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.
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.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers of articles and participants of the tours and workshops we featured in 2025! We are deeply grateful to each and every person who engaged with us last year.
We have much to look forward to in 2026, especially as we gear up to mark and celebrate the Foundation’s 50th anniversary in 2027!
One of our most exciting projects this year will be replacing our 12-year-old website with a beautifully streamlined version that is mobile-adaptable. It will allow fora more intuitive experience as users conduct research, read our weekday newsfeed or water encyclopedia, and sign up for tours and events.
Along with our new website, we’ll be launching a new and improved Aquafornia newsfeed to better align with our reach across California and the Colorado River Basin. Stay tuned!
New Water Map & Spanish Version of California Water Guide
By summer, we’ll publish an update to our Layperson’s Guide to California Water in English and, for the first time, in Spanish. We will also publish a new Klamath River map to illustrate the nation’s largest dam removal project in the watershed straddling Oregon and California.
With social media, we’ll continue focusing on LinkedIn as our primary go-to channel as we ease off Facebook and X/Twitter where engagement has dropped. But not to fear; we’ll continue posting on Instagram.
Our array of 2026 programming begins later this month when we welcome our incoming California Water Leaders cohort. We’ll be sure to introduce them to you and let you know what thorny California water policy issue they’ll be tackling.
We’ll also be welcoming our third cohort of Colorado River Water Leaders in March.Applications are due Jan. 26 so be sure to get them in soon!
California is on the cusp of adopting a sweeping plan to manage
the ecologically stressed Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a
move that Gov. Gavin Newsom deems “critical” to protecting
state water supplies but critics are calling a major
environmental setback. The state’s Bay Delta Plan, years in the
making, aims to moderate the amount of water that cities and
farms take out of rivers and creeks, from Fresno to the Oregon
border, to ensure enough is left to flow downstream to the
delta. … Last week, at three days of public hearings in
Sacramento, scores of conservationists, fishermen, delta
residents and Native Americans blasted the plan as doing too
little to rein in water users, saying struggling fish, wildlife
and water quality would not see the improvements they
need.
Arizona officials have a blunt message to other states in the
protracted fight over the Colorado River: Give up more water or
we’re going to take it from you. More than two years of
negotiations between the seven states that share the
drought-stricken Colorado River — and countless meetings,
including Interior Department officials waving the threat of
federal intervention — have failed to produce a deal about how
to share the waterway, including who must use less of it. With
less than two weeks before a last-ditch federal deadline on
Feb. 14, the states are still attempting to come up with at
least a short-term, five-year agreement.
Mexico and the United States have agreed to a plan for Mexico
to deliver the water it owes to Texas under a 1944 treaty. The
U.S. State Department and Department of Agriculture said in a
joint statement Tuesday that Mexico will deliver a minimum of
350,000 acre-feet of water per year to Texas, which is the
amount it owes annually under the water-sharing agreement.
Mexico has been behind on its deliveries of water after years
of drought, delivering only about half of the water it owes
Texas from the Rio Grande during a five year
cycle that ended in October. In exchange for water from the Rio
Grande, the United States promises water deliveries from the
Colorado River to Mexico under the treaty.
Over 60 Colorado water groups want a seat at the table to weigh
in on a historic Western Slope bid to purchase powerful water
rights tied to a small power plant on the Colorado River.
Cities, irrigation districts, hydroelectric companies and other
groups submitted filings Friday to have a say in a water court
case that will decide the future of Shoshone Power
Plant’s rights to access water. The rights are
old and large enough to shape how Colorado River water flows
around the state. A proposed change to the legal rights has
sparked concerns from big dogs in water, like Denver Water,
Colorado’s oldest water utility, over possible impacts to their
water supplies and a debate that continues decades of
west-versus-east water fights in Colorado.
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.
