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.
Some people in California and across the West struggle to access
safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their everyday needs
for drinking, cooking and sanitation.
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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.
Only a few seats are left on the
bus for our Northern California
Tour on Oct. 16-18 that explores the Sacramento
Valley from Sacramento to Redding with visits to Oroville and
Shasta dams!
Don’t miss this scenic journey through riparian woodland, rice
fields, nut orchards and wildlife refuges while learning
from experts about the history of the Sacramento River.
Grab your
ticket here before they’re gone!
Visit Shasta & Oroville Dams; Learn about Park Fire Impacts
Firsthand during NorCal Tour
Only a few seats are left on the
bus for our Northern California
Tour October 16-18 that journeys across the
Sacramento Valley from Sacramento to Redding with visits to
Oroville and Shasta dams!
Don’t miss this scenic journey through riparian woodland, rice
fields, nut orchards and wildlife refuges while learning
from experts about the history of the Sacramento River.
Grab your
ticket here before they’re gone!
From the Bay Area to Sacramento and Stockton, from Fresno to
north of Redding, Californians — particularly low-income
immigrants from Asian countries and other people of color —
rely on the San Francisco Bay and the rivers that feed it for
food. But the vast watershed is in trouble, plagued by low
flows, algal blooms, urban and farm runoff and a legacy of
mercury contamination that dates back to the Gold Rush.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now investigating
claims that California’s management of the state’s largest
estuary has “discriminated on the basis of race, color and
national origin” with “its failure to update Bay-Delta water
quality standards,” which involve how much water is diverted to
cities and farms. The investigation also includes allegations
that the State Water Resources Control Board “has intentionally
excluded tribes and Black, Asian and Latino residents from
participation in the policymaking process.”
A decade after the Flint, Michigan, water
crisis raised alarms about the continuing dangers of lead
in tap water, President Joe Biden is setting a
10-year deadline for cities across the nation to replace their
lead pipes, finalizing an aggressive approach aimed at ensuring
that drinking water is safe for all Americans. Biden is
expected to announce the final Environmental Protection Agency
rule Tuesday in the swing state of Wisconsin during the final
month of a tight presidential campaign. The announcement
highlights an issue — safe drinking water — that Kamala
Harris has prioritized as vice president and during her
presidential campaign. The new rule supplants a looser standard
set by former President Donald Trump’s administration
that did not include a universal requirement to replace lead
pipes.
Water managers in two Tulare County groundwater agencies are
scrambling to keep their farmers out of state clutches as much
as possible, even knowing the solution will be painful. “As
long as we don’t saddle our landowners with another fee and a
report to fill out, that’s our goal,” said attorney Alex
Peltzer, who represents Lower Tule River Irrigation District
and Pixley groundwater sustainability agencies. “That is our
attitude and it is doable. It’s going to be unpopular and tough
to do, but it’s possible. We think we can help manage
landowners into a soft landing.” The only way to get
there, though, is to significantly reduce pumping – and fast.
As San Francisco prepares to ask the Supreme Court to ease
federal restrictions on sewage pollution into the ocean and the
bay, the case has divided the city’s all-Democratic leadership,
and put the city in the unusual position of siding with oil
companies and business groups and against the state and federal
governments. The Board of Supervisors will take up a resolution
Tuesday urging city officials to settle the case and avoid a
ruling that could harm offshore water quality nationwide.
San Francisco is siding with “the nation’s biggest polluters”
in a lawsuit that “has the potential to seriously destabilize
Clean Water Act protections at a time when environmental
protections are already under serious threat,” said the
resolution by Supervisors Myrna Melgar and Aaron Peskin.
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.
