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.
We are gearing up for an engaging Water Summit on Oct. 29 and
also prepping our 2027 California Water Leaders program. Join a
virtual Q&A on our Water Leaders program on Nov. 10. Details
below.
Water Summit | October 29
Our 42ⁿᵈ
annual Water Summit is the Foundation’s
premier event of the year and returns to Sacramento October 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Capacity is
limited and filling up quickly, so register here while
seats are available!
Conversations during the Summit will revolve around this year’s
theme, Stewarding a New Era in Western
Water, with a focus on emerging topics related to
the challenges and opportunities facing water resource
management.
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of
additional water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center
discourse related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination
efforts and their implications for the arid West
Our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit, an engaging day of discussions addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West, will be
held on Thursday, Oct. 29, in Sacramento with the theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Speakers and conversations will highlight emerging topics related
to the challenges and opportunities facing management of the
West’s most precious natural resource.
Lively conversations will focus on topics such
as:
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of additional
water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center discourse
related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination efforts and their
implications for the arid West
A full agenda will be posted soon, and speakers
include:
Joel Metzger | Deputy Director, Statewide
Water Resources Planning, California Department of Water
Resources
Sandi Matsumoto | California Water Program
Director, The Nature Conservancy
Cannon Michael | President, Bowles
Farming
Craig Miller | General Manager, Western
Municipal Water District
Dave Pederson | General Manager, Las Virgenes
Municipal Water District
As previously announced,
the day will open with a keynote address from Tom
Gibson, the new director of California’s Department of
Water Resources. An attorney who has held several roles in
the state’s Natural Resources Agency and its various departments,
Gibson was appointed by Gov. Newsom on June 29 and sworn in on
July 6 to lead DWR and its nearly 4,000 employees.
… This year, Ruby Ranch enrolled two alfalfa fields in Utah’s
Demand Management Program, which pays Colorado River
water users to temporarily and voluntarily send water
downstream. … Utah is betting that voluntary
conservation like this can help protect the state as the
Colorado River shrinks and the seven states that depend on it
fight over who should use less. … With no deal reached, the
Bureau of Reclamation moved forward with a plan that requires
the Lower Basin to conserve 1.25 million acre-feet of water
next year, with steeper cuts possible in the future. The plan
includes no mandatory cuts in the Upper Basin, just a
goal to conserve 200,000 acre-feet per year.
… New Mexico has a Strategic Water
Reserve Program, which includes leasing 20,000 acre-feet of
water per year from the Jicarilla Apache Nation.
Wyoming created a program similar to Utah’s
earlier this year, and Colorado just approved
a near-term water contribution program in mid-September.
A $40 million deal to sell more than 40% of Montecito’s
State Water Project rights to a massive North County
housing proposal passed a big test Tuesday. In a 5-0 vote,
directors of the Montecito Water District approved a
non-binding letter of intent in support of the transaction,
paving the way for a Spring 2027 purchase agreement with
developers of Solomon Hills, 4,000 homes planned between Orcutt
and Los Alamos. … The approval came over
objections and concerns raised by residents who recalled tight
years of water rationing. Some in the room questioned
whether relinquishing 1,400 acre feet, or 42.4%, of the
district’s annual State Water interests might weaken its
ability to deliver. More specifically, they questioned
whether the district’s increased reliance on desalinated water
from Santa Barbara in recent years might become a big
liability.
El Niño is arriving on the West Coast in a major way. In the
coming days, sea levels off Southern California are
expected to begin rising by half a foot or more and then stay
elevated for months, as an enormous pulse of wave
energy generated by El Niño travels up the coast, lifting the
water as it goes. … But this pulse is coming on top of
several other factors that are raising the seas off California
and increasing the threats from coastal flooding,
erosion and saltwater intrusion. … By unlucky
coincidence, the tidal cycle off California will also be
peaking in the coming months. And ocean swells are likely to be
amped up this fall and winter by El Niño-fueled storms.
Conservationists sued the Trump administration Tuesday to
challenge the expansion of a heavy metal mine they say will
carve up one of Arizona’s ecologically important mountain
ranges. In consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the U.S. Forest Service approved the expansion of
Australian company South32 Hermosa’s mineral extraction
operations to 52,438 acres in the Patagonia Mountains
of southern Arizona. … The plaintiffs claim the
Forest Service also violated the National Environmental Policy
Act by failing to provide an adequate analysis of the project’s
threats, including its effects on groundwater and other public
resources. … Groundwater pumping would draw down
the water table by as much as 250 feet and may reduce
or even eliminate surface water flows.
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.
