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.
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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.
One of the major rationales for building California’s two biggest surface water supply projects was to provide a supplemental source of water from Northern California so San Joaquin Valley farmers could reduce their reliance on groundwater.
The imported water, it was hoped, would lessen reliance on local groundwater and slow or even halt land subsidence caused by excessive pumping from the aquifers.
The growing likelihood of a historic El Niño season has already triggered statewide emergency preparations, raising important questions about what lies ahead for California’s water systems, infrastructure and communities.
At the Foundation’s 42nd Annual Water Summit on October 29 in Sacramento, renowned weather and climate scientist Daniel Swain will share the latest outlook on El Niño conditions and what the recent forecast of the heaviest precipitation hitting in January could mean for California.
In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where California’s
biggest rivers meet, the state’s massive pumps send water
flowing into canals to about 27 million people and
750,000 acres of farmland. A major new lawsuit argues
the state is taking far too much water out of the
Delta, harming native fish and the ecosystem, causing
toxic algae blooms, and threatening local farms and
communities. “The goal that we are aiming for is to save
the Delta,” said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the
environmental group California Water Impact Network. “We want
them to cut back the water they take out of the Delta
by half.” … Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration
has defended how the state balances pumping in the
Delta to protect fish and the ecosystem with
delivering water for farms and cities.
Denver Water is pulling more water from rivers, creeks and
communities in Grand County to refill its reservoirs after a
record-hot summer, sparking pushback from some western
Coloradans. Denver Water’s reservoirs — the water
storage for 1.5 million people — are far lower than
normal for this time of the year. The utility has
issued mandatory restrictions, which means it can also
increase the amount of water it pulls from certain streams and
rivers on the Western Slope for the Denver
area. … Denver Water has some of the
oldest rights to water in the area, which
means it has priority over more recent, junior water users
under Colorado water law. The utility’s water management is
guided by agreements made in past decades, like the 1992
Clinton Reservoir-Fraser River Water Agreement and the
2013 Colorado River Cooperative Agreement.
… Groundwater overuse and sinking land in the state’s
agricultural heartland continue to jeopardize both
water supply and delivery systems. The fishing industry is
cratering and farmers feel so squeezed that some are planting
solar panels instead of crops. And, hundreds of thousands of
Californians still lack access to safe, affordable
water. The next governor — Republican Steve
Hilton or Democrat Xavier Becerra — will inherit these
challenges, and more. … From this shared reality, the
two candidates’ strategies diverge: Hilton is outspoken about
his plans to clearcut environmental regulations in order to
build more ways to store and move water to farms and
cities. Becerra leans on his history as attorney
general, the legal arm in California’s first-term fights
against President Donald Trump. But Becerra offers no
specific proposals on water.
Just one day after San Francisco set a new October high tide
record, a gauge at Crissy Field surpassed that
mark again when it measured a water level 1.73 feet
above the average highest daily
tide. …Tides are predicted to be
more than a half-foot higher on Oct. 27 and
28. … El Niño is fueling record-breaking
sea surface temperatures off the coast of California.
Warmer-than-normal water takes up more volume and pushes tides
higher, a process known as thermal
expansion. … Scientists predict El Niño
will bring the highest king tides on record
this winter to the California coast and San Francisco
Bay.
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.
