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.
… After a scorching summer with temperatures climbing above
100 degrees, nearly 70% of California is now
experiencing either abnormal dryness or drought,
according to the latest date from the U.S. Drought Monitor.
… In January, none of California was experiencing
drought conditions, marking the first time in 25 years that the
state had been completely drought-free, according to the U.S.
Drought Monitor. … At the same time, a potentially
historic “El Niño is strengthening” in the Pacific, according
to federal forecasters. This could bring wetter
conditions to parts of California later this fall and
winter. Here’s a look at California’s current
drought conditions, water supplies and what El Niño could bring
in the months ahead.
Two water storage projects in Kern and Tulare
counties received $34 million in federal grants
through the Bureau of Reclamation’s Small Storage Grant
Program, according to an announcement Thursday. The
lion’s share of that funding, about $25 million, will go to the
Kern Fan Project, a 1,300-acre groundwater banking
project with an environmental “twist” that has been
under construction since 2024. Specifically, this latest
federal grant will help pay for a canal within the Kern
Fan Project to bring excess water off the California Aqueduct
in wet years into the bank. … The remainder of
the recent Bureau of Reclamation grant funding, about $9.28
million, will help repurpose an old gravel mine in
Tulare County to develop a 235-acre reservoir.
The Colorado River Conservation Water District’s multi-year bid
to acquire the historic Shoshone water rights on the
Colorado River has required collaboration, strange
bedfellows, bipartisan support and intense
fellowship. While the River District wants this spirit of
partnership to continue as the deal moves through
Colorado Water Court, it won’t compromise values — nor
those of the 17 Western Slope counties the district represents
— to do so, according to General Manager Andy Mueller.
… The Shoshone water rights are among the oldest
non-consumptive rights on the Colorado River, dating back to
1902 and 1929. …With the 1902 Shoshone right senior
to many others on the Colorado River, it gets priority
over junior rights — including those on the Western Slope and
many transmountain diversions that carry water to the Front
Range — when flows drop below 1,480 cubic feet per second.
… Nearly two years ago, as flames from the
catastrophic Eaton and Palisades fires
devoured Los Angeles County communities, everyone from wealthy
developer Rick Caruso to then-President-elect Donald Trump
wanted to know: where was the water? … The report that
dropped last November concluded Los Angeles’ water supplies
were robust but local water systems aren’t designed to
suppress “firestorm conditions impacting an entire
neighborhood of homes at the same time.” Nearly a year later,
though, state agencies haven’t issued specific
recommendations or guidance beyond the basics. … The
gap has left local fire services and water suppliers on
their own to figure out how to fight the growing
threat of wildfires in their own communities.
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.
