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.
In a plan that will reverberate more than 300 miles north at
Mono Lake, Los Angeles city leaders have decided to nearly
double the wastewater that will be transformed into drinking
water at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van
Nuys. Instead of treating 25 million gallons per day as
originally planned, the L.A. Board of Water and Power
Commissioners voted to purify 45 million gallons, enough water
for 500,000 people. Board President Richard Katz said this
will enable the city to stop taking water from Sierra streams
that feed Mono Lake …. He added one caveat: L.A. doesn’t
plan to relinquish its rights to water around Mono Lake and
still may need that water during a severe drought or other
emergency.
With the removal of four dams on the Klamath
River, salmon are making tremendous
progress on their migration upstream, reaching new,
previously inaccessible waters along the California-Oregon
border. In some cases, however, they may be making too much
progress. This month, workers at the Klamath Drainage District
observed chinook salmon in their irrigation complex, a grid of
canals and ditches that forks off the river near Klamath Falls,
Ore., nearly 250 miles from the river’s mouth. The fear is that
these far-roaming fish will get caught in the irrigation water
as it’s doled out to farms and swept onto dry land amidst the
alfalfa, potatoes and grains.
EPA is on track to speed up construction projects aimed at
ending a decades-long sewage pollution crisis along the
Mexico-San Diego border, Administrator Lee Zeldin announced
Thursday. The U.S. and Mexico will complete two wastewater
projects along the Tijuana River faster than anticipated, EPA
said in a news release. They will replace deteriorating,
leaking wastewater pipes six months ahead of schedule and
rehabilitate a backup sewage pump station three months ahead of
schedule.
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.
Applications for the California Program are open now, and
the Colorado River Program application window will open
in mid-November.
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.
