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, which celebrates its 49th birthday this year, is proud to be the only organization in the West providing comprehensive, unbiased information about the region’s most critical natural resource. Through our workshops, water leadership programs and explorations of key watersheds, we bring the West’s myriad challenges and opportunities into context to help build sound and collective solutions to water issues.
So, don’t miss your chance to go beyond the news headlines and gain a deeper understanding of how water flows across California and its challenges by signing up for our popular spring tours and workshops below, all of which have limited seating and may sell out before long!
Go beyond the headlines and gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California during our annual Water
101 Workshop on March 26.
One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at Cal
State Sacramento’s Harper Alumni Center offers anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to gain a
solid statewide grounding on water resources. Leading
experts are on the agenda for the workshop that details
the historical, legal and political facets of water management in
the state.
For almost a century, Hoover Dam has stood tall, delivering
water and reliable hydropower to cities throughout the American
West. But even the most impressive feats of human engineering
need maintenance — $200 million of it over the next decade, to
be exact, according to estimates from the Bureau of
Reclamation, the federal agency in charge of water and dams in
the West. … [Nev. Rep. Susie] Lee and Sen. Catherine
Cortez Masto, D-Nev., joined Colorado River Commission of
Nevada Chairwoman Puoy Premsrirut at a Lake Mead outlook Friday
to celebrate the release of $52 million to the Bureau of
Reclamation for necessary work.
A lawsuit brought by homebuilders to invalidate actions by the
state’s water department was back in court on Friday.
The outcome of the case could upend the state’s entire
groundwater protection framework. The lawsuit was
filed at the beginning of last year and stems from a report
Gov. Katie Hobbs’ administration released in 2023 showing
groundwater levels in the Phoenix metro area were unexpectedly
low. As a result, the Arizona Department of Water Resources
stopped granting certificates to developers that are required
to build new housing developments in parts of the Valley —
including Buckeye and Queen Creek. The Homebuilders Association
of Central Arizona argued in a hearing Friday that ADWR
illegally overstepped its authority with its response.
Colorado’s record-low snowpack is already raising concerns
about increased wildfire risk and water shortages this summer,
even as the mountains are still in the depths of winter.
Statewide, the snowpack levels are just 61% of median for this
time of year, and it would take consistent, record-breaking
snowfall for the rest of the season to reach normal peak
snowpack levels, according to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. … The Laramie-North Platte and
Colorado Headwaters river basins, which encompass much of
northwest Colorado, have some of the lowest streamflow
forecasts in the state, at 50% of 58% of normal, according to
the water supply outlook.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
A Central Arizona Project-backed advocacy group called the
Coalition for Protecting Arizona’s Lifeline has begun rolling
out television ads and online videos defending the water
supplier’s rights to a Colorado River that is under serious
hydrological and political strain. … While the materials
don’t directly state members’ intended method of securing
water, some of the videos lean heavily on the so-called Law of
the River and its guarantee of water from the four headwaters
states to Arizona, California and Nevada. This theme reiterates
a point that CAP and Arizona water officials have stressed over
the last year or so, that if push comes to shove in a legal
battle, they have the 1922 Colorado River Compact on their
side.
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.
