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.
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.
Big Day of Giving may be ending soon but
you have until midnight to support the Water Education
Foundation’s tours, workshops, publications and other programs
aimed at building water literacy across California and the West!
Donate
now to help us reach our $10,000
fundraising goal by midnight - we are only
$4,120 away!
At the Foundation, we believe that education is as precious as
water. Your donations help us empower next-generation
leaders from all sectors of the water world to broaden their
knowledge and build their collaborative skills through our
popular Water Leader programs in
California and the Colorado River Basin.
Lake Mead could soon benefit from the nation’s largest
desalination plant thanks to an agreement that
would allow water agencies in Nevada, Arizona, and California
to explore ways to exchange water supplies across the
drought-challenged Colorado River Basin. On Wednesday,
the federal government and water agencies in the three states
signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a framework for
an interstate pilot program that could let agencies in Arizona
and Nevada tap San Diego’s Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad
Desalination Plant. … The plan would not
directly send desalination-treated water to Lake Mead, but
would allow “paper” transfers and exchanges between states
using existing infrastructure and credits.
Water contractors can expect to pay between 1% to 3% more for
the energy it takes to bring supplies down the state through
California’s largest project thanks to just one renewable
energy project that came online recently in Kern County – the
Pastoria Solar Project. And that’s just the beginning. When the
Department of Water Resources (DWR) brings on enough renewable
energy projects to fully power the State Water
Project (SWP), contractors can expect their costs to
increase another 10% to 20%, according to a presentation at the
May 20 California Water Commission meeting by DWR Manager of
Power Operations Jorge Quintero. … The SWP is the
state’s largest single electricity consumer, using between 2.5
million and 9.5 million megawatt hours a year, depending on how
much water it’s moving.
Voters in a Southern California city moved to cement what is
believed to be the nation’s first ban on data
centers, appearing to resoundingly approve a ballot
measure that prohibits the facilities citywide. The
Monterey Park City Council unanimously voted in March to submit
the ballot measure — known as Measure NDC — to the June 2
special municipal election, seeking to permanently prohibit
data centers within city limits. The measure amends the city’s
general plan and land use framework to add a citywide ban on
data centers, according to city officials. … City
officials described the ban as a way to protect air
quality, drinking water resources, and public health,
and to avoid potential impacts to electricity and water rates
from the large-scale computing facilities.
Other data center moratorium news around the West:
Denver Parks and Recreation is taking steps to reduce water use
across the city as drought conditions persist along Colorado’s
Front Range. The department announced a water reduction
strategy in response to Denver Water’s Stage 1 Drought
declaration, which calls for voluntary conservation
efforts to help protect water supplies. As part
of the plan, Denver Parks and Recreation will reduce irrigation
at select parks, medians and other landscaped areas. Officials
said watering schedules will be adjusted to focus on
maintaining the health and safety of trees and high-use
recreational spaces while allowing some turf areas to go
dormant. … City officials said they will continue
monitoring drought conditions and could implement additional
conservation measures if conditions worsen.
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.
