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.
Calling all future water leaders! Are you an emerging leader
passionate about shaping the future of water in California
or across the Colorado River Basin?
The Water Education Foundation will
be hosting two dynamic water leadership programs in 2026 – one
focused on California water
issues and the other on the Colorado River
Basin. These competitive programs are designed for
rising stars from diverse sectors who are ready to deepen their
water knowledge, strengthen their leadership skills and
collaborate on real-world water challenges.
Are you an
up-and-coming leader in the water world? The application
window is now open for our 2026 California Water
Leaders cohort, and submissions are due no later than Dec.
3, 2025.
If interested in applying, start by checking out the
program
requirementsand look at the
frequently asked questions and mandatory
dates on
the application page. Make sure you have the time to
commit to the program next year and approval from your
organization to apply.
Then sign
up here to join a virtual Q&A
session on Nov. 5 at noon with Jenn Bowles,
our executive director, and other Foundation team members to get
an overview of the program and advice on applying.
With state negotiators in the Colorado River Basin still at
odds ahead of a key deadline, the Trump administration could
soon be tasked with deciding where to cut water use across the
West and appears to be weighing options like draining
reservoirs or curbing senior water rights. … Without a
deal, the Interior Department and its Bureau of Reclamation
have threatened to step in to wield federal authority — a
largely untested power — and potentially tap reservoirs in the
Upper Basin and reduce flows to the Lower Basin.
After a warm, dry weekend across Northern California, wet
weather is forecast to return this week. Widespread rain and
the strongest winds so far this season are predicted in the Bay
Area, North Coast, Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada as an
atmospheric river-fueled storm sweeps through
the region. … Because of the warm wind direction, this
week’s storm isn’t anticipated to be a big snowmaker in the
Sierra Nevada. … Several inches of rain is forecast
around the headwaters of the Sacramento and Feather rivers,
which is important for water supply early in
the wet season.
Two neighboring groundwater agencies in Kings County are
preparing for a showdown over how much farmers can pump even as
the state Water Resources Control Board restarted probationary
sanctions for farmers in the Tulare Lake subbasin. Farmers will
be required to report how much they pumped from July 14, 2024
through Sept. 25, 2025 by May 1, 2026, according to a Water
Board press release issued Friday evening. Fees of
$20-per-acre-foot pumped won’t be far behind.
… Zebra mussels are bad news for western waterways.
Spread mainly by hitching rides on watercraft, the
fast-reproducing mollusks clog water infrastructure, cling to
marinas and docks, and outcompete native species. Colorado has
taken costly measures to keep its lakes and rivers free of the
mussels, but recorded the first official infestation in the
state’s portion of the Colorado River this year. Quagga
mussels, zebra mussels’ close relatives, and other aquatic
nuisance species, have made their presence known at reservoirs
in the Colorado River Basin, like Lake Powell and Lake
Mead.
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.
