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.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers of articles and participants of the tours and workshops we featured in 2025! We are deeply grateful to each and every person who engaged with us last year.
We have much to look forward to in 2026, especially as we gear up to mark and celebrate the Foundation’s 50th anniversary in 2027!
One of our most exciting projects this year will be replacing our 12-year-old website with a beautifully streamlined version that is mobile-adaptable. It will allow fora more intuitive experience as users conduct research, read our weekday newsfeed or water encyclopedia, and sign up for tours and events.
Along with our new website, we’ll be launching a new and improved Aquafornia newsfeed to better align with our reach across California and the Colorado River Basin. Stay tuned!
New Water Map & Spanish Version of California Water Guide
By summer, we’ll publish an update to our Layperson’s Guide to California Water in English and, for the first time, in Spanish. We will also publish a new Klamath River map to illustrate the nation’s largest dam removal project in the watershed straddling Oregon and California.
With social media, we’ll continue focusing on LinkedIn as our primary go-to channel as we ease off Facebook and X/Twitter where engagement has dropped. But not to fear; we’ll continue posting on Instagram.
Our array of 2026 programming begins later this month when we welcome our incoming California Water Leaders cohort. We’ll be sure to introduce them to you and let you know what thorny California water policy issue they’ll be tackling.
We’ll also be welcoming our third cohort of Colorado River Water Leaders in March.Applications are due Jan. 26 so be sure to get them in soon!
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.
The seven-month program is designed for working professionals who
explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest
river, deepen their water knowledge, and build leadership
and collaborative skills.
Listen to
a recording of our virtual Q&A session
where executive director Jenn Bowles and other Foundation staff
provided an overview on the program and tips on applying.
As California moves closer to construction of its largest
reservoir in nearly 50 years, a union’s concerns about an
out-of-state company building the water project are adding a
late-stage complication. Montana-based Barnard Construction Co.
is expected to be named the main contractor for the
proposed Sites Reservoir, 70 miles northwest of
Sacramento, during a meeting Friday of the agency in charge of
the $6 billion enterprise. Powerful labor interests, however,
are urging the Sites Project Authority to reconsider its
selection. The Nor Cal Carpenters Union, in particular, is
arguing that Barnard Construction has not only failed to
exclusively employ union workers but also that it doesn’t have
the experience, expertise or staffing to handle one of the
state’s biggest infrastructure jobs.
A well-intended state law mandating the removal of Southern
Nevada’s “useless grass” to conserve water has massively
backfired, according to a new lawsuit. Filed Monday in Clark
County District Court, the complaint alleges that an estimated
100,000 mature trees throughout the Las Vegas Valley have
been a casualty of Assembly Bill 356, a 2021 law that
will make it illegal to irrigate certain grass with water from
the Colorado River starting in 2027.
… State legislators passed the law in an effort to push
water conservation forward as Lake Mead and
the Colorado River — Southern Nevada’s main water source — face
historic drought amid interstate negotiations forcing seven
states to reconcile with how cities, tribes and farms can live
with less.
Warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns will
reshape the American, Bear and Cosumnes river watersheds,
intensifying snowpack loss and placing greater strain on
California’s water supply, a two-year study
has found. A draft watershed resilience report by the Regional
Water Authority reviewed by The Sacramento Bee projects earlier
snowmelt, shifting runoff patterns, and more water lost to
evaporation due to climate change. … It also predicts
snow water equivalent measurement at 7.2 inches on average — a
66% decrease compared with historical data — by the mid‑century
period, between 2041 and 2070, and 4.6 inches — a 79% decrease
— by the end of the century for the American River region.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
We have much to look forward to in 2026, especially as we gear
up to mark and celebrate the Water Education Foundation’s 50th
anniversary in 2027! One of our most exciting projects this
year will be replacing our 12-year-old website
with a beautifully streamlined version that is
mobile-adaptable. It will allow for a more intuitive experience
as users conduct research, read our weekday newsfeed or water
encyclopedia, and sign up for tours and events. Along with our
new website, we’ll be launching a new and improved
Aquafornia newsfeed
to better align with our reach across California and the
Colorado River Basin. By summer, we’ll have updated our
Layperson’s Guide to California Water in both
English and Spanish, published a new Klamath River
Map. Check out what new water tour
we’re pondering for the fall!
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.
