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.
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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.
… To many, the functionality of Glen Canyon Dam’s river
outlet works has been a slow-moving crisis. If levels at Lake
Powell fall too low, water deliveries to Lake Mead
could be cut off due to potential damage of those release
tubes, spelling trouble for Southern Nevada and its
neighbor states in the Lower Colorado River Basin. … In
a Friday statement, the Southern Nevada Water Authority said
the uncertainty of Glen Canyon Dam’s infrastructure is another
reason for every state to take swift action to cut water use in
order to protect reservoir storage. “While Reclamation has
acknowledged the engineering feasibility exists to operate at
these levels, the bypass tubes were not envisioned to
be the sole release mechanism,” the statement said.
“Gambling on how much we can safely release while the reservoir
is near empty seems less than prudent.”
U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz called on the federal government Wednesday
to launch a rigorous environmental and historic review of a
controversial proposal to pump billions of gallons of
groundwater from the Mojave Desert, framing the project as a
threat to local communities, tribal sovereignty, and iconic
national parks. In a formal letter to Interior Secretary Doug
Burgum, Ruiz, D-Calif., urged the Bureau of Land Management to
conduct a comprehensive assessment under federal environmental
and historic preservation laws before deciding on a crucial
pipeline right-of-way application for Cadiz Inc. The proposal
by Los Angeles-based Cadiz, which is backed by foreign
investors, seeks to extract 16 billion gallons of water
annually for 50 years from an ancient desert
aquifer.
Forecasts of summertime moisture will be some welcome relief
for farmers and ranchers in the Intermountain West, after
undergoing a rugged, widespread drought and record snowpack
drought over the past year. Although not a guarantee,
there are promising signs for moisture in the
Intermountain West region (Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado, Utah and Wyoming) thanks to the El Nino climate
phenomenon combined with monsoon moisture expected this summer,
which was detailed on the latest Intermountain West Drought
Update Webinar, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, hosted by the National
Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated
Drought Information System. Not only is moisture critical for
forage for rangeland, pastures and drinking water for cattle,
but also for the major lakes and rivers supplying water to the
western states.
Wildlife experts in both California and Oregon report they’re
seeing a high number of newly released Chinook
salmon sickened and killed by a parasite. The
salmon have been found dead at multiple traps in Oregon
and California in the Klamath River. The deaths, first
reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting, are believed to
primarily be due to a parasite called Ceratonova shasta. The
parasite, which is linked to the salmon, has reached farther
north in the river than ever before following the destruction
of four dams near the Oregon-California border. … A
recent count from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that
almost half, or 46%, of nearly 700 salmon found in traps have
tested positive for C. shasta.
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.
