Home

Announcement

Water Education Foundation Honors SJV Water Founder & Journalist Lois Henry
Henry is third recipient of Rita Schmidt Sudman Award for Excellence in Water Journalism

Lois Henry, a journalist who launched SJV Water as a nonprofit news site devoted to covering water in the San Joaquin Valley, was named the 2024 recipient of the Water Education Foundation’s Rita Schmidt Sudman Award for Excellence in Water Journalism.

Henry said she was honored to receive the award, which acknowledges outstanding work that illuminates complicated water issues in California and the West.

“I’m grateful and humbled to receive this recognition,” Henry said. “Water is such an arcane and politically rife topic. We really strive to explain what’s happening in layman’s terms and walk an unbiased line. So, it’s exciting to know our work has hit the mark and provided value to our readers.”

Announcement

Last Call for Tickets to Oct. 30 Water Summit & Coveted Sponsor Spots
Registration Closes Friday for Foundation's Premier Annual Event

Registration closes Friday for our 2024 Water Summit, set for next Wednesday, Oct. 30, in downtown Sacramento with conversations focused on our theme, Reflecting on Silver Linings in Western Water.

Get your ticket to our premier annual event by Friday at 5 p.m. Foundation members can take advantage of a $100 discount on registration!

LAST CALL FOR SPONSORS! This event is a prime networking opportunity for the water professionals in attendance and general sponsorship opportunities are still available, but this Thursday is the deadline to grab a coveted sponsor spot! View details of the various sponsorship levels and benefits here.

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news

Aquafornia Observes Veterans Day

Aquafornia is off Monday, Nov. 11, in observance of Veterans Day but will return with a full slate of water news on Nov. 12. Meanwhile, follow us on Twitter where we post breaking water news. You can also follow us on FacebookInstagram, and LinkedIn

Aquafornia news CalMatters

Friday Top of the Scroll: California prepares to battle Trump over environmental policies

California’s massive water projects, its authority to clean its air, federal support for offshore wind and disaster aid for wildfires all depend on cooperation with the new Trump administration. … Trump’s reelection has unnerved environmental groups that are watching over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and its imperiled fish. At stake are the state’s massive projects that bring Northern California water south to farmers and cities. In 2016, Trump famously scorned California for wasting water by allowing its major rivers to reach the ocean. More recently, at a September campaign speech in Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump said he will increase the amount of water these projects deliver, promising Southern Californians “more water than almost anybody has.” 

Related articles:

Aquafornia news E&E News by POLITICO

Colorado River talks stable amid White House shake-up

Top state negotiators working on an agreement to guide the future of the drought-ravaged Colorado River said they don’t expect that the looming shift in control of the White House will derail the process for drafting a long-term operating plan. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory this week means there soon will be new people in top jobs at the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation, which plays a decisive role in brokering an agreement and could impose its own view if participating states don’t come to a consensus. But this might be one area where the shift in administration won’t change much, negotiators said.

Other Colorado River articles:

Aquafornia news CBS Los Angeles

California’s Mountain Fire in Ventura County burns 20,000 acres as ‘environmental recipe’ fuels blaze

… According to Dr. Josh Fisher, a climate scientist at Chapman University, many factors came together to result in the wildfire moving quickly as it tore up hillsides, moving upwards as it burned through Ventura County neighborhoods. “That fire will spread faster up just because fire moves upwards,” Fisher said. “So, we’ve got these conditions of the topography, the wind and the plants — and also close to roads and human property — all just kind of coming together to make this a lot worse than it could’ve been if the winds were calm, the vegetation was wet.” Friday, wind gusts will relax more. 

Related climate change, drought and weather articles:

Online Water Encyclopedia

Aquapedia background Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map

Wetlands

Sacramento National Wildlife RefugeWetlands are among the world’s most important and hardest-working ecosystems, rivaling rainforests and coral reefs in productivity. 

They produce high levels of oxygen, filter water pollutants, sequester carbon, reduce flooding and erosion and recharge groundwater.

Bay-Delta Tour participants viewing the Bay Model

Bay Model

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.

Aquapedia background Colorado River Basin Map

Salton Sea

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

Lake Oroville shows the effects of drought in 2014.

Drought

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.