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 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit, an engaging day of discussions addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West, will be
held on Thursday, Oct. 29, in Sacramento with the theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Speakers and conversations will highlight emerging topics related
to the challenges and opportunities facing management of the
West’s most precious natural resource.
Lively conversations will focus on topics such
as:
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of additional
water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center discourse
related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination efforts and their
implications for the arid West
A full agenda will be posted soon, and speakers
include:
Joel Metzger | Deputy Director, Statewide
Water Resources Planning, California Department of Water
Resources
Sandi Matsumoto | California Water Program
Director, The Nature Conservancy
Cannon Michael | President, Bowles
Farming
Craig Miller | General Manager, Western
Municipal Water District
Dave Pederson | General Manager, Las Virgenes
Municipal Water District
As previously announced,
the day will open with a keynote address from Tom
Gibson, the new director of California’s Department of
Water Resources. An attorney who has held several roles in
the state’s Natural Resources Agency and its various departments,
Gibson was appointed by Gov. Newsom on June 29 and sworn in on
July 6 to lead DWR and its nearly 4,000 employees.
As your summer adventures wrap up, be sure to reserve your spot
for our popular fall programs. Seating is limited and will fill
up quickly!
Water Summit | October 29
Our 42ⁿᵈ
annual Water Summit is the Foundation’s
premier event of the year and returns to Sacramento October 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West.
Just one year after the signing of Senate Bill 72, the Summit will
feature a panel discussion of California’s 2028 Water
Plan Update as it undergoes a legislatively
mandated shift from being just a guidance document to a blueprint
providing a framework for implementation of actions.
As the city of Los Angeles and the L.A. Department of Water and
Power face lawsuits by residents who claim the city
failed to ensure adequate water to fight the Palisades
fire, California legislators have passed a bill that
would give water agencies a new tool to defend themselves in
such cases. The legislation, Senate Bill 1153, would clarify
that public water agencies do not have a duty to
design, build or maintain a water system for wildfire defense
or suppression, and that the inability to maintain
water supply or water pressure during a wildfire is not a
“substantial cause” of fire damages. The bill, which
is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature,
also would require urban retail water suppliers in high or very
high fire hazard zones to include specific response procedures
for wildfires as part of their disaster preparedness plans.
… [F]or the last three years, the seven states have been
negotiating a new set of rules for sharing a dwindling supply
of water before current ones expire in December. But
the public has had little view inside the negotiating
rooms. … KUNC requested work calendars for the
seven negotiators earlier this year. The information wasn’t
always easy to find. Some states – Arizona, New Mexico and Utah
– were either not responsive to the requests or their state
offices said they didn’t hold the records. Colorado would have
charged about $280 for the documents. … States have said
this closed-door process is needed to reach a deal —
and it’s worked in the past. But this time, it hasn’t.
The tension has only grown.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has “serious concerns” about the
draft Bay Delta Plan. “The Bureau of
Reclamation writes to express its serious concern with the
State Water Resources Control Board’s August 2026 Draft Water
Quality Control Plan for the Bay-Delta. The Draft Plan, as
written, threatens reliability of water supplies that
support not only the Central Valley Project, but the entire
fabric of California’s agricultural economy, rural
communities, urban centers, and natural vitality,” the letter
states. … The federal agency also states that the plan does
“not honor” an agreement reached in 2022. … The letter also
challenges the plan’s regulation of federal reservoirs through
storage targets, decision-making authority and other elements.
“Reclamation cannot support or participate in a process that
disregards federal law, undermines negotiated certainty, and
threatens the viability of the CVP,” the letter states.
A proposal to fund a state drinking water program that has been
a lifeline for communities in the San Joaquin
Valley at $171 million passed by the Legislature
Tuesday after a harrowing few days and now awaits Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s signature. The proposal is supported by a broad
coalition of organizations, some of which typically find
themselves on opposite sides of most issues. But they came
together to protect the Safe and Affordable Fund for Equity and
Resilience (SAFER), which pays for emergency supplies
when homes, and even whole towns, go dry and funds
efforts to find long-term water solutions.
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.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last
century and it occurs with much greater frequency in the West
than in any other region of the country.
