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.
We are gearing up for an engaging Water Summit on Oct. 29 and
also prepping our 2027 California Water Leaders program. Join a
virtual Q&A on our Water Leaders program on Nov. 10. Details
below.
Water Summit | October 29
Our 42ⁿᵈ
annual Water Summit is the Foundation’s
premier event of the year and returns to Sacramento October 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Capacity is
limited and filling up quickly, so register here while
seats are available!
Conversations during the Summit will revolve around this year’s
theme, Stewarding a New Era in Western
Water, with a focus on emerging topics related to
the challenges and opportunities facing water resource
management.
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of
additional water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center
discourse related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination
efforts and their implications for the arid West
Our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit, an engaging day of discussions addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West, will be
held on Thursday, Oct. 29, in Sacramento with the theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Speakers and conversations will highlight emerging topics related
to the challenges and opportunities facing management of the
West’s most precious natural resource.
Lively conversations will focus on topics such
as:
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of additional
water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center discourse
related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination efforts and their
implications for the arid West
A full agenda will be posted soon, and speakers
include:
Joel Metzger | Deputy Director, Statewide
Water Resources Planning, California Department of Water
Resources
Sandi Matsumoto | California Water Program
Director, The Nature Conservancy
Cannon Michael | President, Bowles
Farming
Craig Miller | General Manager, Western
Municipal Water District
Dave Pederson | General Manager, Las Virgenes
Municipal Water District
As previously announced,
the day will open with a keynote address from Tom
Gibson, the new director of California’s Department of
Water Resources. An attorney who has held several roles in
the state’s Natural Resources Agency and its various departments,
Gibson was appointed by Gov. Newsom on June 29 and sworn in on
July 6 to lead DWR and its nearly 4,000 employees.
The state water board has given the green light to a one-year,
state-run water conservation program. On Wednesday, the
Colorado Water Conservation Board unanimously
approved the application review process and criteria for what
state officials are calling Colorado’s near-term
contribution program for 2027. … The
contribution program aims to use $100 million in funding from
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to pay water users in
the Upper [Colorado River] Basin states (Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) to voluntarily cut
back. … The approval comes at a
pivotal moment, as the federal government has taken
over operations for the Colorado River and the
nation’s biggest reservoirs after the seven states that share
the river failed to find agreement after years of negotiations.
For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between
the snow that falls on California’s mountains and the
groundwater that lies beneath Central Valley farmlands.
Analyzing two decades of measurements from NASA satellites, the
researchers discovered that after a snowy winter in the Sierra
Nevada, the melting snow that runs off the mountains
substantially raises water levels underground. The
study documents just how important years of heavy snow are for
recharging California’s groundwater aquifers. It also reveals
that a year with rain but little snow doesn’t benefit
the state’s underground water nearly as much.
… The study backs up something farmers have noticed for
years: that the water in their wells sometimes rises in the
months after heavy snows in the mountains.
California Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments on a
key piece of the ongoing lawsuit over Kern River flows
Oct. 7 at a special session of the court to be held in
Redding. … The last time justices ruled on a case involving
the Kern River was 140 years ago. That 1886 ruling set the
basis for California’s water rights system. This time
around, the outcome could be just as weighty. The
justices are looking at whether the 5th District Court of
Appeal erred when it overturned a temporary injunction
by Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp issued in
fall of 2023 after an epic water year filled the mostly dry
river bed through town – bringing fish with it. That
injunction had required the City of Bakersfield, which
operates the river, to keep some water in the
river based on California Fish and Game Code Section
5937, which requires dam owners to let enough water run
downstream to keep fish in good condition.
What if Colorado gets exactly what everyone is hoping for this
winter? Weeks of heavy snowstorms blanketing the mountains. A
deepening snowpack. A spring runoff that sends water
rushing into rivers and replenishing depleted
reservoirs. Well, according to experts, it still might
not be enough. After a record-low snowpack last winter and an
exceptionally dry summer, Colorado’s water system is
starting the winter with a deficit that can’t be erased in a
single season, according to state water officials and
snowpack experts. And right now — despite the promise of a
strong El Niño and plenty of optimism about the water it could
bring — forecasters can’t say whether this winter will
even deliver the above-average snowpack that Colorado
needs.
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.
