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.
As your summer adventures wrap up, be sure to reserve your spot
for our popular fall programs. Seating is limited and will fill
up quickly!
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.
Just one year after the signing of Senate Bill 72, the Summit will
feature a panel discussion of California’s 2028 Water
Plan Update as it undergoes a legislatively
mandated shift from being just a guidance document to a blueprint
providing a framework for implementation of actions.
Start making arrangements now to attend our first-ever
Kern River Tour and annual Water
Summit so you don’t miss out. These popular fall
programs have limited seating and will fill up quickly!
Kern River Tour | November 4-6
Join us on this special journey as
we examine water issues along the Kern
River, from its mountain-fed headwaters in the
southern Sierra Nevada to its terminus in the Central Valley west
of Bakersfield. Among the planned stops are both upper forks of
the Kern River, Lake Isabella, lower Kern River canyon, the
Friant-Kern Canal, irrigated agriculture in the valley, the Kern
Water Bank and more. Click here for more
details.
Denver Water’s 1.5 million customers must shut off their lawn
sprinklers at the start of October as Colorado’s
largest water utility grapples with record-setting heat and
drought. The utility’s Board of Water
Commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously
to impose the ban, which goes into effect Oct. 1. The new
rule adds to drought restrictions in place since
spring as Denver Water has attempted to rein in water use.
… Denver Water’s drought rules follow a winter with
little snow and an abnormally hot and dry summer. Low
snowpack reduced streamflows into Denver Water’s reservoirs to
less than a quarter of normal, and extreme drought
continues to fry the mountains from which the utility draws its
water. The dry, hot summer — the warmest on record for metro
Denver — has not offered relief.
California air regulators will start tracking estimates of the
gases that bubble up from the state’s artificial
reservoirs and contribute to climate change. The
California Air Resources Board says it will begin reporting how
much of the planet-warming gases methane and carbon dioxide are
released fromdams and reservoirs. The Air Resources Board
adopted the new policy last week in response to a
petition by environmental groups. It turned down the
groups’ request that it require reports on emissions from
managers of dams and reservoirs but said it will start
collecting estimated data using methods recommended by the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. … Last year,
the Trump administration stopped reporting such data detailing
various sources of climate pollution to the United Nations.
The Trump administration will soon announce a program to
provide free cybersecurity services to vulnerable U.S.
water facilities, following a cascade of cyberattacks
across at least a dozen states that many experts suspect are
linked to Iran. The initiative is being led by the Office of
the National Cyber Director and has gained momentum over the
last several months, according to two people with knowledge of
the program. A third person with knowledge of the program said
it will begin with facilities in Texas and described it
as a “proof of concept” that could expand to other
states. … The program will offer water utility
providers in the state access to free services, such as tools
for scanning their networks for security vulnerabilities.
The San Diego region appears well-positioned to weather sharp
cuts to California’s share of Colorado River water. The U.S.
Department of Interior on Friday announced California, Arizona
and Nevada need to reduce their water usage by 1.25 million
acre-feet annually between 2027-2028, as climate change and
overuse push the Colorado River watershed further into crisis.
California is absorbing the second-largest cut, at
440,000 acre-feet of water. But Felicia Marcus, former
chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board,
said in an interview that local leaders have spent “smart
money” bolstering the water supply here. … Those factors
have contributed to a supply glut for the Water Authority,
which allows the utility to sell water to other California
agencies. The Water Authority is also exploring how to
sell water to other thirsty Western states.
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.
