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 executive 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!
California water regulators have approved a permit for
Sites Reservoir, clearing the way for
construction of the state’s first new major reservoir
in decades. Plans call for two large dams about 300
feet high, as well as nine smaller ones, holding water pumped
from the Sacramento River and inundating about
15,000 acres in a valley northwest of
Sacramento. After a heated debate, the State
Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously late Wednesday
to approve the water right permit for the
reservoir near the community of Maxwell.
… State officials and managers of water agencies said
the $7 billion reservoir will be a critical part of
California’s efforts to adapt to climate change.
… Construction is scheduled to begin next year and
conclude in 2034. Opponents, including environmental
activists and fishing advocates, urged the board to reject the
permit, saying the reservoir would siphon too much
water out of the Sacramento River and harm salmon and other
native fish.
The weather is dry for the moment, but signs across the
atmosphere are painting a clear picture for when the first
atmospheric river will bring rain to California. As El
Niño begins to lock into the atmosphere, it will continue
toset up patterns like the one we will see
next week, with lower pressure just offshore and a
lingering dome of high pressure across the central United
States. Patterns like this that hold in place for a week
or more are exceptional at squeezing out oceanic
moisture in the form of atmospheric rivers. … And
the first of the season for Central California is
taking shape for next week. … Early projections
show Sacramento could receive its entire November rain
average — nearly two inches — in the short window.
Other areas statewide could see similar numbers, with a general
trend for more rain falling in Northern California. … An
early look at what this would mean for Sierra snow
shows several feet.
Other California El Niño forecast and preparation news:
Heavy rains pounded Arizona and the Four Corners region in
recent weeks, and the effects were nearly impossible to miss.
Storms drenched places like Flagstaff, Winslow and Durango,
Colorado, surging through rivers, across streets and into
homes. Steady rain made for a soggy Halloween in the Phoenix
area. Floods made it hard to reach the polls in some parts of
Navajo Nation. For all of the ways those rains reshaped
life in the Southwest recently, they barely made a dent in the
region’s water supply crisis. … The Central
Arizona Project, which brings water from the Colorado River to
the Phoenix and Tucson areas, keeps a close eye on upstream
conditions. Even after days of soaking rain, those
conditions hardly changed.
Across Arizona’s high country, mountain streams are getting a
little busier as wildlife crews return Gila trout to
their native waters. In October, the Arizona Game and
Fish Department and its partners stocked the threatened
fish in Chase and Bonita creeks along the Mogollon Rim,
tosupport the species’ recovery. The
fish were supplied by the Mora National Fish Hatchery in New
Mexico, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which
has been breeding and raising Gila trout since 1999, according
to the Game and Fish department.The effort is part of a
broader campaign to rebuild populations of Gila trout, which
remain classified as threatened under the Endangered Species
Act of 1973. … Each individual trout was
measured and implanted with a microchip tag before release so
an AZGFD biologist can track how the fish grow, survive and
disperse throughout the watershed over time.
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.
