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.
Join the Water Education Foundation, an impartial
nonprofit, in its mission to create a better understanding
of water issues and help resolve water problems through
educational programs.
We’re moving later this summer to
new quarters closer to the Sacramento River, and we don’t want to
haul all of our water maps, Layperson’s Guides, DVDs and more to
the new home. So we’re making you a limited-time offer we hope
you can’t refuse: Take 30 percent off the price of all of
our maps, guides and more.
Use the code MOVINGSALE when you check out
to get your 30 percent discount.
For anyone trying to keep up with
the unfolding drought in California and the West, the Water
Education Foundation has created a special resource page
that offers links to real-time reservoir data and water supply
forecasts, an ongoing newsfeed to help you stay up to date
on the latest news and tips so you can help
conserve the region’s most precious natural resource.
In a new symbol of California’s worsening drought, construction
crews are putting the finishing touches on a $10 million
emergency project to build a massive rock barrier through part
of the Delta in Contra Costa County to preserve water supplies
for millions of people across the state. The 800-foot long
barrier — the size of San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid laid
on its side — is essentially a rock wall, 120 feet wide, built
in water 35 feet deep. Its purpose: To block salt water from
the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay from flowing too far
east and contaminating the huge state and federal pumps near
Tracy …
The Bay Area enjoyed a significant cooldown on the first day of
summer as the first major heat wave of the year subsided Sunday
— but forecasters are predicting another record-breaking hot
spell by next weekend. Last week’s heat wave saw a strong area
of high pressure build from the Southwest desert, strengthening
as it baked the central and southern regions of California
… Experts said the heat is likely to
intensify California’s already dire drought
conditions and bring potential wildfire danger.
Growers are dealing with severe cutbacks in the surface water
deliveries they normally receive from reservoirs. The lack of
steady irrigation has already impacted spring cropping
decisions made by farmers. … A bill introduced by
Republican Congressman David Valadao would allow more water to
be moved south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while
keeping protections in place for fish such as the delta smelt
and salmon.
Forty two percent of shallow wells supplying water to community
water systems in California’s San Joaquin Valley are vulnerable
to going partially or fully dry under the state’s minimum
thresholds, finds a new report from the Pacific Institute. Most
impacted wells are shallower, and tend to be in disadvantaged
communities.
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.
