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.
Are you an emerging leader ready to
make a greater impact on California water policy and management?
Applications are now being accepted for the Water Education
Foundation’s 2027
California Water Leaders cohort, with submissions
due Dec. 3.
Designed for rising professionals in California’s water
community, the program offers participants an unparalleled
opportunity to deepen their understanding of water issues, expand
their professional network and develop leadership skills
alongside a cohort of peers from across the state.
Visit the
application page, paying close attention
to frequently asked questions and mandatory
program dates to ensure you can fully
participate.
Confirm that you have your organization’s support and can
commit the time necessary to partipating in the program.
Interested in learning more? Join our exeuctive director, Jenn
Bowles, and other members of the Foundation team for
a virtual Q&A session at 12:30 p.m. on Nov.
10. We’ll provide an overview of the program and
share tips for submitting a strong application. Sign up here.
What role will desalination play in
the arid West? That topic is one of many engaging conversations
that will be explored at our Oct. 29 Water
Summit revolving around this year’s theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Led by Central Arizona Project’s General Manager Brenda Burman,
the panel will discuss all topics worth their
salt - from emerging desalination technologies to the
latest developments in innovative desalination programs to the
regulatory challenges and opportunities that face the region.
The panel of accomplished speakers will provide deep
insight on desalination’s implications for water management
in the West.
The Water Summit is the Foundation’s premier event of
the year and returns to Sacramento on Oct. 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Capacity is
limited and registration closes soon, so grab your ticket
here while they’re still available!
… A controversial plan that dramatically changes how the
state governs the pumping of water out of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — the heart
of the state water system — was adopted by California
regulators late Thursday after two days of debate involving
more than 200 people. The plan adopted by the five-member State
Water Resources Control Board breaks from the
traditional approach of requiring all water agencies to limit
pumping to maintain required minimum levels of water
in rivers and the estuary. Instead, it allows
agencies the option of negotiated deals in
which they commit to ensuring certain river flows for the
environment and contribute funds for projects that restore
habitat for fish in the Delta.
The edges of the San Francisco Bay are flooding this week. …
And it’s just the beginning. “We have not seen the worst
coastal flooding this year that we’re likely to see later,”
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and
Natural Resources, said. “This is probably, unfortunately for
those who are dealing with it, just a preview of what
is to come.” The National Weather Service extended a
moderate coastal flood advisory through Saturday for
nearly 2 feet of flooding in low-lying spots throughout the Bay
Area and Central Coast. Several factors are
driving the extra-high water, including the influence of the
full moon earlier this week and warming water caused by
El Niño expanding and pushing local and sea levels up.
Some of the state’s most powerful and influential people
huddled around tables in a conference room on Utah’s Capitol
Hill for a “war games” exercise over the Colorado
River. … Thursday’s tabletop exercise put
political leaders, experts, advocates and others in a room for
hours, working through scenarios for getting more water
into the Colorado River Basin in Utah. While the
Colorado River’s issues are multi-state, Thursday’s exercise
kept it focused on Utah. … Congresswoman Celeste Maloy,
whose congressional district includes the Colorado River, said
the war games exercise considered a whole gamut of ideas like
piping water into Utah, desalination exchanges with
other states, expanded conservation measures and water
re-use. She said it can have real-world policy
implications.
California voters considering Proposition 45 will decide the
fate of a sweeping infrastructure measure that opponents warn
could render the state’s brand-new data center laws
virtually toothless. … [S]ome legal scholars and
environmental advocates say that the proposition’s
technical language creates a loophole. By expediting
environmental reviews under the California Environmental
Quality Act for broad categories of projects … the measure
could quietly allow data centers to bypass recent state
safeguards and local scrutiny. … The debate
over Prop. 45’s data center impact comes at a pivotal moment in
California’s AI infrastructure boom. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently
signed seven landmark data center laws aimed at forcing
operators to disclose water usage, pay for their own
grid upgrades, and undergo environmental review.
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.
