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.
The Water Education Foundation, which celebrates its 49th birthday this year, is proud to be the only organization in the West providing comprehensive, unbiased information about the region’s most critical natural resource. Through our workshops, water leadership programs and explorations of key watersheds, we bring the West’s myriad challenges and opportunities into context to help build sound and collective solutions to water issues.
So, don’t miss your chance to go beyond the news headlines and gain a deeper understanding of how water flows across California and its challenges by signing up for our popular spring tours and workshops below, all of which have limited seating and may sell out before long!
Go beyond the headlines and gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California during our annual Water
101 Workshop on March 26.
One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at Cal
State Sacramento’s Harper Alumni Center offers anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to gain a
solid statewide grounding on water resources. Leading
experts are on the agenda for the workshop that details
the historical, legal and political facets of water management in
the state.
A long-awaited Bay-Delta Plan is on track to be ready for
adoption this year, with possible refinements still under
review — but with no signs of major changes to the proposal as
released in December. Eric Oppenheimer, executive director of
the State Water Board, on Friday told The Sacramento Bee that
the board’s staff is reviewing thousands of public comments,
evaluating whether any updates to the proposed plan and
supporting environmental analysis are needed before bringing it
to the board for a final decision. “So far, based on what
we’ve seen … what we’ll be putting out is refinement to the
basin plan amendment language,” Oppenheimer said. … The
proposed Bay-Delta Plan has drawn divided reactions from
conservation groups and regional water agencies, with last
month’s three-day hearing underscoring those tensions.
Rainy conditions will pick up again across Northern California
this week, starting Monday night and lasting through Wednesday
morning. … The incoming rain will fall from a large
atmospheric river storm that will impact areas of Northern
California, including high elevations in the Sierra Nevada,
with its newly bolstered snowpack. … The Sierra snowpack has
the capacity to soak up the rain that does fall, which means
less risk of flooding. … Despite all the snow from last
week, much of the Sierra snowpack is still lower than average.
Swain said that while last week’s snowstorms helped, much of
the Western U.S. is starved for snow.
Other water supply and snowpack news around the West:
The Interior Department, which is in charge of the nation’s
public lands and waters, has completed a major scaling back of
its environmental regulations. The department, which also
oversees activities including drilling and mining on the
nation’s lands and in its waters, has rescinded more than 80
percent of its previous environmental regulations under the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Interior said in a
press release that its actions would be aimed at cutting down
delays and costs for energy, minerals, livestock grazing,
infrastructure, wildfire mitigation, water
projects and conservation efforts. … Critics
have argued that NEPA reviews are time-consuming and slow down
the development of the nation’s energy and infrastructure.
Supporters of robust reviews argue they are an important
guardrail for health and the environment.
As artificial intelligence drives the data center construction
boom, building one in Denver is poised to get more complicated
after Mayor Mike Johnston and members of the Denver City
Council announced plans to impose a moratorium on new
facilities. Under the plan, the city will review additional
data-center-specific regulations targeting “responsible land,
energy, and water use.” … “These (data center) projects
present new and complex issues that argue for better alignment
between Colorado’s economic development, energy, and water
strategies, particularly given the obvious impacts of
water scarcity in our region driven by climate
change,” Denver Water CEO and Manager Alan Salazar
said in a statement to The Denver Gazette.
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.
