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.
Mark your calendars! Registration will be opening soon for two
exciting Water Education Foundation events this fall.
Water Summit | Oct. 29
Join us for our premier event of
the year, bringing together leading policymakers and experts from
all sectors to discuss the most pressing water issues facing
California and the West.
For the past 20 years, the Colorado
River has been operated under a set of guidelines negotiated
between the seven states that depend on the river. Those
guidelines expire this year, and after five years of grinding
negotiations over a new agreement, the upstream states of
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico remain deadlocked against
the downstream states of California, Arizona and Nevada.
Some 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland depend
on the river’s water. But after the states failed to meet two
federal deadlines in three months, the river is in a moment of
unprecedented crisis. A dire snowpack has left flows just 15
percent of normal, many farms without water and several cities
scrambling to secure water supplies as they gird themselves for
shortages.
In the culmination of a process that has been years in the
making, Colorado officials Wednesday announced the creation of
a state-run water conservation program. In what officials are
calling a “near-term contribution program,” the Upper Basin
states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) will
pay water users to voluntarily cut back in 2027 and 2028, using
$100 million in promised funding from the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation. Colorado will now join Utah and Wyoming
in setting up a conservation program within their respective
states. … These types of conservation programs have
traditionally targeted agricultural water users, often seen as
the low-hanging fruit for water savings because they use the
majority of Colorado River water. But
officials are hoping this program will have participation
across all water-use sectors, including municipal and
industrial.
San Diego leaders are calling for a renewed U.S.-Mexico-Canada
Agreement (USMCA) to includesolutions to the Tijuana River
sewage crisis. Their demand comes in response to President
Trump’s refusal earlier this month to renew the trade deal. At
a news conference Thursday in Otay Mesa, officials said the
president’s decision has created an opportunity for the
U.S. to strengthen the agreement. …The Trump
administration already has an agreement with Mexico that
promises to end the decades-long, cross-border pollution.
Adopted last year, Minute 333 lays out new wastewater
infrastructure and maintenance projects that each country must
take on by certain deadlines. … But San Diego
Assemblymember David Alvarez said those plans need the
enforcement and commitment that come with signing a trade
deal.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has downlisted the razorback
sucker from endangered to threatened, citing growth in fish
populations that the agency says has reduced the risk to the
species. The freshwater fish, which is native to the Colorado
River and the Grand Canyon, was first listed in 1991 after dams
on the river and other waterways in the Colorado River Basin
fractured its habitat and created conditions that hampered its
ability to reproduce. Non-native fish in the river
also contributed to losses to the species. … The fish
species still faces threats to its survival, the agency said,
including changes in river flows and habitat, changes in water
quality, drought and non-native species.
Tim York sees Aurora residents watering their lawns on those
extra days when they aren’t supposed to, even when their
illegal watering happens at 4 a.m. … This surveillance is
powered by smart water meters installed last year on homes in
Aurora. They transmit data every 15 minutes via cell signal.
York’s team automatically gets a spreadsheet each week of
thousands of likely outdoor watering violations. Humans verify
the data before sending warnings or fines. … Millions of
Coloradans remain under strict water restrictions because of
historic drought. Failing to conserve could mean empty
reservoirs, and even harsher restrictions. … But for all
the help computers are giving Aurora, its water future is still
in the hands of Mother Nature.
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.
