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.
There are many ways to support our nonprofit mission by donating
in someone’s honor or memory, 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.
Registration is now open for our next slate of spring programs,
part of a year packed with engaging tours, workshops and
conferences on key water topics in California and across the
West.
Seating is always limited for our events and tickets for our
first water tour of 2025 – along the Lower Colorado
River in March – have been going fast!
Current Foundation member organizations receive access to
coveted sponsorship opportunities for our tours
and events, all of which are prime networking
opportunities for the water professionals in attendance! Contact
Nick Gray for more information.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers and participants of the tours, articles and workshops we featured in 2024! We’re grateful to each and every person who engaged with us last year.
As we turn the page to 2025, one of our most exciting projects will be a first-ever Klamath River Basin Tour in September. We’ll visit some of the sites where four dams came down along the river’s mainstem, and talk to tribes and farmers in the region and learn from scientists watching the river’s restoration unfold.
While most of our tours span three days, this one will likely stretch to four or possibly five days to accommodate the time to get to this remote watershed straddling the California/Oregon border. Stay tuned for more details!
Our array of 2025 programming begins later this month when we welcome our incoming California Water Leaders cohort. We’ll be sure to introduce them to you and let you know what thorny California water policy issue they’ll be tackling.
In March, we return to the Southwest’s most important river with our Lower Colorado River Tour, and the bus is quickly filling up! We then journey across the San Joaquin Valley on our Central Valley Tour in April and take a deep dive into California’s water hub in May with our signature Bay-Delta Tour.
In one of the first acts of his second term, President Trump is
seeking to put his stamp on California water policy by
directing the federal government to put “people over fish” and
send more water from Northern California to the Central
Valley’s farms and Southern California cities. … Karla
Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water
Resources, said the approach outlined by the president could do
substantial harm by putting water supplies at risk as well as
protections for vulnerable fish species. Nemeth said Trump’s
order, on its own, does not change anything and that the
current rules for operating California’s water delivery
systems in the Central Valley — which were supported by
the state and adopted by the Biden administration in December —
remain in effect. Presumably, the president is directing the
agencies to again start the lengthy process of revising the
framework that governs how the two main water delivery systems,
the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project,
are operated.
Los Angeles County officials missed dozens of opportunities for
water infrastructure improvements that experts say probably
would have enabled firefighters to save more homes during the
Palisades fire, public records show. As crews battled the
blaze, attempting to extinguish flames that burned huge swaths
of L.A. County and killed at least 11 people, some hydrants ran
dry. The lack of water has come under scrutiny since the
wildfire broke out Jan. 7, with officials scrambling to explain
why the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir was left empty
for maintenance. But thousands of pages of state, county
and municipal records reviewed by The Times show the disaster
was years in the making. Red tape, budget shortfalls and
government inaction repeatedly stymied plans for water system
improvements — including some that specifically cited the need
to boost firefighting capacity. Many projects on a list of
about three dozen “highest priority” upgrades compiled by
county officials in 2013 have yet to break ground in
communities devastated by the fires.
A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers wants water users in
four Colorado River Basin states to have more time to cut water
use through a much-debated conservation program that pays water
users to cut back. The lawmakers, including Democratic Sens.
John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet of Colorado, are hoping to
extend funding for the System Conservation Pilot Program,
saying it will help people explore more ways to respond to
prolonged drought in the overstressed river basin. But some
Colorado water experts question whether the program can
actually deliver on its promises, and even if Congress approves
the bill, time is short for potential participants to put their
ideas into action before the summer growing season.
… Extreme flooding events, even in regions typically
associated with dry weather like Southern California, are
becoming more common as the climate warms. Climate change,
driven primarily by burning fossil fuels, is changing weather
patterns, leading to heavier and more dangerous downpours that
can overwhelm infrastructure designed for more predictable
times. But Calix and others impacted by the disaster
insist there is another force that exacerbated the flooding,
one that also led to what many see as a disjointed and
inadequate disaster response: Decades of government neglect and
indifference toward San Diego’s lower-income neighborhoods. …
Residents say the legacy of discrimination continues to this
day through lack of city investment in flood-control
infrastructure, and inadequate disaster planning and support
for those affected. The result is even greater hardship and
precarity for people and communities already on the edge. The
situation is also a microcosm of the inequitable distribution
of risks from climate change, and an example of the challenges
communities and governments must grapple with as floods and
other weather-related disasters become more frequent.
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.
