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.
Our Layperson’s
Guide to California Water has been completely
updated for 2026, providing a comprehensive overview of the
ways water is used, as well as its critical ecological role,
throughout the state. The 24-page publication traces the history
of the vital resource at the core of California’s identity,
politics and culture since its founding in 1850.
Time is running out to register for next Thursday’s Water
101 Workshop and go beyond the headlines to gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California. Plus, only a handful of seats remain for the
opportunity to extend your ‘beyond the headlines’ water education
experience on the optional watershed tour the next day!
California’s dismal snowpack is about to get a
late-season boost. A weekend storm is forecast to drop feet of
snow across the Sierra Nevada, prompting the National Weather
Service to issue a winter storm watch. The watch is
in effect from Friday evening through Saturday evening above
4,500 feet for the west slope of the northern Sierra, including
Interstate 80 and Highway 50. … Forecast snowfall totals
were trending higher, with 2 feet of snow possible
along I-80 over Donner Summit above 4,500 feet. The
highest peaks, including ski resorts, could pick more than 3
feet of snow, with localized totals up to 4
feet.
The USDA has declared natural disaster areas in Inyo County, as
well as three counties in Nevada, over what they say is an
extreme drought. The agency says the disaster area encompasses
areas in the states of California, Nevada and
Arizona, and includes Clark, Esmeralda, and Nye
counties in Nevada. The declaration allows the USDA and the
Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to producers
recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. The
loans can be used to meet recovery needs, such as replacing
essential items, reorganizing farming operations, and
refinancing debts.
… By some measures, 2026 is shaping up to be the worst year
the river has seen since records began. Flows are down 20
percent from 2000 levels. Lake Powell, the reservoir straddling
Utah and Arizona, may drop below the threshold for generating
hydropower before the year is out. The negotiations between the
seven states over how to share what’s left have collapsed
twice, and the U.S. federal government is threatening to impose
its own plan. While the states argue and the river shrinks, a
growing set of machine learning tools is being deployed across
the basin. Federal water managers are running millions of
simulations to stress-test reservoir strategies against
different possible futures.
A groundwater subbasin in western Stanislaus and nearby
counties is no longer threatened with state probation, thanks
to a water board decision Tuesday. The state Water Resources
Control Board took action to move the Delta-Mendota
Subbasin back to the jurisdiction of the California
Department of Water Resources. … Twenty-three agencies,
including the cities of Patterson and Los Banos and many water
districts, are in the Delta-Mendota Subbasin, which was
referred to the state Water Resources Control Board in 2023 for
intervention because their sustainability plans were
inconsistent and would not result in stable groundwater levels.
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.
