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.
In a major win for the Western Slope, the Trump administration
released $40 million in funding for the purchase of
powerful historic water rights on the Colorado River tied to
the Shoshone Power Plant. The Colorado River Water
Conservation District, which spans 15 counties in western
Colorado, has been leading the charge since 2023 to purchase
the water rights from the hydropower facility’s owner, a
subsidiary of Xcel Energy, for $99 million. In early 2025, it
seemed like they’d soon be ready to write the check when the
federal government granted $40 million toward the purchase
during former President Joe Biden’s final hours in
office. Days later, the Trump administration froze the
funding. … The release of the funds a year and a half
later marks a significant step forward in the water rights
acquisition, which will still take years to complete.
Southern Nevada is now looking to the Pacific Ocean to ease its
water woes. In a vote Thursday, the Southern Nevada Water
Authority board approved a memorandum of understanding that
allows General Manager John Entsminger to hammer out a
first-of-its-kind water transfer deal with the San Diego County
Water Authority. In a region where growth could
outpace permanent water supplies in the next few
decades, that matters. The terms are far from certain. But
California would leave water in Lake Mead that Nevada could use
in exchange for compensation; California would fill that gap
with ocean water treated by the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
… [I]f a contract materialized, it could revolutionize
what water managers thought was possible, effectively adding
permanent water to an arid region’s portfolio.
A coalition of conservation groups wants Southern California to
get 85% of its water locally, up from the 50% it gets now, by
2045, and says a new plan shows how. It’s urging state leaders
to scrap plans for a 45-mile tunnel beneath the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and
consider asking voters to approve a bond measure to fund local
water solutions. The 34-page strategy was released as critical
decisions loom for local officials, California’s next governor
and legislators. … The allied groups are calling
for recycling more wastewater, capturing more stormwater,
improving efficiency and cleaning up contaminated
groundwater. … The coalition includes fishing
groups, environmental organizations and Northern California’s
Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
The state and the Colorado River Water Conservation District, a
public water policy and planning agency on the Western Slope,
have a new plan to protect mountain towns from losing their
water supply during an unprecedented drought this
summer. The District’s proposed emergency water supply
plan was approved at the Colorado Water Conservation Board
meeting on Wednesday. Colorado River District general
manager Andy Mueller said that the Colorado River Basin is in a
historic drought, and “safeguards that we put in place more
than 80 years ago are failing.” The emergency plan would
protect certain water users on the main stem of the Colorado
River by replacing water that would have historically come from
Green Mountain Reservoir. This year forecasts say it won’t fill
up for the first time in history.
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.
