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.
What role will desalination play in
the arid West? That topic is one of many engaging conversations
that will be explored at our Oct. 29 Water
Summit revolving around this year’s theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Led by Central Arizona Project’s General Manager Brenda Burman,
the panel will discuss all topics worth their
salt - from emerging desalination technologies to the
latest developments in innovative desalination programs to the
regulatory challenges and opportunities that face the region.
The panel of accomplished speakers will provide deep
insight on desalination’s implications for water management
in the West.
The Water Summit is the Foundation’s premier event of
the year and returns to Sacramento on Oct. 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Capacity is
limited and registration closes soon, so grab your ticket
here while they’re still available!
Our 2026Colorado River Water
Leaders cohort completed its seven-month
program recently with policy recommendations to
strengthen ”assigned water” programs across the Colorado
River Basin.
“Assigned water” has become a key tool for conserving Colorado
River water and helping to stabilize Lake Mead to prevent
shortages. Originally developed as “Intentionally Created
Surplus” within the 2007 Interim Guidelines, it gives users the
ability to store conserved water earmarked for their own future
use.
The cohort was tasked with assessing existing assigned water
programs and identifying opportunities across the Colorado River
Basin. Following seven months of learning, collaboration and
discussion with leading Colorado River experts who served as
mentors, the cohort developed recommendations focused on:
Greater transparency in water accounting
Stronger relationships and communication among interested
parties
California’s wet season is starting off with a bang. The first
significant storm of the season is forecast to bring heavy rain
to vulnerable burn scars near Big Sur, coastal tornado risk to
the Los Angeles area, and a half-foot of snow or more
to high-elevation areas in the Sierra. Wednesday is
expected to be the rainiest day along the coast, and
Thursday the snowiest in the
Sierra. … Ocean temperatures along the
California coast are up to 10 degrees above normal, which could
add heat and moisture to storms as they approach the
shore. With a historically strong El Niño in
place, downpours, waterspouts and tornadoes are more
likely along the coast this winter. … A winter
weather advisory is in effect for the central and
southern Sierra Nevada, where a half-foot of snow could fall
above 8,000 feet.
Arizona’s move to join Nevada’s lawsuit over the Trump
administration’s Colorado River cuts is inflaming tensions
among states and making it more likely the dispute will
end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. … Arizona
and Nevada both allege the Interior Department violated the
Administrative Procedure Act and the 1922 Colorado River
Compact. … If the case reaches the Supreme Court, the
justices would likely appoint a special master to administer
water allocations and river operations during the
litigation, [water law professor at the University of
Kansas School of Law Robin Kundis] Craig said. The court,
through the special master, would “have to provide some sort of
guidance on how to manage the river, especially with
regard to whether the Upper Basin has to take cuts, as well as
the Lower Basin,” she said.
California’s dairy industry sued a state regulatory agency this
week over a new order aimed at protecting Central Valley
communities from nitrate pollution caused by spreading
cow manure on local farmland. The suit filed Monday in
Tulare County Superior Court says the order adopted last month
violates state law by requiring expanding dairies to
abide by the new rules as soon as they are finalized
by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board,
which has five years to do so. Most existing dairies, by
comparison, will have 35 years to come into compliance
with the rules. Board staff have said that extended
timeframe was offered because the industry expressed concerns
the new rules are too burdensome financially to be instituted
immediately. The lawsuit against the State Water Resources
Control Board follows a decade-long discussion of how to
regulate dairies’ use of manure as a soil amendment.
A decade after Arizona rejected local farmers’ effort to rein
in agricultural development they feared would drain the San
Simon Valley’s groundwater supply, applications for
large-scale wells have surged, and the region’s
already strained aquifer is being depleted faster than it can
recover. Since farmers first petitioned the state
for groundwater protections in 2015, landowners or
companies tied to them have submitted 154 applications for
high-capacity wells in the southeastern
Arizona sub-basin. … Water officials estimate the
sub-basin is losing about 50,000 acre-feet more
groundwater than is naturally replenished each year.
… Now, local farmers are trying again to protect what’s left
of San Simon’s groundwater supply. In September, the Arizona
Department of Water Resources formally acknowledged
their petition for an Irrigation Non-Expansion
Area, or INA, opening the door to a permanent ban on
irrigating new farmland.
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.
