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.
Opponents of the Delta Conveyance Project said Thursday they
had only days to read a 200-page draft decision that, if
approved, would destroy their way of life. They stood before
the Delta Stewardship Council, asking for more time before it
opted to deny their appeals — a move that charts a course for
the massive water diversion project to proceed. … At its
regular Thursday meeting, it denied appeals to a certificate of
consistency from 10 different agencies. However, it chose to
remand two issues — about golden mussel habitat and a local
land use concern — to the state Department of Water Resources.
… The two intake facilities near Hood will handle 6,000
cubic feet of water per second. The 45-mile tunnel will carry
water south to pumping facilities, putting it in the Bethany
Reservoir and ultimately to Southern California.
A state judge ruled this week that the Arizona Department of
Water Resources illegally changed how it evaluates whether
there’s enough groundwater to build new homes in parts of the
Valley. The decision is a win for the Home Builders Association
of Central Arizona, which had sued. State law requires builders
in certain parts of the state — including the Phoenix area —
to prove there’s an assured hundred-year water supply
for houses being built there. But shortly after Gov.
Katie Hobbs took office, she released a report showing the
Phoenix Active Management Area was short of that. … Kathleen
Ferris, senior research fellow at the Kyl Center for Water
Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for
Public Policy, joined The Show to talk about the ruling and its
potential impacts.
Last week, the federal government ordered emergency measures to
prevent water levels at Lake Powell from
falling so low that Glen Canyon Dam, which created the
reservoir, could no longer generate power or deliver water
downstream. Without this intervention, models showed that the
reservoir could drop below safe operating levels in August,
meaning that the river would not have a reliable way to flow
past the dam. This would threaten water and power supplies for
millions of people across the Southwest, as well as the flow of
water through the Grand Canyon. … In a meeting Tuesday, Upper
Basin state commissioners acknowledged the need for emergency
action but warned that this was not a long-term solution.
Despite the excessive rain and snow that California
received in April, drought has crept back into the
state, new data show. The U.S. Drought Monitor map
released on Thursday shows 65% of California as
abnormally dry and nearly 5% experiencing moderate
drought. Before now, the period from December
2025 through March 2026 marked the first time in 25 years that
California was entirely free of drought or even dryness on the
monitor. … Precipitation blanketed California during the
winter, but the record-breaking heat meant it either arrived as
rain or else melted away quickly. Preliminary data showed that
this year’s April 1 snowpack was the second lowest on record,
according to the California Department of Water Resources.
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.
