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.
Be sure to reserve your spot for our popular fall programs before
your summer adventures begin. The tours, in particular, have
limited seating and may be sold out before you return!
Klamath River Tour | September 8-12
Join us on this special journey as
we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from
its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its
redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California. Among
the planned stops is the former site of Iron Gate Dam & Reservoir
for a firsthand look at restoration efforts following the
obsolete structure’s removal. Click here for more
details.
As we head into summer, be sure to
mark your calendars for our popular fall programs which will all
be opening for registration soon!
Importantly, we will launch our first-ever Klamath River Tour to
visit the watershed and, among other things, see how the
river has responded to the dismantling of four obsolete dams. It
will not be an annual tour, so don’t miss this opportunity!
Check out the event dates and registration
details:
President Donald Trump on Thursday pulled the U.S. out of an
agreement with Washington, Oregon and four American Indian
tribes to work together to restore salmon populations and boost
tribal clean energy development in the Pacific Northwest,
deriding the plan as “radical environmentalism” that could have
resulted in the breaching of four controversial dams on the
Snake River. The deal, known as the Resilient Columbia Basin
Agreement, was reached in late 2023 and heralded by the Biden
administration, tribes and conservationists as historic. It
allowed for a pause in decades of litigation over the harm the
federal government’s operation of dams in the Northwest has
done to the fish. Under it, the federal government said it
planned to spend more than $1 billion over a decade to help
recover depleted salmon runs. The government also said
that it would build enough new clean energy projects in the
Pacific Northwest to replace the hydropower generated by the
Lower Snake River dams … should Congress ever agree to remove
them.
It’s been a wet several weeks in Colorado, but as Coloradans
know, moisture tends to come in the form of rain at this point
in the year. And as snowpack continues to dwindle around the
state, several regions are far behind their snowpack norm for
the date. According to data provided by the USDA, the state of
Colorado is at just 36 percent of the snowpack norm for June
12. … Meanwhile, western Colorado is hurting for
snowpack, too, with the Colorado Headwaters river basin
at just 28 percent of what’s typical. … It’s also
worth noting that places where the snow has disappeared the
fastest are also where some of the state’s most serious drought
conditions are found. Currently, it’s estimated that about 60
percent of the state is ‘abnormally dry’ or in a phase of
drought, compared to 38 percent at the same point last
year.
California Democrats tried on Thursday to dissuade Secretary of
the Interior Doug Burgum from cuts to water
infrastructure funding. Instead, they got a clear view
of the Trump administration’s priorities. The water security
programs may be working, but budget cuts are more important,
Burgum told lawmakers during a House hearing on President
Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the Department of the
Interior. … Congress is supposed to have the final say
in federal funding, but the administration’s budget proposal,
which would eliminate WaterSMART, is raising
red flags for some House Democrats, especially given the
approach DOGE has taken to federal funding. Burgum was
responding to Rep. Luz Rivas, who represents the San Fernando
Valley. Rivas said WaterSMART, which funds water management
improvements, drought planning and more throughout the American
West, was successful in mitigating water shortages in her
district. It’s received billions in federal funding since 2010,
with billions more matched by state and local partners.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee is bringing back a proposal that would allow
the federal government to sell off several million acres of
public land in Utah and other Western states.
… Introduced Wednesday evening, Lee’s amendment to
congressional Republicans’ budget bill, nicknamed the “big,
beautiful bill,” renews an effort initially spearheaded by Rep.
Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, and Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, that sought
to dispose of 11,500 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in
southwestern Utah and some 450,000 acres of federal land in
Nevada. … Though the scope is much bigger, Lee’s
reasoning behind the proposal is the same as Maloy and Amodei’s
— identify parcels of federal land near high-growth areas, and
sell them at market value to local governments to use for
housing, water infrastructure, roads and other
development.
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.
During California’s 2012–2016 drought, much of the state
experienced severe drought conditions: significantly less
precipitation and snowpack, reduced streamflow and higher
temperatures. Those same conditions reappeared early in 2021
prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom in May to declare drought emergencies
in watersheds across 41 counties in California.
