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.
The Water Education Foundation’s
2025 Annual
Reportis now available in an interactive,
digital format and recaps how we accomplished a lot of
“firsts” last year.
A standout moment was our first-ever Klamath River
Tour, where we brought 45 participants into the heart of
the watershed that underwent the nation’s largest dam removal
project.
Big Day of Giving may be ending soon but
you have until midnight to support the Water Education
Foundation’s tours, workshops, publications and other programs
aimed at building water literacy across California and the West!
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At the Foundation, we believe that education is as precious as
water. Your donations help us empower next-generation
leaders from all sectors of the water world to broaden their
knowledge and build their collaborative skills through our
popular Water Leader programs in
California and the Colorado River Basin.
Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency Thursday, noting
every county is in a state of severe or extreme drought after
a dry winter marked by record warmth robbed Utah of its
snowpack and left rivers and streams running
low. The declaration opens the door for farmers
and ranchers to tap into federal funding and loans managed by
the state. It also gave state leaders another opportunity to
urge homeowners to cut back on watering their lawns and replace
some of their grass with less thirsty plants. … Cox
said about two-thirds of residential water is used outdoors and
pleaded with Utahns to stay vigilant and avoid watering too
much. But he said any restrictions are a decision for local
leaders and water districts, not for state officials.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has freed up $52 million that
water managers will use to replace three old turbines at Hoover
Dam as forecasters expect Lake Mead levels to plunge to
historic lows over the next two years. Previously, the federal
agency had said extremely low reservoir levels could
cause a 40 percent reduction in hydropower — a
concerning sign for utilities that rely on it throughout
Nevada, California and Arizona. Older turbines
cannot generate power below 1,035 feet in elevation at the
reservoir, and hydropower levels would have dropped from 1,302
megawatts to 382 megawatts, the agency said. … Record-low
Lake Mead levels are coming largely due to the Bureau of
Reclamation’s move to reduce flows out of Lake Powell — a
decision made to ensure water can keep flowing in the face of
the worst runoff season on record.
Republicans and Democrats took a bipartisan step — or perhaps
more precisely, a tiptoe — toward putting Congress’ imprint on
the debate over the costs of data centers. As the House
Appropriations Committee hammered out a $58 billion fiscal 2027
energy and water spending bill Wednesday, members reached rare
consensus on a bipartisan amendment that would empower the
Energy Department to start regulating data centers.
… The bipartisan amendment, which would spur the Energy
Department to improve data centers’ water and energy
efficiency, was a signal that both parties are feeling
the public pressure around energy and data centers ahead of the
midterms.
For the first time in roughly a century, spring-run Chinook
salmon are swimming in the North Yuba River. And the program
that put them there just got funded for another year. The
Yuba Water Board of Directors approved a $500,000 grant to the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday to
continue the salmon reintroduction program in
the upper reaches of the North Yuba River watershed. The
two-year-old pilot program has already placed hundreds of
thousands of salmon eggs and adult fish into a 12-mile stretch
of gravel riverbed above Downieville. The process works in
two phases. CDFW biologists inject pre-fertilized eggs directly
into the gravel at the bottom of the river, mimicking natural
spawning conditions. They also release adult salmon to lay eggs
naturally.
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.
