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.
We are gearing up for an engaging Water Summit on Oct. 29 and
also prepping our 2027 California Water Leaders program. Join a
virtual Q&A on our Water Leaders program on Nov. 10. Details
below.
Water Summit | October 29
Our 42ⁿᵈ
annual Water Summit is the Foundation’s
premier event of the year and returns to Sacramento October 29
with leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Capacity is
limited and filling up quickly, so register here while
seats are available!
Conversations during the Summit will revolve around this year’s
theme, Stewarding a New Era in Western
Water, with a focus on emerging topics related to
the challenges and opportunities facing water resource
management.
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of
additional water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center
discourse related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination
efforts and their implications for the arid West
Our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit, an engaging day of discussions addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West, will be
held on Thursday, Oct. 29, in Sacramento with the theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water.
Speakers and conversations will highlight emerging topics related
to the challenges and opportunities facing management of the
West’s most precious natural resource.
Lively conversations will focus on topics such
as:
The mandate to identify 9 million acre-feet of additional
water supply in California by 2040
The need for clarity in the ongoing AI/data center discourse
related to water resources management
The latest developments in desalination efforts and their
implications for the arid West
A full agenda will be posted soon, and speakers
include:
Joel Metzger | Deputy Director, Statewide
Water Resources Planning, California Department of Water
Resources
Sandi Matsumoto | California Water Program
Director, The Nature Conservancy
Cannon Michael | President, Bowles
Farming
Craig Miller | General Manager, Western
Municipal Water District
Dave Pederson | General Manager, Las Virgenes
Municipal Water District
As previously announced,
the day will open with a keynote address from Tom
Gibson, the new director of California’s Department of
Water Resources. An attorney who has held several roles in
the state’s Natural Resources Agency and its various departments,
Gibson was appointed by Gov. Newsom on June 29 and sworn in on
July 6 to lead DWR and its nearly 4,000 employees.
With a strong El Niño increasing the odds of big storms this
fall and winter, California is on alert for possible
flooding. But if it delivers a wet punch, it will also
bring an upside: a bonanza of water. How
prepared is the state to capitalize on El Niño? And what more
can it do to take advantage of an extremely wet year? Experts
say California has made progress capturing more
stormwater, but there is still more it can
do. Los Angeles County uses a network of 27
spreading grounds, where artificial basins fill up when storms
send torrents cascading down from the mountains into the San
Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. The water sinks into porous
soil and replenishes the groundwater.
… Southwestern states for years have sought to find new
sources of water in a drying region, and
desalination, the process of removing salt
from ocean water to make it potable, is one of the
solutions they’re studying. Arizona advanced one such
project on Sept. 16, which proposes to provide water for Mexico
in exchange for part of the state’s share of Colorado River
water. The proposed Northern Gulf of California Desalination
Project calls for Arizona to build a plant in the Gulf
of California to supply drinking water to residents in
Baja California, Mexico. Arizona would then use some of
Mexico’s supply of Colorado River water to augment its
own. But the project faces the same challenge
threatening water throughout the region — too little Colorado
River water to go around.
Following nearly a decade of investment in the agrarian
Suisun Valley, Caymus Vineyards is fighting
a state water conservation policy that it sees
as a threat to the burgeoning wine region. Solano County’s
23-square-mile Suisun Valley has been recognized as an American
Viticultural Area since 1982, but it was largely unknown as a
wine destination before Caymus …. Over the last year, [Caymus
Vice President Michael] Carlson has worked to raise local
awareness of a state policy change that would restrict
the amount of water that the county can tap from nearby Putah
Creek. Caymus says the new policy could stunt the
region’s growth by limiting the water available for grape
growing, wine production and urban development. Carlson’s
concern stems from a pending update to the Bay Delta
Plan, which governs the flow of water from California
streams into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta.
A tech developer has asked a Nye County judge to toss out a
ban on data centers in one of the state’s most
overstressed water basins that serves Pahrump. In a
statement, developer Sean Dalesandro said his company is asking
for a judge to uphold a principle of fairness, adding that he
believes the ban unlawfully disregarded a significant
investment into zoning. His company’s previously proposed data
center project, the Manse Technology Campus, drew protests from
hundreds of residents. … The legal petition is in
response to a ban on data centers in basin 162, the
Pahrump Valley Hydrographic Basin, where water rights
committed on paper to property owners outweigh
the annual yield by more than three to one.
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.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last
century and it occurs with much greater frequency in the West
than in any other region of the country.
