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.
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 federal government on Monday denied listing the Western
Coast Chinook salmon as threatened or endangered under the
Endangered Species Act. The decision came after what the
National Marine Fisheries Service called a comprehensive review
of the Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern
California Coastal Chinook salmon. The agency examined
the issue after a petition called for listing them as
threatened or endangered and designating their habitat as
critical. … While inadequate regulations persist, they
pose a low risk to the Chinook salmon’s viability, the service
said.
More money is headed to farmers in the Colorado River
Basin, paying them to not grow as many crops and send
the water they save downstream. During a special meeting on
Monday, the Colorado River Authority of Utah’s board voted to
approve almost $895,000 in funds to some agriculture producers
under the “Demand Management Pilot Program.” It is estimated
the funds would save as much as 2,500-acre feet of water. This
is the second year of the program, which has spent nearly $5
million total. … Politically, the program can be seen as a
goodwill gesture by the state of Utah as negotiations continue
over the future of the Colorado River.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is “looking at all
available options to respond,” his office said Monday in
response to the Bureau of Reclamation’s decision last week that
updates the Central Valley Project’s operating plan to permit
higher water exports from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.
… On Thursday, the Bureau of Reclamation approved Action
5, revising the long-term operating plan for the Central Valley
Project and allowing greater flexibility in Delta operations —
a step consistent with the Trump administration’s broader push
to increase federal water supplies.
When it comes to water resources, the northern Sierra Nevada
snowpack is a harbinger of abundance or scarcity for 40 million
California residents and businesses. The 2025-26 snow season
has arrived and is off to a very slow start. Northern
California, driver of the state’s water bounty is currently at
just 16 percent of average to date.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
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.
