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.
The Water Education Foundation’s
2025 Annual
Reportis now available in an interactive,
digital format and recaps how we accomplished a lot of
“firsts” last year.
A standout moment was our first-ever Klamath River
Tour, where we brought 45 participants into the heart of
the watershed that underwent the nation’s largest dam removal
project.
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.
The US Bureau of Reclamation has added two new categorical
exclusions for hydropower-related activities under the National
Environmental Policy Act, in a move the agency says will speed
up environmental reviews for selected projects and maintenance
work across its hydropower portfolio. The changes were
announced on Friday as part of Reclamation’s ongoing Hydropower
Action Plan, which the agency says is intended to support
capital investment, regulatory efficiency and technological
innovation in the US hydropower sector. … The agency
said the exclusions were developed after identifying categories
of hydropower activity that have “consistently demonstrated no
significant environmental impacts.”
Governor Cox (R-UT) signed an executive order establishing a
statewide framework to guide the evaluation and development of
large data center projects across the state. On Friday morning,
Governor Cox signed Executive Order 2026-03 with the goal
to direct state agencies toprioritize
protecting water resources, including the Great Salt
Lake. The order also is set to safeguard utility ratepayers,
protect air quality, mitigate wildlife impacts, support
transparent public engagement, and ensure future development
aligns with the long-term interests of Utah. … The
guiding principles of the framework include: Protecting the
Great Salt Lake and other water resources by ensuring
water consumption is not increased and water quality is
protected.
Congressman Jim Costa announced Friday that more than $131
million in federal funding is being awarded for major water
infrastructure improvements across the San Joaquin Valley,
including two main components of the federal water delivery
system, the Friant-Kern Canal and the O’Neill Pumping Plant.
… Groundwater overpumping had caused a 33-mile
section of the canal in Tulare County to sink,
crimping its carrying capacity by 60%. … The O’Neill Pumping
Plant is 12 miles west of Los Banos and lifts water from the
Delta-Mendota Canal into the O’Neill Forebay, where water then
travels to contractors of the federal Central Valley Project.
… It took nearly twenty years for Lake Powell to fill to
3,700 feet in elevation. It only stayed near that level for two
decades before climate change-induced drought and overuse
started shrinking the flows of the Colorado, San Juan
and other rivers that feed the reservoir. Now Lake
Powell teeters on the brink of collapse: Forecasts show it
could drop to its lowest level since filling and reach
elevations at which Glen Canyon Dam was not designed to
operate. That could threaten Reclamation’s ability to safely
and reliably send water downstream to major cities and
agricultural regions in Arizona, California, Nevada and
Mexico. But environmental groups and scientists have
found a silver lining to the Southwest’s water crisis: As Lake
Powell recedes, the once-drowned Glen Canyon is surfacing and
thriving ecosystems are emerging.
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.
