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.
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.
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.
Officials from the United States and Mexico announced Wednesday
a Colorado River water-sharing dealfor next two years as the
basin continues to be overstressed by prolonged drought. The
short-term deal, formally known as Minute 334,
calls for Mexico to cut 250,000 acre-feet, or
more than 100,000 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water, in
both 2027 and 2028. It also establishes an environmental work
group and a pilot program to manage the salinity of
Colorado River water as it reaches Mexico.
… Under the new international plan, Mexico’s share of
the Colorado River could decrease or increase based on
forecasts for upstream reservoir conditions at Lake Mead, on
the Arizona-Nevada border.
Temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are still rising as this
year’s El Niño strengthens. A monthly outlook
published Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Climate Prediction Center gives a 75%
chance that El Niño will become “historic” from October to
December. … L’Heureux explained that the timing
of this precipitation will likely trail behind El Niño’s peak
strength in the ocean. “The outlooks show that the strongest
probabilities for increased precipitation in California
are during December-March,” [Climate Prediction Center
physical scientist Michelle] L’Heureux wrote. … And
oceanographers are also expecting El Niño to temporarily raise
sea levels and bump up winter wave energy, threatening
the coastline with erosion and flooding, especially during
storms.
California’s beloved condors and sea otters have
rebounded from the brink of extinction thanks to the Endangered
Species Act. Now the state is going to court to keep the
50-year-old law intact, filing two lawsuits Wednesday to block
what Democratic leaders describe as the Trump administration’s
rollback of its protections. Attorney General Rob Bonta filed
the suits with a coalition of 21 attorneys general, adding to
dozens California has already filed to combat the Trump
administration’s deregulatory agenda. … Trump’s changes,
finalized in July, rescind a definition of harm that
made it illegal to damage the places that endangered species
call home — effectively opening up habitat where they
shelter, breed and eat to mining, logging and other
development.
Aurora Water is in talks to purchase land and water from two of
the most historic farms in the Lower Arkansas Valley, adding to
farm communities’ worries about “buy and dry” pressure
from cities amid historic drought and a dwindling agricultural
economy. But Aurora Water says it has learned lessons
from past controversies and is structuring the latest buy-up to
preserve southeastern Colorado farm life, not destroy it.
… Recent southeastern Colorado water purchases by Aurora
Water and other utilities have given the agencies rights to dry
up farmland in, for example, three out of 10 years. Many local
farmers and water conservancy officials say that casts
too much uncertainty on a farm owner’s economic plans.
They are also not convinced that farmland can recover after
being completely dried up for entire seasons.
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.
