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, which celebrates its 49th birthday this year, is proud to be the only organization in the West providing comprehensive, unbiased information about the region’s most critical natural resource. Through our workshops, water leadership programs and explorations of key watersheds, we bring the West’s myriad challenges and opportunities into context to help build sound and collective solutions to water issues.
So, don’t miss your chance to go beyond the news headlines and gain a deeper understanding of how water flows across California and its challenges by signing up for our popular spring tours and workshops below, all of which have limited seating and may sell out before long!
Go beyond the headlines and gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California during our annual Water
101 Workshop on March 26.
One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at Cal
State Sacramento’s Harper Alumni Center offers anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to gain a
solid statewide grounding on water resources. Leading
experts are on the agenda for the workshop that details
the historical, legal and political facets of water management in
the state.
… A series of storms is bringing huge snow totals to the
highest peaks of the Tahoe Basin. As of Wednesday afternoon,
ski resort reports are showing anywhere from 4 to almost 7 feet
of powder since Sunday. … Four days ago, the statewide
snowpack was at just 52 percent of average. By midday
Wednesday, the snowpack jumped by 17 percent.
California is now at 69 percent of average for
this time of year and 53 percent of the average peak
snowpack. … Rain totals in the Valley and Foothills have
been impressive, too with several rounds of beneficial
accumulation over the past few days. … According to
California’s Department of Water Resources, Shasta is at 78
percent of capacity. Lake Oroville is at 80 percent of
capacity. Folsom Lake is at 55 percent of capacity which is 114
percent of the historical average.
River conservationists on Wednesday urged state regulators to
reassess how aging hydropower infrastructure is operated and
maintained — and, in some cases, whether certain facilities
should remain in place — following a 14-foot diameter,
high-pressure water pipe ruptured last week. While praising the
immediate emergency response of Yuba Water Agency and
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, advocates said the
rupture raises broader questions about how dams and related
infrastructure are managed in California. … The
incident, which took place about five miles downstream of New
Bullards Bar Dam, led to the deaths of hundreds, possibly
thousands, of juvenile salmon.
As the state has built up its legal warchest ahead of
a legal battle over how Colorado River water will be
divvied up, one failed Republican proposal at the Capitol
sought to notify Arizona residents of the worst case
scenario. … [Ariz. Rep. Alexander] Kolodin’s bill would
have required that every municipal water provider that receives
water from the Central Arizona Project notify customers of the
potential increase to their water rates if 100% of that water
is no longer available. … The Central Arizona
Project, a series of canals that supplies Colorado River water
to the Phoenix and Tucson areas. But because it is one of the
newest users of the Colorado River water, it will be among the
first to be cut if the states that are part of the Colorado
River Compact can’t reach an agreement before the deadline set
by the federal government.
A new study from researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno,
finds elevated mercury levels in wood ducks along the Carson
River, downstream from Nevada’s historic Comstock Lode. In the
1800s, miners used mercury to extract gold and silver from
crushed rock. Much of that toxic metal washed into nearby
waterways, where it settled into sediments along riverbanks and
floodplains. … While the research focused on the
Carson River watershed, the implications extend beyond northern
Nevada. Historic mining shaped watersheds across the
Mountain West, including parts of Colorado, Idaho and Montana.
Many of those rivers still contain legacy contamination from
gold and silver extraction.
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.
