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.
Mark your calendars now for our upcoming fall 2026
programs! Registration will open soon, so make sure
you’re among the first to hear by signing up for Foundation announcements!
Water Summit | October 29
Don’t miss the Water Education
Foundation’s 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit in downtown Sacramento! Our premier event of
the year features leading policymakers and experts addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West.
Our Layperson’s
Guide to California Water has been completely
updated for 2026, providing a comprehensive overview of the
ways water is used, as well as its critical ecological role,
throughout the state. The 24-page publication traces the history
of the vital resource at the core of California’s identity,
politics and culture since its founding in 1850.
A draft decision issued Monday on appeals to California’s Delta
Conveyance Project appears to hand the state a major win in its
battle to make the massive project a reality. However, while
discarding most of the appeals against the project, the
recommendation to the Delta Stewardship
Council calls for sending two issues about the project
back to the state Department of Water Resources for
reconsideration. It also wants yearly reports from the
department about its outreach efforts to tribes and various
agencies. … A formal vote on the decision by the council is
expected [Thursday]. …The project calls for two intake
facilities by the Sacramento River, near the town of Hood, that
could handle 6,000 cubic feet of water per second. A tunnel
some 45 miles in length would carry water south to the Bethany
Reservoir and ultimately to Southern California.
The nation’s second-largest reservoir will get a boost to keep
water levels from dropping too low, but the fix won’t last
long. Water levels in Lake Powell, which sits in southern Utah
and northern Arizona, are on course for historic lows after a
record-setting dry winter and a 26-year drought fueled by
climate change. The federal government announced a strategy to
prop up the reservoir and avoid infrastructure problems
at Glen Canyon Dam, which holds it back in Page,
Arizona. The Bureau of Reclamation will take water from Flaming
Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming and send it downstream to
Lake Powell. The agency, which manages major dams and
reservoirs across the Western U.S., will also ratchet back the
amount of water released from Lake Powell.
A looming storm is forecast to drop more than 2 feet of
snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada, prompting the
National Weather Service to issue winter storm warnings.
It’s the second round of winter storm warnings this month in
the Sierra, a rarity for April. … The heaviest snow is
expected Tuesday afternoon and evening above 5,000 feet in the
northern Sierra and above 7,000 feet in the southern Sierra.
… April storms are propping up a scarce Sierra
snowpack. California’s snowpack was just 18% of normal
as of Monday morning following the state’s warmest and driest
March on record.
… This year, New Mexicans are confronting record-low
snowpack, which is essential for supplying an even flow of
water into acequia systems. Record heat isn’t helping, as it
accelerates evaporation throughout New Mexico waterways and has
contributed to an early melt off of the already thin snowpack.
… New Mexico’s acequias date back to the late
16th century, when the Spanish colonized the region.
By 1700, what would become New Mexico had around 60 of these
community-managed irrigation ditches. Today, there are
more than 700 active acequias in the state, many of
them concentrated in Northern New Mexico.
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.
