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.
One of the major rationales for building California’s two biggest surface water supply projects was to provide a supplemental source of water from Northern California so San Joaquin Valley farmers could reduce their reliance on groundwater.
The imported water, it was hoped, would lessen reliance on local groundwater and slow or even halt land subsidence caused by excessive pumping from the aquifers.
The growing likelihood of a historic El Niño season has already triggered statewide emergency preparations, raising important questions about what lies ahead for California’s water systems, infrastructure and communities.
At the Foundation’s 42nd Annual Water Summit on October 29 in Sacramento, renowned weather and climate scientist Daniel Swain will share the latest outlook on El Niño conditions and what the recent forecast of the heaviest precipitation hitting in January could mean for California.
A quarter of the glaciers in the contiguous United States have
disappeared since the mid-20th century while the total
area and volume of glaciers has dropped by about a
third — and even more in California — a new
study shows. The research, published Monday in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, is a particularly
comprehensive assessment of the bleak state of glaciers and a
stark indictment of climate change. Glacial melting in the
Lower 48 states, a product of warming temperatures, is
most severe in the Sierra Nevada and parts of the
Rockies, the study suggests, due to warmer, drier
conditions and glaciers that are generally smaller and less
resilient. … The decline of the glaciers, long a
nourishing — and defining — fixture of the mountain West, is
already having repercussions. Foremost, it’s robbing
alpine ecosystems of needed moisture and squeezing
water supplies for cities and farms.
In Northwest Colorado, local communities depend on water, not
only to support their growing populations, but also to bolster
outdoor recreation and tourism, agricultural production and
more. As Colorado and the West face growing aridification
driven by climate change, threats to water quality,
quantity, timing and more are increasing — and driving
overall economic uncertainty. A new report from the
Northwest Colorado Council of Governments Water
Quality/Quantity Committee seeks to illustrate the
relationships between economic activity, water and emerging
threats in Eagle, Grand, Gunnison, Pitkin, Routt and
Summit counties. Collectively, the report refers to these as
the headwaters counties, owing to the vast number of source
waters and major tributaries that originate within their
mountains — including theColorado
River, which has its headwaters in Grand
County and delivers water to over 40 million downstream
users.
Arizona finished this year’s monsoon with above-average
precipitation in many parts of the state, following
two years of below-average monsoon rain and mountain snowpack.
Forecasters are now watching a strong El Niño pattern
thatcould bring snow to the state’s
high country this winter. In Flagstaff, soil remained
saturated this week from weekend rainfall. Hydrologists say
the moisture helps the state’s water supply and
prepares the water system to retain more water this
winter. Arizona has been in a long-term drought
for decades, and the past few years have been especially dry,
raising concerns about the state’s limited water
supply. … Rain also saturates the soil, which
increases the likelihood that runoff from high-country snow
will refill the water supply. … [First Alert Meteorologist
Pete] Mangione said Arizona’s high country typically sees more
snow during an El Niño pattern.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and his administration are back in
court today defending against claims they failed to
protect Colorado waters and public health from factory farm
pollution. After a Colorado district court ruled in
2024 current regulations for operating permits were sufficient
to comply with the federal Clean Water Act,
conservation groups appealed. Emily Miller, staff attorney for
the advocacy group Food and Water Watch, a plaintiff in the
case, said the main problem is factory farms are
operating as sewer-less cities. “They store vast
quantities of untreated waste that is not just manure. It is
filled with pollutants, including harmful nitrates, bacteria,
heavy metals, antibiotics and hormones that are fed to the
animals,” Miller outlined. … The state agency charged with
regulating factory farms argued monitoring for leaks
was unnecessary because there was no evidence manure pits
leak.
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.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last
century and it occurs with much greater frequency in the West
than in any other region of the country.
