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.
California’s water managers have long looked for ways to adapt to a hotter, drier future where the impacts of climate change leave less water to meet the state’s needs.
At our annual Water 101 Workshopon March 26 in Sacramento, participants will hear from Joel Metzger, deputy director for statewide water resources planning, on efforts underway by the California Department of Water Resources to achieve a target of identifying 9 million acre-feet of additional water supply by 2040, roughly equal to the capacity of two Shasta Reservoirs.
The agenda for the workshop features some of the leading policy and legal experts in California who will detail the historical, legal and political facets of water management in the state. Seating is limited and filling up quickly, so don’t miss out!
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!
Lake Powell has an issue: More water is streaming out than
flowing in. As of Sunday, Lake Powell’s water
level measured 3,530 feet above sea level. Though this is
higher than it was at this time in 2022 and 2023, officials in
Utah and at the Bureau of Reclamation are worried that
water levels could dip beneath what is required to generate
hydropower. The reservoir is currently 26% full and
could drop to 16% by Sept. 30. By March 2027, Lake Powell’s
elevations could hit 3,476 feet, a record low. … To
stabilize Lake Powell’s water levels, there are two options:
increase the flow by releasing water from upper dams or
decrease the amount of water taken out.
The San Francisco Baykeeper and others sued the federal
government on Monday, accusing it of harming fish protected by
the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological
Diversity, Friends of the River and baykeeper claim that
pumping excessive amounts of water from the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta hurts fish like the Central Valley
steelhead, North American green sturgeon and Chinook
salmon. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s operation of the
Central Valley Project affects factors like water temperature
and salinity. Those factors, along with the volume and
direction of the water, cause fish to swim into harmful
environments, the conservation groups say in their suit.
It’s now March in California, which means the wettest stretch
of the water year – December, January, and February – have come
and gone. It’s the time of year when we take stock of the
winter that was, and what that means for our water resources.
… The three biggest reservoirs – Shasta, Trinity, and
Oroville, all in Northern California – are nearly at capacity
and well above average. … Statewide, California’s
snowpack is at 62% of the March 2nd average, and 55% of April
1st average. So essentially, we’ve received half of the snow
we’d expect to get. But even that is somewhat remarkable,
considering the Sierra had its lowest snowpack on record before
the big Christmas week snowstorm.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
GOP lawmakers are pushing several bills to regulate Arizona’s
groundwater, but none would do anything to conserve the state’s
water supply. Democrats and Republicans got close to passing
bipartisan legislation to conserve rural groundwater supplies
over the last few years, but a final deal has never
materialized. This year, GOP lawmakers are instead pushing a
series of partisan water bills, including one that would
protect the rights of Arizona residents and businesses to
continue pumping groundwater. GOP lawmakers’ bills generally
protect the water allocation rights of industries like
agriculture and homebuilding. Conserving groundwater often
means restricting development.
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.
