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.
What role will desalination play in
the arid West? That topic is one of many engaging conversations
that will be explored at our Oct. 29 Water
Summit revolving around this year’s theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Led by Central Arizona Project’s General Manager Brenda Burman,
the panel will discuss all topics worth their
salt - from emerging desalination technologies to the
latest developments in innovative desalination programs to the
regulatory challenges and opportunities that face the region.
The panel of accomplished speakers will provide deep
insight on desalination’s implications for water management
in the West.
The Water Summit is the Foundation’s premier event of
the year and returns to Sacramento on Oct. 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Capacity is
limited and registration closes soon, so grab your ticket
here while they’re still available!
Our 2026Colorado River Water
Leaders cohort completed its seven-month
program recently with policy recommendations to
strengthen ”assigned water” programs across the Colorado
River Basin.
“Assigned water” has become a key tool for conserving Colorado
River water and helping to stabilize Lake Mead to prevent
shortages. Originally developed as “Intentionally Created
Surplus” within the 2007 Interim Guidelines, it gives users the
ability to store conserved water earmarked for their own future
use.
The cohort was tasked with assessing existing assigned water
programs and identifying opportunities across the Colorado River
Basin. Following seven months of learning, collaboration and
discussion with leading Colorado River experts who served as
mentors, the cohort developed recommendations focused on:
Greater transparency in water accounting
Stronger relationships and communication among interested
parties
In just a few decades, summers in California
will not only be much hotter, but will also stretch for months
longer. Floods will become more widespread and
extreme. Exposure to wildfire smoke will kill
thousands more people every year. Those are the dire
projections of California’s Fifth Climate Change
Assessment, a report produced by California every few
years that analyzes the impacts of changing weather patterns on
the nation’s most-populous state. The future laid out in the
report, which was published on Monday, touches on familiar
warnings: more wildfires, bigger storms, longer
droughts. … At the same time, water
shortages could mean that the number of acres that
farmers irrigate could decline dramatically, including by up to
40 percent in the San Joaquin Valley, a major agricultural hub.
… At a roundtable discussion on Monday led by [Rep. Dina]
Titus at the Las Vegas Valley Water District, a diverse group
of Southern Nevadan experts laid out their vision for
solutions to the valley’s persistent water woes. While
doom-and-gloom headlines may be at an all-time high and Lake
Mead is setting all-time lows, they said tools exist to
remedy the crisis, albeit expensive ones.
… Titus’ conversation comes days after Arizona decided
to intervene as an interested party in Nevada’s lawsuit with
the Trump administration over its plan to manage the
Colorado River. The federal government, in the
face of record-low flows and no relief in sight, has asserted
its legal authority to slash Nevada’s water allocation
by up to 71 percent over the next 10 years.
Few cities in California last week felt the full brunt of the
climate crisis more than the small coastal town of San
Clemente. The beach city at the southern end of Orange
County for months has been dealing with widespread coastal
erosion from El Niño-related Pacific storms
that has threatened a crucial rail line and reshaped swaths of
its beaches. Then, as the waves were still pounding, a fire
broke out in the city’s bushy foothills Friday, quickly burning
toward hillside neighborhoods and destroying homes in nearby
San Juan Capistrano. San Clemente’s challenges
demonstrate what more of California will probably face
as the twin dangers of fire and coastal erosion converge this
winter. Southern California is just entering its traditional
fire season, and forecasters are predicting more coastal
flooding and erosion from what is expected to be a severe El
Niño winter.
San Diego County introduced former U.S. diplomat Bridget
Premont as its first Pollution Crisis Chief at
a news conference Monday, tapping her to lead its response to
the Tijuana River sewage crisis as preliminary
findings estimate the pollution costs the regional economy up
to $503.5 million a year. According to the county,
Premont will coordinate infrastructure planning across
agencies and pursue state and federal funding. She
will also coordinate emergency responses during sewage
spikes, chair a Sewage Crisis Interdepartmental Task
Force and maintain a public funding dashboard. In an interview
after the news conference, Premont said her immediate focus
will be on existing infrastructure, the county’s Capture and
Cleanup Initiative — constructing a wastewater
treatment plant of its own on the river — and data
showing what the region is risking.
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.
