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.
Big Day of Giving may be ending soon but
you have until midnight to support the Water Education
Foundation’s tours, workshops, publications and other programs
aimed at building water literacy across California and the West!
Donate
now to help us reach our $10,000
fundraising goal by midnight - we are only
$4,120 away!
At the Foundation, we believe that education is as precious as
water. Your donations help us empower next-generation
leaders from all sectors of the water world to broaden their
knowledge and build their collaborative skills through our
popular Water Leader programs in
California and the Colorado River Basin.
Today is Big Day of Giving! Your donation will help
the Water Education Foundation continue its work to enhance
public understanding of our most precious natural resource
in California and across the West – water.
Big Day of Giving is a 24-hour regional fundraising event that
has profound benefits for our educational programs and
publications on drought, floods, groundwater, snowpack, rivers
and reservoirs in California and the Colorado River Basin.
Your tax-deductible donation of
any size helps support our tours, scholarships, teacher training
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In a clear sign that California is not facing water shortages
or a drought this summer, Lake Oroville, the state’s
second-largest reservoir and a key component of California’s
water system, has nearly filled to the top. The massive
reservoir, contained behind America’s tallest dam, was 99% full
on Tuesday afternoon, at 122% of its historical average for
mid-May and still slowly rising, with just two feet to go to
fill entirely. … The water from Oroville and the State
Water Project is sent hundreds of miles to cities and farms
across the state, serving 27 million people from San
Jose to San Diego. … The very low snowpack
[this year, however] means that as Oroville and other massive
reservoirs are slowly drawn down … they won’t be topped up in
the coming months by melting snow. So although this year’s
reservoir levels are good news, experts say, another wet winter
will be needed next year because by this fall,
reservoir levels may be lower than normal.
An environmental organization is floating a concept that could
help the Colorado River system during extremely dry years like
this one and keep the nation’s two largest reservoirs above
critical thresholds. Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates
has released a concept paper that explores the idea
of a flexible pool of water that can be moved wherever it’s
needed most among the basin’s biggest reservoirs. Water
users in the Lower Basin states — California, Arizona
and Nevada — currently have about 3.2 million
acre-feet stored in Lake Mead through voluntary conservation
and efficiency measures. Water users bank water in this
pool, known as the Intentionally Created Surplus, and can take
this water back out again to use under certain
circumstances.
Tucson leaders unanimously rejected a massive data center
dubbed Project Blue last year amid outcry from the community
with concerns about water, power and resources
that they didn’t want put toward a data center. It was a heated
moment that came to a head during an August council meeting.
But despite that vote, the project is still being built.
Developer Beale Infrastructure got the zoning they needed from
Pima County instead and announced they would build the data
center to be air-cooled instead of
water-cooled. But now Tucson says a contractor working
on the construction of Project Blue has been using Tucson water
anyway and they’ve revoked their permit to do it.
… As utilities cope with weather extremes by scrambling to
repair their infrastructure and tapping new water sources, the
cost is beginning to show up in residents’ bills. Between 1998
and 2020, the average cost of water, sewer and trash collection
services increased more than twice as much as the overall U.S.
consumer price index. … Longer and more intense
droughts have triggered restrictions on water use from Florida
to Colorado. … Water has long been one of the most
affordable utility bills for American households. … But
climate change is increasingly battering utilities with weather
— and costs — they did not plan for. … Amid a
decades-long megadrought that has diminished aquifers and
caused a catastrophic decline in river flows, residents
of Southern California have seen rate increases of up to 17
percent over the past two years.
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.
