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.
The Water Education Foundation, which celebrates its 49th birthday this year, is proud to be the only organization in the West providing comprehensive, unbiased information about the region’s most critical natural resource. Through our workshops, water leadership programs and explorations of key watersheds, we bring the West’s myriad challenges and opportunities into context to help build sound and collective solutions to water issues.
So, don’t miss your chance to go beyond the news headlines and gain a deeper understanding of how water flows across California and its challenges by signing up for our popular spring tours and workshops below, all of which have limited seating and may sell out before long!
Go beyond the headlines and gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California during our annual Water
101 Workshop on March 26.
One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at Cal
State Sacramento’s Harper Alumni Center offers anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to gain a
solid statewide grounding on water resources. Leading
experts are on the agenda for the workshop that details
the historical, legal and political facets of water management in
the state.
A major storm blanketed Sierra peaks in feet of snow
over Presidents Day weekend. And even more is on the
way, with two to four more feet due by Wednesday morning,
according to Chronicle meteorologists. … UC
Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, located at
Donner Summit, tallied 37.5 inches in the two days leading up
to Tuesday morning. Over 28 inches fell in the past day
alone. … This week’s storms are good news for
California water supplies. According to the California
Department of Water Resources, the statewide snowpack is 59% of
normal for this time of year, as of Tuesday.
A letter from California Governor Gavin Newsom to his fellow
governors in states along the Colorado River is offering
support for a multi-state solution to managing the water supply
for 40 million people. But it’s a paragraph tucked in that
letter, obtained by FOX 13 News, that has reliably red state
Utah leaders praising their blue state counterparts. … [T]he
letter praised Utah Governor Spencer Cox for an idea that has
been pushed by state political leaders for years now — the
notion of trading Colorado River water shares for money for
desalination plants.
Keeping on the state’s good side was paramount in the decision
by a southwestern Kings County groundwater agency to cut
pumping allocations to less than one acre foot per acre of
land. The new allocation was one of a flurry of policies
enacted by the Southwest Kings Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA) over the last few weeks, after the GSA had not met
in six months. Effective immediately, growers in Southwest
Kings will only be allowed to pump .66 acre feet per acre.
Growers who go over that amount will be fined $500 per acre
foot over the allotment starting Oct. 1, according to the
policy approved by the board at its Feb. 13 meeting.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla announced Tuesday that he and Sen. Adam
Schiff secured $54 million in federal funding for the Pajaro
River Flood Risk Management Project, aimed at strengthening
flood protection for Watsonville and Pajaro. The funding will
go toward reconstructing failing levees along the Pajaro River
and its tributaries in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties,
according to Padilla’s office. The project is intended to
reduce flood risk for residents, businesses and infrastructure
in the low-lying communities. … Problems with the aging
levee have plagued the region for years, overtopping its banks
and allowing devastating floods in 1955, 1995 and 1997. Some
3,000 properties lie in the floodplain.
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.
