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.
Mark your calendars now for our upcoming fall 2026
programs! Registration will open soon, so make sure
you’re among the first to hear by signing up for Foundation announcements!
Water Summit | October 29
Don’t miss the Water Education
Foundation’s 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit in downtown Sacramento! Our premier event of
the year features leading policymakers and experts addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West.
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.
Federal water managers are soon expected to announce a
round of water releases that would prop up Lake Powell, the
nation’s second-largest reservoir. Water levels there
are near record lows, and they are expected to plummet even
lower after a historically dry winter. The Bureau of
Reclamation, the federal agency which manages dams and
reservoirs around the West, is trying to protect Glen Canyon
Dam in northern Arizona. If water levels there drop much lower,
it could become impossible for the dam to generate hydropower.
Farther drops could make it impossible to pass water into the
Colorado River on the other side. Reclamation has
indicated that it will explore a release of up to 1 million
acre-feet of water from reservoirs in the Rocky Mountains and
send it downstream to Lake Powell.
Residents in the South Bay say the rolling chronic sewage
crisis has gone from a nuisance to an acute health hazard.
… County officials say the toxicity of the Tijuana River
has reached record levels, and local leaders are calling on the
Governor and the President to declare a state of emergency,
which would waive all local, state, and federal regulations,
allowing emergency action to address the overwhelming sewage
health disaster. … Currently, while work is ongoing with
catch collectors, [San Diego Supervisor Paloma] Aguirre says
there is no plan to address the root cause of the issue, which
is the broken Mexican waste management system.
Commercial salmon season is opening off the coast of California
for the first time since 2022 this May. … This season,
though, might be less propitious than hoped for [by] fishermen
on the North Coast, who have hoped their three years of
sacrifice would pay immediate dividends. Salmon fishing will
remain closed from the Oregon border to Point Arena (the
Klamath Management Zone, or KMZ, and the zone immediately to
the south of that) and further restricted from Point Arena to
Pigeon Point. … What’s more, California has adopted a quota
for the number of salmon to be caught, a model not unlike how
salmon fisheries are managed in Washington state, which is a
departure from the state’s traditional “wide-open season.”
Methane, the second-biggest contributor to climate change, is
spewing into the atmosphere from the oil and gas industry,
landfills and dairy farms. It’s also coming from another
lesser-known source: reservoirs. As plants break down
underwater, they form methane, which then bubbles to the
surface. California doesn’t monitor how much is coming from
these waters, but now several environmental groups are urging
air regulators to find out, and some experts agree it’s
important. … The coalition of environmental groups —
including Friends of the River, Tell The Dam Truth and five
other organizations, as well as the clothing company Patagonia
— submitted a petition last month saying the California Air
Resources Board should require reports on greenhouse gases from
dams and reservoirs.
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.
