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.
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.
Start making arrangements now to attend our first-ever
Kern River Tour and annual Water
Summit so you don’t miss out. These popular fall
programs have limited seating and will fill up quickly!
Kern River Tour | November 4-6
Join us on this special journey as
we examine water issues along the Kern
River, from its mountain-fed headwaters in the
southern Sierra Nevada to its terminus in the Central Valley west
of Bakersfield. Among the planned stops are both upper forks of
the Kern River, Lake Isabella, lower Kern River canyon, the
Friant-Kern Canal, irrigated agriculture in the valley, the Kern
Water Bank and more. Click here for more
details.
California regulators have released a plan to change how the
state governs the pumping of water from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. … The plan,
which is similar to a previous draft released in December, is
controversial. Environmental advocates say it would starve the
Delta of needed water and threaten fish that are already in
severe decline. If the plan is adopted in October by
the State Water Resources Control Board, it would give
water agencies two ways of complying with Delta water quality
rules. They could either limit pumping to maintain required
minimum levels of water in rivers and the estuary, as has
traditionally been done, or take part in “voluntary
agreements,” in which water agencies commit to ensuring certain
river flows for the environment while contributing funds for
projects that restore habitat for fish and other wildlife in
the Delta.
Arizona’s water finance agency took a step toward implementing
two projects that could increase the state’s water supply
through partnerships with California and Mexico. The state
Water Infrastructure Finance Authority solicited ideas for
long-term water augmentation projects last year and is
exploring seven proposals. The board voted Wednesday to approve
“scopes of work” for two of those proposals. … The
two proposals WIFA discussed this week involve potable
reuse and groundwater
storage.… This project
would involve Arizona paying to store excess water flows from
the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and tributaries via the
California State Water Project in exchange for
some of California’s share of Colorado River
water.
Following a county-wide moratorium on any new data center
applications, the Nye County Board of Commissioners voted
Tuesday to completely ban data centers in one of the
most over-appropriated water basins in Nevada. After
hours of public comment, the Nye County Board of Commissioners
voted unanimously to ban the construction and operation of data
centers in Nevada’s Hydrographic Basin 162, becoming
the first municipality in Nevada to outright ban data
centers. … The vote comes after county
commissioners approved a temporary county-wide moratorium in
June on any new data center applications, which will remain in
effect until the county adopts local data center regulations.
The temporary moratorium followed an emergency order in May
from the Nye County Water District Governing
Board recommending a pause on data centers in the
Pahrump Valley.
… U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Tuesday
announced a long-expected repeal of that rule [the Roadless
Rule], setting off waves of protest — and likely future
litigation — from environmental groups. The rule protects
swaths of the Sierra surrounding Lake Tahoe, including
watersheds of the American, Rubicon and Yuba rivers. Around 4
million acres of federal land in California are protected by
the act. Many of those areas still hold routes cut in before
the roadless rule existed, allowing for wildfire mitigation
work and recreational access. … [T]he roadless rule
is critical in protecting water quality and habitat
for species like salmon, trout and deer, conservation group
Trout Unlimited said in a statement.
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.
