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.
Tom Gibson, new director of
California’s Department of Water Resources, will serve as the
keynote speaker for our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit on Oct. 29.
Guided by this year’s theme, Stewarding a New Era in
Western Water,Gibson and
other leading policymakers and experts will address emerging
topics related to the challenges and opportunities facing water
resource management in California and the West.
Gibson,
an attorney who has held several roles in the state’s Natural
Resources Agency and its various departments, was appointed by
Gov. Newsom on June 29 and sworn in on July 6 to lead DWR and its
nearly 4,000 employees.
Mark your calendars! Registration will be opening soon for two
exciting Water Education Foundation events this fall.
Water Summit | Oct. 29
Join us for our premier event of
the year, bringing together leading policymakers and experts from
all sectors to discuss the most pressing water issues facing
California and the West.
For the first time, Grand County can call upon a water right to
increase streamflows in the Colorado River
while providing environmental, agricultural and recreational
benefits to the county. Under a new Operational Framework
agreement, Grand County can release up to 10,000 acre-feet, or
about 3.3 billion gallons, of water annually from the
Colorado-Big Thompson Project, according to a
joint news release from Grand County and the Northern Colorado
Water Conservancy District (Northern Water). Grand County
plans to use the water to increase flows in the
Colorado River during periods of low water and high
temperatures, according to Grand County Communications
Director Christine Travis. Higher flows help cool the river and
protect aquatic life.
Strengthening California’s defenses against emerging artificial
intelligence-enabled cyber threats, Governor Gavin Newsom today
[Aug. 10] announced a first-in-the-nation
initiative to protect state assets and critical
infrastructure while advancing responsible AI
innovation. Building on California’s nation-leading 2023 and
2026 Executive Orders on Artificial Intelligence, the Governor
is directing state agencies to establish an AI Cyber Defense
Program, strengthen cybersecurity coordination across state
government, expand AI-enabled defenses for critical
infrastructure and local governments, and improve preparedness
for emerging AI cybersecurity incidents. … “Cyberattacks
can disrupt the essential services Californians rely on every
day, including water, power, transportation,
and emergency communications,” said California Governor’s
Office of Emergency Services Director and state Homeland
Security Advisor Caroline Thomas Jacobs.
The Dixie Valley toad’s only known habitat is a 760-acre
wetland fed by hot springs in a remote part of
Churchill County, about 130 miles east of Reno. When the
species, a descendant of toads that lived in the Great Basin’s
marshes and lakes during the last ice age, was listed under the
Endangered Species Act in 2022, federal agencies identified
groundwater pumping as one of several threats
to its survival. Now, those threats may become harder to
address. On July 10, the federal government rescinded the
definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act that has
prevented habitat destruction that would affect a species’
chances of survival. The move has reignited a decades-long
debate about what it means to protect an endangered species,
which could have far-reaching ramifications for listed species
in Nevada like the Dixie Valley toad.
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) spent last Thursday
evening touring the Russ Creek and Centerville Slough
Restoration Project, a 1,540-acre project at the mouth of the
Eel River Estuary northwest of Ferndale. …
[T]he Russ Creek and Centerville Slough Restoration Project
purports to be one of the largest coastal restoration
efforts in California. It’s also a unique project
insofar as it is on privately owned land, and in addition to
reestablishing 550 acres of continuous floodplain and tribal
habitat, it will allow for the preservation and
improvement of adjacent agricultural lands — working
across multiple plots of private property to address systemic
tidal connectivity and drainage challenges along a rapidly
subsuming reclaimed agricultural landscape that was once
important brackish marshland habitat.
Other wetland restoration and green infrastructure news:
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.
