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.
Tom Gibson, new director of
California’s Department of Water Resources, will serve as the
keynote speaker for our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit on Oct. 29.
Guided by this year’s theme, Stewarding a New Era in
Western Water,Gibson and
other leading policymakers and experts will address emerging
topics related to the challenges and opportunities facing water
resource management in California and the West.
Gibson,
an attorney who has held several roles in the state’s Natural
Resources Agency and its various departments, was appointed by
Gov. Newsom on June 29 and sworn in on July 6 to lead DWR and its
nearly 4,000 employees.
Mark your calendars! Registration will be opening soon for two
exciting Water Education Foundation events this fall.
Water Summit | Oct. 29
Join us for our premier event of
the year, bringing together leading policymakers and experts from
all sectors to discuss the most pressing water issues facing
California and the West.
Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir and a vital source of
water for more than 25 million people across the Southwest, has
dwindled to its lowest levels ever as the
region struggles through a punishing drought. The
record, first broken on Thursday night and then again on the
following days as the water level continued to fall,
is the latest warning of the Colorado River’s dire condition.
The river system, a lifeblood for much of the Western United
States, is threatened by rising temperatures and decades of
overuse. The seven states whose cities and farmers rely on it
are locked in tense negotiations over how to divvy up what
little water remains. Lake Mead’s milestone is a reminder that
the clock is ticking.
A strengthening El Niño could bring the highest sea levels ever
recorded to the California coast this year, raising the
risk of widespread and damaging flooding. It’s the
latest effect forecast for what’s expected to be an
historically strong event, one forecasters warn could also lash
Southern California with powerful rain and broil both land and
sea with punishing heat waves. … Sea level rise is
expected to increase in all sorts of areas, from the San
Francisco Bay to San Diego, Merrifield said, and impact
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … The
strength of this El Niño “is going to significantly shift the
odds in favor of a particularly wet winter, especially in
Southern California. But for an event this big, probably
Northern California as well,” [UC climate scientist Daniel]
Swain said.
A bitter legal battle has emerged over water availability in
Nevada’s technology epicenter, raising questions about whether
companies critical to diversifying the state economy have
enough water to survive into the future.For nearly two years,
the developer of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) — a
sprawling complex east of Reno that houses Tesla’s
“Gigafactory” and Switch data centers — has traded legal barbs
with the quasi-governmental entity that provides water to
companies. It has included a lawsuit, countersuit and
myriad subpoenas, with a trial set for next
spring. The most notable parts of the case deal
with whether the developer of TRIC has been able to
deliver the amount of water it promised, and whether it’s
responsible to make up for alleged shortfalls.
As weather patterns change and the length of droughts
increase due to climate change, the county is
interested in pursuing desalination — a drinking water
source that doesn’t rely on rainfall. … The San
Luis Obispo County Water Resources Advisory Committee received
a presentation on Wednesday about a draft of the
county’s $1.2 million feasibility study that
evaluated where a desalination facility could be located, how
much it would cost and what communities could use the water.
Once the final report is ready in September, the county and
other local water providers can decide if they want to further
evaluate or even build a facility in one of the five areas
identified by the study.
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.
