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.
Since 1977, the Water Education
Foundation has worked to inspire better understanding
and catalyze critical conversations about our most vital
natural resource: water.
This is not a mission our nonprofit can carry out alone.
Today on Giving Tuesday, a global day of philanthropy, please
consider making a
tax-deductible donation to support the important
work we do to provide impartial education and foster informed
decision-making on water issues in California and the West.
Today on Giving Tuesday, a global
day of philanthropy, you can support impartial education and
informed decision-making on water resources in California and the
West by making a
tax-deductible donation to the Water Education
Foundation.
Your support ensures that our legacy of producing in-depth news,
educational workshops and accessible and
reliable information on water reaches new heights in 2026.
The Department of Water Resources said Monday the State Water
Project will supply 10% of the water that local agencies
requested for the new water year. The initial number is based
on current weather and water conditions, how much water is
stored in reservoirs and the assumption that the rest of the
year could be drier than normal, the state agency said. The
allocation is then adjusted month-to-month based on new data,
with a final number typically set in May or June. … In
Monday’s statement, the agency added that the
reservoirs statewide are slightly above
normal, at 114% of average typical for this time of
year.
A Trump administration proposal to reduce the scope of the
Clean Water Act would exclude more waters than
at any other point in the past 50 years. But it also left open
the possibility of going even further. Administration officials
last week unveiled their plan to define “waters of the U.S.,” a
frequently litigated term that delineates which waters and
wetlands are regulated by the 1972 law. … [The proposal]
suggests including only rivers, streams and other waterways
that flow at least for the duration of the “wet season.” The
proposal also floats an alternative approach: exclusively
regulating perennial waters and wetlands.
… The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is
forecasting La Niña conditions for this winter, possibly
switching to neutral midway through. … When we look at the
consequences for snow, La Niña does tend to mean more snow in
the Pacific Northwest and less in the Southwest. … This
winter’s forecast isn’t extreme at this point, so the impact on
the year’s water supplies is a pretty big question mark. …
The West’s water infrastructure system was built assuming there
would be a natural reservoir of snow in the mountains.
California relies on the snowpack for about a third of
its annual water supply. However, rising temperatures
are leading to earlier snowmelt in some areas.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
… A 2024 federal report found that U.S. data centers consume
17 billion gallons of water a year, but that’s a drop in the
bucket compared to industries like mining or farming, which use
billions of gallons every day. But demand from data centers is
expected to double or even quadruple soon, according to that
report. … By 2027, AI is expected to account for
28% of the global data center market, according to Goldman
Sachs. … This data center boom is not just happening in
northern Nevada. Across the West, including Colorado,
Wyoming and Arizona, states have rolled out major tax
incentives to attract data centers, but rising concern over
their water use is fueling public pushback.
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.
