a ruling by
the California Supreme Court on one portion of the case, that
may, or may not, alter some of the key issues being examined.
He set aside 30 court days for the trial, which is anticipated
to be complex. … The high court justices will review a
ruling by the 5th District Court of Appeal that overturned a
preliminary injunction issued by Pulskamp in fall 2023 ordering
the city to keep enough water in the Kern River for fish that
had returned following that year’s epic runoff.
After weeks of hot, dry and windy weather across western
Colorado, Gunnison County Commissioners received a water-issues
update on Tuesday that was filled with “sobering” news. …
[T]he U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is once again considering
emergency releases from Blue Mesa Reservoir to bolster falling
water levels in Lake Powell. … If current conditions
persist, Lake Powell is projected to fall below the critical
elevation of 3,525 feet above sea level in the spring of 2026.
This would be the second time that has occurred since the
reservoir filled in 1980. … To complicate matters, the
2007 agreement between upper and lower Colorado River Basin
states that guides decision-making in the event of shortages is
set to expire in 2026.
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.
