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.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers of articles and participants of the tours and workshops we featured in 2025! We are deeply grateful to each and every person who engaged with us last year.
We have much to look forward to in 2026, especially as we gear up to mark and celebrate the Foundation’s 50th anniversary in 2027!
One of our most exciting projects this year will be replacing our 12-year-old website with a beautifully streamlined version that is mobile-adaptable. It will allow fora more intuitive experience as users conduct research, read our weekday newsfeed or water encyclopedia, and sign up for tours and events.
Along with our new website, we’ll be launching a new and improved Aquafornia newsfeed to better align with our reach across California and the Colorado River Basin. Stay tuned!
New Water Map & Spanish Version of California Water Guide
By summer, we’ll publish an update to our Layperson’s Guide to California Water in English and, for the first time, in Spanish. We will also publish a new Klamath River map to illustrate the nation’s largest dam removal project in the watershed straddling Oregon and California.
With social media, we’ll continue focusing on LinkedIn as our primary go-to channel as we ease off Facebook and X/Twitter where engagement has dropped. But not to fear; we’ll continue posting on Instagram.
Our array of 2026 programming begins later this month when we welcome our incoming California Water Leaders cohort. We’ll be sure to introduce them to you and let you know what thorny California water policy issue they’ll be tackling.
We’ll also be welcoming our third cohort of Colorado River Water Leaders in March.Applications are due Jan. 26 so be sure to get them in soon!
The biennial program, which will run from March to September
next year, selects about a dozen rising
stars from the seven states that rely on the river
– California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New
Mexico – Mexico and tribal nations.
The seven-month program is designed for working professionals who
explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest
river, deepen their water knowledge, and build leadership
and collaborative skills.
Listen to
a recording of our virtual Q&A session
where executive director Jenn Bowles and other Foundation staff
provided an overview on the program and tips on applying.
The question of how to protect fish and the ecological health
of rivers that feed California’s largest estuary is generating
heated debate in a series of hearings in Sacramento. … The
plan is being discussed in three days of hearings convened by
the State Water Resources Control Board. It sets out rules for
water quality that will determine how much water can be pumped
out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. … The
approach backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom would give water agencies
more leeway in how they comply with water rules. Environmental
advocates said the proposal would take too much water out of
the Delta and threaten fish already in severe decline.
Federal water managers are reopening endangered species and
water-sharing rules in the Klamath Basin as salmon return to
newly free-flowing stretches of the river and as the Trump
administration pushes agencies to maximize water
deliveries. The Bureau of Reclamation formally asked
federal fisheries agencies last week to help rewrite the
endangered species rules that govern its dams and pumps that
deliver water from the Klamath River on the California-Oregon
border. … Alan Heck, the bureau’s Klamath Basin manager, told
the conference attendees [Wednesday] that he expected the new
guidelines to represent a “fairly large shift in the way we do
business” following President Donald Trump’s executive order to
maximize water supply last year.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and the state’s top negotiator are
heading to Washington, D.C., this week to battle with other
states over how the Colorado River will be managed for years to
come. A 19-year-old federal and state agreement for how to
manage the basin’s largest reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell,
will expire this fall. … Mitchell said mandatory
conservation for Colorado is a no-go. The state’s constitution
preserves the right for Coloradans to put available water to
beneficial use. Mandatory conservation would go against that,
the state’s lawyers argue.
The fight to remove the golden mussel continues in California.
The invasive species is damaging boats, clogging pipes, and
threatening water systems across the state, according to the
San Joaquin Farm Bureau. … Here at home, they have been
detected in the San Luis Reservoir and the Friant-Kern Canal.
These invasive species are causing frustration and costly
concerns throughout the state. … A reservoir in the East
Bay remains closed to boats because of the golden mussel
spread, and experts say more could close as they try to come up
with a solution.
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.
