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.
Our Layperson’s
Guide to California Water has been completely
updated for 2026, providing a comprehensive overview of the
ways water is used, as well as its critical ecological role,
throughout the state. The 24-page publication traces the history
of the vital resource at the core of California’s identity,
politics and culture since its founding in 1850.
Time is running out to register for next Thursday’s Water
101 Workshop and go beyond the headlines to gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California. Plus, only a handful of seats remain for the
opportunity to extend your ‘beyond the headlines’ water education
experience on the optional watershed tour the next day!
The Trump administration is preparing to take drastic action to
keep the West’s most important river flowing to cities, farms
and through hydropower turbines after a warm, dry winter has
forecasters warning of record low flows down the waterway this
year. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation is
planning to cut releases out of one of the Colorado River’s
biggest reservoirs — Lake Powell — to the lowest level that’s
legally permissible, while at the same time moving a massive
amount of water from upstream reservoirs to bolster Powell’s
water levels, according to an internal report from Arizona’s
top water officials obtained by POLITICO. The report says
Reclamation’s plans are not yet final but that the emergency
actions could begin as soon as [this] week.
California has launched the Salton Sea
Conservancy, a new state agency to oversee restoration,
manage habitat and improve air quality at the deteriorating
inland lake. On Friday Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the
appointment of a 20-member conservancy board, with members from
state agencies, Riverside and Imperial County governments,
local water districts, tribal groups and public organizations.
The new conservancy is the first created in California in more
than 15 years, since the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Conservancy was established in 2010. The new body will direct
state resources toward what has long been a local problem in
the Southern California desert, Newsom said in a statement.
Commercial fishing crews will be permitted to catch salmon
along the California coast this year for the first time since
2022 as regulators end a three-year shutdown after
seeing an increase in the struggling salmon
population. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a
body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along
the West Coast, voted Sunday to approve a plan to reopen the
salmon fishing season under strict limits in California.
… Fishermen in the San Francisco region will be allowed
to catch a maximum of 160 Chinook per vessel during several
open periods in May and August, and 100 on additional dates in
September. … The plan also includes limits on the total
number of fall-run Chinook salmon that may be caught during the
season.
A spring Sierra storm dropped more than a foot of snow
in parts of the northern Sierra, according to a report
from the California-Nevada River Forecast Center. Snow totals
from automated gauges showed the heaviest snowfall in Alpine
County, where Leavitt Lake recorded 15 inches and Ebbetts Pass
measured 13 inches. Carson Pass and Monitor Pass each saw 9
inches. In Placer County, Palisades Tahoe reported 14
inches of snow, while the Central Sierra Snow Lab measured 12
inches. … The snowfall totals are based on provisional data
from automated gauges and have not yet been fully verified,
according to the forecast center.
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.
