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 biennial program, which will run from March to September
next year, selects about a dozen rising
stars from the seven states that rely on the river
– California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New
Mexico – Mexico and tribal nations.
Registration for our first water tour of 2026 along the lower
Colorado River is now open and the bus will fill up quickly! You
can also find more information below on next year’s programming
calendar packed with engaging tours, workshops and conferences.
And don’t forget that current Foundation member organizations
receive access to coveted sponsorship options for our
tours and events, which are all prime networking
opportunities for the water professionals in attendance! Contact
Nick Gray for more information.
Lower Colorado River Tour | March 11-13
Be sure to catch the return of our
annual Lower Colorado
River Tour as we take you from Hoover Dam to
the U.S.-Mexico border and through the Imperial and
Coachella valleys to learn about the challenges and opportunities
facing the “Lifeline of the Southwest.”
Following the river as it winds through Nevada, Arizona and
California, the tour explores infrastructure, farming
regions, wildlife refuges and the Salton Sea. Experts discuss
river issues, such as water needs, drought management, endangered
species and habitat restoration.
In anticipation of high demand, space is limited to two
tickets per organization so reserve your spot soon while
tickets last. Get more tour
details and register here!
Opponents of a plan to remove two Pacific Gas & Electric-owned
dams from the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties have
officially won a huge ally: the Trump administration.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Friday filed a notice
to intervene in the utility giant’s bid to decommission its
waterworks in the rural area, which also include a century-old
power plant that helps to shunt Eel River water into irrigation
canals that support Mendocino County’s Potter Valley and dump
into the upper Russian River, boosting supplies for farms and
hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers in the North Bay.
A dangerous sequence of storms from the Pacific Ocean is
sweeping through Northern California and the Sierra Nevada
Mountains –– prompting heavy flooding and road closures across
parts of the region during the busy holiday travel season.
… Shasta County and other parts of Northern California
remain under a flood warning until midday
Monday, while much of Central California is under a flood watch
until Friday. … Northern California will see its
heaviest rainfall Monday and Tuesday – when up to 5 inches are
expected across the Northern Sierra and 3 inches along the
coastal regions, the NWS said Sunday. … Heavy snow is
also forecast over the Sierras, where an
additional 2 to 4 feet is expected – a stark contrast
from the snow drought the Sierras are currently experiencing.
… The single most important gathering of Colorado River
Basin officials came and went — with no significant
announcements regarding the often frustrating yet crucial
seven-state negotiations for how to divvy up the river over the
next 20 years. … Experts said at the three-day Colorado
River Water Users Association conference that if meaningful
conservation doesn’t happen in states both upstream and
downstream, leaders in the West could be headed for remarkably
hard decisions about the future. Governors and negotiators from
the seven states have an open invitation to the nation’s
capital, where Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has indicated he
would like to have a joint meeting. Nevada Gov. Joe
Lombardo asked Burgum this month to schedule it for
January.
As Californians break out umbrellas for a rainy holiday,
specialized crews are gearing up to fly their planes directly
into the winter’s incoming atmospheric rivers. … This winter,
leading climate institutions including UC San Diego’s Scripps
Institution of Oceanography are ramping up a research program
that uses the planes to monitor atmospheric rivers —
the ribbons of water vapor in the sky that can drop up
to half of California’s annual precipitation. A goal
of the effort, announced Tuesday, is to improve forecasts from
the current one-week advanced storm warnings to more like two
weeks. … For California, improved forecasts not only
offer residents more time to plan for rain and snow, but the
warning can also make a big difference for reservoir
management in the state.
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.
