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.
As your summer adventures wrap up, be sure to reserve your spot
for our popular fall programs. Seating is limited and will fill
up quickly!
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.
Just one year after the signing of Senate Bill 72, the Summit will
feature a panel discussion of California’s 2028 Water
Plan Update as it undergoes a legislatively
mandated shift from being just a guidance document to a blueprint
providing a framework for implementation of actions.
Start making arrangements now to attend our first-ever
Kern River Tour and annual Water
Summit so you don’t miss out. These popular fall
programs have limited seating and will fill up quickly!
Kern River Tour | November 4-6
Join us on this special journey as
we examine water issues along the Kern
River, from its mountain-fed headwaters in the
southern Sierra Nevada to its terminus in the Central Valley west
of Bakersfield. Among the planned stops are both upper forks of
the Kern River, Lake Isabella, lower Kern River canyon, the
Friant-Kern Canal, irrigated agriculture in the valley, the Kern
Water Bank and more. Click here for more
details.
In a major escalation of tensions between the seven states that
share the Colorado River, Nevada officials have filed a federal
lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s order for cuts
in water use. The complaint, filed early Monday morning in the
U.S. District Court of Nevada, asserts that the federal
government’s operating plan unlawfully authorizes the federal
government to reduce the state’s allocation of the
river by up to 71 percent annually, or a 213,556 acre-feet
reduction. Such a cut would slash the state’s share of
water far past its actual use, which came in at 198,000
acre-feet last year. Lawyers for the Colorado River Commission
of Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the state as
a whole requested an injunction to halt
implementation.
Earth’s oceans were warmer than any day in recorded history
Friday due to a combination of long-term human-caused global
warming and short-term effects of El Niño. The average sea
surface temperature of 21.1 degrees Celsius, or 70
degrees Fahrenheit, breaks the old record of 21.09
degrees Celsius set many times in early 2024 during the most
recent El Niño. … Record ocean heat will have
cascading effects on global weather throughout the coming
months. Warmer seas provide storms with more energy
and moisture, which will make rainfall heavier and floods more
likely in parts of the world. That may include
California, as the arrangement of this El Niño
is shaping up similarly to those that have soaked the state in
the past.
City and county officials, labor unions, and environmentalists
packed the intimate Loma Linda City Council chamber to share
their views at the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control
Board’s Friday meeting on proposed new sweeping water runoff
regulations. Part of the state’s environmental agency, the
Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board is
proposing new regulations to decrease pollution in
water from storm drains and flood control channels
across large areas of the Santa Ana River Basin, with what is
known as the “Regional MS4 Permit.” … Though the Santa Ana
Water Board members did not vote to adopt MS4 – the
vote is scheduled for a Sept. 11 meeting – several
city and county officials made it clear in the City Council
chamber that they disapproved of the proposed
regulations.
The U.S. Forest Service acknowledged that its plan to roll back
protections on 45 million acres of national forest land could
impact endangered species, water supplies and
wildlife habitat across Arizona and the Southwest. The
agency filed a proposal on Aug. 18 to rescind the “roadless
rule,” which set aside over 60 million acres of forests and
grasslands within national forests as roadless areas.
… The Forest Service’s plan notes that rescinding the
roadless rule would increase soil erosion and sediment
pollution for about 24 million Americans. In the
Southwest, the repeal could affect 739 water intake
locations and nearly 2 million people, according to the
plan.
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.
