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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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.
Our Layperson’s
Guide to California Water has been completely
updated for 2026, providing a comprehensive overview of the
ways water is used, as well as its critical ecological role,
throughout the state. The 24-page publication traces the history
of the vital resource at the core of California’s identity,
politics and culture since its founding in 1850.
Time is running out to register for next Thursday’s Water
101 Workshop and go beyond the headlines to gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California. Plus, only a handful of seats remain for the
opportunity to extend your ‘beyond the headlines’ water education
experience on the optional watershed tour the next day!
Gov. Mark Gordon joined fellow governors from other Colorado
River headwater states Thursday to announce that a significant
extra water release from Flaming Gorge is imminent. Dire water
conditions in the region will likely require reducing water
use, he warned. “Because of such diminished runoff,
existing state laws in the Upper Division States
[Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico]
require water users to face cuts to water rights dating back to
the 1800s — these cuts are mandatory, uncompensated, and will
have significant impacts on water users, including Upper Basin
tribes, and local economies,” Gordon said Thursday afternoon in
a joint press release with Govs. Spencer Cox of Utah, Michelle
Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Jared Polis of Colorado.
Flush with water supplies amid dry conditions statewide, the
San Diego County Water Authority‘s board on Thursday voted to
approve the second long-term sale to customers in Riverside
County. Last month, the Water Authority signed 21-year deal
with Western Municipal Water District in southwest Riverside
County to supply 10,000 acre-feet of water — enough for 30,000
households — for $13 million annually. Now the Water Authority
has approved a similar deal with Eastern Municipal
Water District of Southern California, which serves nearly 1
million residents in Perris, Hemet, San Jacinto and
the Elsinore Valley. … Thanks to three decades of
investment in aqueduct improvements, increased dam capacity and
desalination, the Water Authority projects ample supply through
2050.
You’re going to hear a lot about El Niño this year. The term
refers to warmer-than-average waters along the equatorial
Pacific that can influence weather across the globe,
raising the odds of searing drought in some regions and
torrential rain in others. Indicators increasingly
suggest such an event will develop later this summer, and it’s
possible it could be the strongest of the century to affect
Southern California. … In Southern California, strong El
Niños increase the likelihood of wet winters that replenish
water supplies and tamp down wildfire risk but can also unleash
flooding, debris flows and coastal erosion. Still, the exact
effects are impossible to predict.
… Glenn Merrill, hydrologist with the National Weather
Service’s Salt Lake City office, can sum up this year’s spring
runoff, which peaked on March 9 about a month early, with one
four-letter word: weak. … One bright spot in the
otherwise cheerless forecast is the summer monsoon season. Due
to the lack of snowpack … the season is expected to arrive
early and be more active than normal due to warm surface
temperatures in the Gulf of California in the Baja region of
northwestern Mexico.
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.
