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.
Mark your calendars now for our upcoming fall 2026
programs! Registration will open soon, so make sure
you’re among the first to hear by signing up for Foundation announcements!
Water Summit | October 29
Don’t miss the Water Education
Foundation’s 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit in downtown Sacramento! Our premier event of
the year features leading policymakers and experts addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West.
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.
Representatives of the four upstream Colorado River states
called Tuesday for the Interior Department’s Bureau of
Reclamation to mediate talks among the Western states that are
warring over a water-sharing deal for the drought-riddled
waterway. “I think it’s worth us recommending that the
seven states and Reclamation engage with us in a mediated
process,” said Estevan López, New Mexico’s lead Colorado River
negotiator and a former Obama-era Reclamation commissioner.
“Every single state has said that litigation is not a good
outcome; we ought to put our money where our mouth is,” he
said, noting that talks have come down to the wire with rules
governing the river set to expire at the end of August.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District has
finalized its Record of Decision for the proposed Sites
Reservoir Project following completion of its National
Environmental Policy Act review. The Sites Reservoir Project is
a proposed off-stream water storage project located in Colusa
County, California, north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The ROD documents the Corps’ evaluation of the project in
accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and
informs future permit decisions under Section 404 of the Clean
Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. The
Environmental Impact Statement for the project was prepared
under the leadership of the Bureau of Reclamation, with USACE
participating as a cooperating agency.
… Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted on X on Tuesday
that talks are underway with a Riverside County water district
to take over the Potter Valley hydroelectric project owned by
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. … The post immediately raised
a host of questions about a Southern California entity’s play
for a Northern California water project. … The news also
put more distance between parties who have for years labored to
ensure Eel River diversions for farms and
residents in Mendocino and Sonoma counties continue once the
dams are torn down and those behind more nascent attempts to
keep the dams, despite PG&E’s move to abandon them and
eventually see them torn down.
The Central Valley could soon be home to three new state parks
in what officials say is the largest expansion of California’s
state park system in decades. The proposed parks —
Feather River Park in Yuba County, San
Joaquin River Parkway near Fresno, and Dust Bowl Camp
in Bakersfield — would serve historically park-poor
communities. … The largest of the proposed parks,
Feather River in Olivehurst, Yuba County, sits on nearly 2,000
acres along the Feather River. It would be the first state park
in Yuba County, complete with a boat launch and riverside
beach, as well as a floodplain designed to take on
water in high-flow years. The San Joaquin River
Parkway in Fresno and Madera counties would join various
properties into an 874-acre state park directly upriver from
the city of Fresno.
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.
