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 41ˢᵗ annual Water
Summit, an engaging day of discussions addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West, will be
held on Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Sacramento with the theme,
Embracing Uncertainty in the West.
Speakers and conversations will explore how to move forward with
critical decisions despite myriad unknowns facing our most
precious natural resource, including updates and insights
from leadership at both the state and federal levels in shaping
water resource priorities in California and across the West.
California Natural Resources
Secretary Wade Crowfoot will be the keynote speaker at our
2025 Water
Summit where leading experts and top
policymakers will explore how to move forward with critical
decisions despite myriad unknowns facing the West’s most precious
natural resource.
Now in its 41ˢᵗ year, the Foundation’s premier annual event on
Oct. 1 in downtown Sacramento will focus on the theme,
Embracing Uncertainty in the West. A
full agenda featuring a slate of engaging panelists will be
available soon, but the day will be filled with lively
discussions on topics such as:
House Republicans narrowly passed legislation on Thursday that
would slash $766.4 million from the budgets of the Department
of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and
their related agencies compared to what they received last
year. … It also increases authorizations for a number of
water projects, including allocating $1.8 billion for the
Navajo-Gallup water supply project in New Mexico, and provides
$1 billion for water management improvement grants, and $177.5
million for water recycling and reuse projects.
On Thursday, Speaker Crystalyne Curley of the 25th Navajo
Nation Council, accompanied by several Council Delegates and
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, hosted senior officials
from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Bureau
of Reclamation (BOR). … Tribal leaders urged federal
officials to support the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water
Rights Settlement Agreement, which is designed to resolve
longstanding legal disputes and secure reliable, long-term
water access for the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the San
Juan Southern Paiute Tribe. … Discussions also addressed
the importance of reaching agreement among various Upper and
Lower Basin states along the Colorado River.
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to complete within nine months a delayed assessment of
whether the San Francisco Estuary local population of white
sturgeon should be listed as threatened under the U.S.
Endangered Species Act. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Cisneros in
San Francisco wasn’t persuaded by the agency’s arguments that
it would need until 2029 to complete the so-called 12-month
finding because of a backlog of pending petitions and staffing
shortages from layoffs and a hiring freeze.
U.S. senators from New Mexico, Colorado and Idaho introduced
legislation Wednesday to increase funds for local partnerships
to prevent water pollution and restore watersheds. … [The
Headwater Protection act,] if passed, would triple the
yearly funding for the Water Source Protection
Program for the U.S. Forest Service in order to
provide more than $30 million per year for farmers, ranchers,
water utilities and local and tribal governments for restoring
forests or cleaning up watersheds. The legislation would
prioritize giving funds to projects to improve drinking water
quality and harden forested areas to wildfire and climate
change.
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.
