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.
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.
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!
A bipartisan group of Central Valley House members urged the
Newsom administration Monday to reverse an environmental rule
governing operations in the state’s main water hub, arguing it
is unnecessarily limiting exports south to farms and
communities. Democratic Reps. Jim Costa and Adam Gray and
Republican Reps. David Valadao and Vince Fong wrote to Gov.
Gavin Newsom and top water officials in his administration
asking them “to reverse an ill-timed decision” to limit water
pumping in the sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
this month. Both Newsom and President Donald Trump have
sought to export and store more water this year — including by
relaxing environmental rules in the Delta and backing new
reservoir projects.
Multiple storms will spin southward along the Pacific Coast of
the United States next week. Each storm will bring abundant
rain and mountain snow and cause significant impacts on travel
and the potential for flooding and mudslides. … On
Sunday or [Monday], drenching rain is likely to spin into
coastal areas of Northern and Central California. From there,
low-elevation rain and mountain snow will expand southward and
eastward across California then into the interior West.
… “It is possible the series of storms next week
in California delivers close to an entire month’s worth of rain
and snow,” AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist
Bernie Rayno said. … Much of the interior West is in
desperate need of storms with ample moisture.
Other winter storm and snowpack news around the West:
The Colorado River Basin is in crisis. Climate change is
reducing its flow and its biggest reservoirs are shrinking. The
seven U.S. states that use the river are negotiating cutbacks
to their water use. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah,
Wyoming, and New Mexico are deadlocked with the Lower Basin
states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. But the federal
government has a big stake in the negotiations, too. …
Dwindling water levels hurt its ability to generate and sell
hydropower. Lower flows degrade the federally-managed national
parks the river flows through. Diminishing supplies threaten
the viability of the river’s core legal document, the Colorado
River Compact. With all of those layered interests, it’s led
some to ask: Why aren’t federal officials applying more
pressure to get a deal finalized?
Over the past decade, parts of California have plummeted by
multiple feet, according to satellite measurements. The San
Joaquin Valley saw the biggest drops, with parts of
the Tulare Basin sinking more than seven feet between
2015 and 2025. Although the most dramatic declines occurred
during drought years, subsidence did not stop when wetter
conditions returned: even from 2024 to 2025, sections of the
basin sank by as much as five inches. … Multiple
factors drive vertical land motion, but California’s subsidence
has largely been due to agricultural pumping for
groundwater, said Paul Gosselin, deputy
director for sustainable water management for the California
Department of Water Resources.
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.
