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.
The remaining handful of tickets
for our first-ever Klamath River Tour are now up
for grabs! This special water tour, Sept. 8 through Sept.
12, will not be offered every year so check out the tour
details here.
You don’t want to miss this opportunity to 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. The dam
was one of four obsolete structures taken down in the nation’s
largest dam removal project aimed at restoring fish
passage. Grab your ticket here
while they last!
In December 2012, dam operators at Northern California’s Lake Mendocino watched as a series of intense winter storms bore down on them. The dam there is run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ San Francisco District, whose primary responsibility in the Russian River watershed is flood control. To make room in the reservoir for the expected deluge, the Army Corps released some 25,000 acre-feet of water downstream — enough to supply nearly 90,000 families for a year.
Budget cuts, staff reductions and other sweeping changes from
the federal government are posing real threats to California’s
environment and progress against climate change, state
officials said Thursday. … Karla Nemeth, director
of the California Department of Water Resources, said the
agency is reeling from several changes to key components of its
water supply system. Among them are staff
reductions at the federal U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which
oversees the Central Valley Project — a vast network of dams,
reservoirs and canals that delivers water supplies across the
state. The Central Valley Project is the federal companion to
the State Water Project, which performs a similar function.
… The state also works closely with the Bureau of
Reclamation to manage flood protection in
California, where several levee and dam safety projects are now
in jeopardy, Nemeth said. They include projects to enhance the
system along the American River in Sacramento — one of the most
flood-prone urban areas in the U.S. — and to address the
devastating 2023 levee breach that flooded the community of
Pajaro.
Millions of dollars in federal funding have been released to
continue restoring lands and streams in the fire-scarred Upper
Colorado River Basin watershed in and around Grand Lake and
Rocky Mountain National Park. The roughly $4 million was frozen
in February and was released in April, according to Northern
Water, a major Colorado water provider and one of the agencies
that coordinate with the federal government and agencies such
as the U.S. Forest Service to conduct the work. Esther
Vincent, Northern Water’s director of environmental services,
said the federal government gave no reason for the freeze
and release of funds. The amounts and timing of the freeze
and release are being reported here for the first time.
A federal appeals court on Thursday found California could
still review whether a pair of hydroelectric projects in the
state comply with its water quality standards during license
renewal proceedings. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit determined the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission was right when it found the California State Water
Resources Control Board had not waived its authority under the
Clean Water Act to review re-authorizations for the Yuba-Bear
and Drum-Spaulding hydroelectric projects. The Nevada
Irrigation District, which had applied with FERC to renew its
licenses for the two projects, said in its lawsuit that the
board had waived certification authority by engaging in a
“coordinated” effort to go beyond the one-year statutory
deadline to review the projects. But the three-judge panel
agreed with FERC that state officials had not coordinated with
the project developer to delay the review process for the
projects.
Recent results from white sturgeon monitoring surveys by the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) suggest the
white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) population has
continued to decline. CDFW fisheries biologists now estimate
there are approximately 6,500 white sturgeon between 40-60
inches long in California — down sharply from the previous
estimate of approximately 30,000 fish in that size range, based
on the 2016-2021 survey average. There may be many reasons for
the downward trend, including mortality from harmful algal
blooms, poaching, past sport fishing harvest and poor river and
Delta conditions. … Based on historical surveys
conducted by CDFW between 1954–2022, the number of white
sturgeon in California has been in decline for many years. The
species is currently a candidate for listing as threatened
under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) and receives
full CESA protection while its status is reviewed.
Other California Department of Fish and
Wildlife 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.
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.
