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.
Are you an
up-and-coming leader in the water world? The application
window is now open for our 2026 California Water
Leaders cohort, and submissions are due no later than Dec.
3, 2025.
If interested in applying, start by checking out the
program
requirementsand look at the
frequently asked questions and mandatory
dates on
the application page. Make sure you have the time to
commit to the program next year and approval from your
organization to apply.
Then sign
up here to join a virtual Q&A
session on Nov. 5 at noon with Jenn Bowles,
our executive director, and other Foundation team members to get
an overview of the program and advice on applying.
Only a few seats are left on the
bus for our Northern California
Tour on Oct. 22-24 that journeys across the
Sacramento Valley from Sacramento to Redding with visits to
Oroville and Shasta dams!
One of our most popular tours, it will not be offered in
2026 so don’t miss this opportunity for a scenic journey
through riparian woodland, rice fields, nut orchards
and wildlife refuges while learning from experts about the
history of the Sacramento River and issues associated with a
key source for the state’s water supply. Other stops include Red
Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project, rice farms, Battle Creek,
Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District and Sacramento National Wildlife
Refuge. Only a handful of tickets are left, soclaim your
seat on the bus here!
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its
2025-2026 winter forecast outlook on Thursday, which predicts
seasonal changes for different parts of the United States for
the months of December, January and February. … NOAA’s
winter outlook does not offer snowfall predictions, but it does
forecast above-normal overall precipitation between December
and February for the Pacific Northwest and northern
California along the West Coast, as well as the
northern Rockies, Great Plains and western
Great Lakes, all of which are consistent with the presence of
La Niña.
Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation’s two largest reservoirs,
are following patterns very similar to 2021, the year the water
shortage was declared by the federal government. There’s one
big difference: Lake Mead is already 10 feet lower than it was
then, despite ongoing conservation efforts. And that’s a
problem for Las Vegas and millions of people who rely on the
Colorado River for water. A report
released on Wednesday shows that Lake Mead is expected to be 5
feet lower a year from now. More concerning is the projection
that shows it will drop an additional 15 feet by September 2027
— so, a total of 20 feet compared to now.
… Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law that aims to
improve resiliency in the county’s water system. AB 367
requires water districts to develop wildfire plans that include
filling backup tanks during high-threat Red Flag Warnings.
Water agencies would need to ensure that power backup is
available to keep pumps operating in the event of an electric
utility interruption. The new law also requires water systems
to take steps to protect their infrastructure against wildfire
damage. Democratic State Assemblyman Steve Bennett of Oxnard
authored the legislation, which applies specifically to water
agencies in Ventura County.
Environmental groups are preparing to sue the federal
government for approving a mining exploration project near the
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a desert wetland that
supports a trove of endangered and threatened species found
nowhere else in the world. … Conservation groups say the
mining exploration project could potentially harm several
federally listed endangered and threatened plants that rely on
groundwater-fed springs in the area.
… Federal hydrologists acknowledged that groundwater at
the site of the proposed project was relatively shallow, making
it likely that boreholes drilled beyond 100 feet would hit
groundwater in the area.
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.
