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.
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.
El Niño is here, and it’s only getting stronger. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration … forecasts
greater than 90% odds of a “strong” El Niño and a 63%
chance of a “very strong” event by early
winter. “That would rank among the largest El Niño events
in the historical record going back to 1950,” NOAA said.
… El Niño probably won’t significantly impact
California’s weather this summer. An enhanced Pacific
hurricane season may direct larger swells, more frequent
dry lightning or a rare tropical storm toward the state, but
the most pronounced effects are expected this winter. An
El Niño in historic territory would favor all of
California for above-normal precipitation this winter.
California will provide $46 million to address water quality
problems at the California-Mexico border, Gov. Gavin Newsom
announced Thursday. According to a press release by the
Governors office, the State Water Resources Control Board
opened grant applications targeting contamination in
cross-border rivers and coastal waters. The funding
comes from Proposition 4, a voter-approved bond covering safe
drinking water, wildfire prevention and drought preparedness
that passed in 2024. … According to the governor’s
office, funding will support projects that reduce bacteria and
trash pollution, address public health impacts from
transboundary contamination, and support restoration and
sediment management. The grants target both the Tijuana
River and other areas, with at least one project
selected from each waterway.
The Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah-Wyoming border is known
for its kokanee salmon and trophy lake trout. But when the
water started dropping rapidly a few weeks ago, business at
Buckboard Marina started drying up, too. … The
Flaming Gorge provides a backstop for larger reservoirs in the
Colorado River Basin. Lake Powell, a few hundred miles
downstream, is less than a quarter full. The federal Bureau of
Reclamation warned in April that hydropower production could
stop at Powell in August if the water levels continued to drop.
To prevent a significant blow to the region’s power supply, the
bureau announced it would send up to 1-million acre-feet of
water from Flaming Gorge over the course of a year to prop up
levels at Lake Powell.
Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Sen. Martin
Heinrich (D-N.M.) introduced the Protecting Indian Water Rights
Settlements Act of 2026, legislation to ensure the federal
government fulfills its trust responsibilities by
providing dedicated, mandatory funding for Indian water rights
settlements through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’
Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund. … While the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the Indian Water
Rights Settlement Completion Fund to support settlements
authorized before November 2021, there is currently no
guaranteed funding source for agreements enacted after that
date. The Protecting Indian Water Rights Settlements Act of
2026 addresses this gap by amending the existing fund to
provide $2.95 billion in mandatory funding over ten years for
both already enacted and future settlements.
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.
