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.
The Water Education Foundation, which celebrates its 49th birthday this year, is proud to be the only organization in the West providing comprehensive, unbiased information about the region’s most critical natural resource. Through our workshops, water leadership programs and explorations of key watersheds, we bring the West’s myriad challenges and opportunities into context to help build sound and collective solutions to water issues.
So, don’t miss your chance to go beyond the news headlines and gain a deeper understanding of how water flows across California and its challenges by signing up for our popular spring tours and workshops below, all of which have limited seating and may sell out before long!
Go beyond the headlines and gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California during our annual Water
101 Workshop on March 26.
One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at Cal
State Sacramento’s Harper Alumni Center offers anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to gain a
solid statewide grounding on water resources. Leading
experts are on the agenda for the workshop that details
the historical, legal and political facets of water management in
the state.
A warm, dry winter is beginning to create concerns for Aurora’s
water supply. Snowpack across Colorado continues to lag and
reservoir levels sit below what the city typically
expects at this time of year. Aurora Water says it now has
more frequent internal meetings and closer monitoring of
storage levels, runoff projections and short term weather
patterns. … Denver Water is also closely watching its
supply after a season that began weak and has stayed that way.
Other winter storm and water supply news around the West:
More than half a million young Chinook salmon are part of a new
imprinting project aimed at getting the fish back to the
Sacramento River as parts of the Northstate salmon fishery
remain closed for a third year. The Bridge Group is working to
speed up the return of salmon by placing 500,000 young Chinook
salmon into protective net pens instead of trucking them away.
The effort is a multiyear experiment designed to increase
survival and ultimately boost the number of salmon that return
to the Sacramento River. … Half of the fish will be
released into the Sacramento River, while the other half will
be trucked into San Francisco Bay.
Fears are growing in the Colorado River basin about the
prospect of painful water cuts, prolonged court battles and
other dire impacts after negotiators from seven states missed a
second key deadline Saturday to reach a conservation deal.
… Conservation groups want the states in the basin to
start using tools like conservation pools, which would offer
new incentives to voluntarily cut back and save water, and a
climate response indicator to help determine how much water
should be released from Lake Powell. Releases would be
curtailed in response to drought conditions. But those ideas
aimed at protecting the river’s health could be stalled if
states don’t come up with an agreement to implement before the
current operating guidelines at Lake Powell and Lake Mead
expire this fall.
Meghan Hertel was officially sworn in to lead the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), bringing a background
in biodiversity conservation, habitat restoration, and
science-based resource management to the role. As director,
Hertel will oversee management of California’s fish and
wildlife populations, habitat restoration efforts, and
sustainable hunting and fishing, while working with Tribes,
rural communities, landowners, and outdoor stakeholders across
the state. Hertel most recently served as deputy secretary
of biodiversity and habitat at the California Natural Resources
Agency. (Hertel is a graduate of the Water Education
Foundation’s California Water Leaders
program).
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.
