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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a statewide emergency for
California, warning of damaging storms that
could be generated this winter from a historically strong El
Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean. The move is the latest sign
that emergency officials are growing increasingly
concerned about flooding, landslides, coastal damage and power
outages as winter approaches. The declaration
fast-tracks permits for flood protection projects and allows
state agencies to obtain emergency supplies without the usual
competitive bidding process. … On Monday, state
emergency officials said they are already holding planning
meetings with cities and counties to identify places
most at risk, and are beginning to clear drains on
roads and preposition resources, such as sandbags, in locations
across the state.
It’ll take a lot of money to help save water from the shrinking
Colorado River. Now, Amazon is helping foot the bill. The
ecommerce giant announced that it would send $20
million to water-saving projects in Arizona and
California, kicking off a new longer-term effort to
rally money for water conservation. The company formed a new
coalition, dubbed the “Colorado River Basin
Collaborative,” and aims to spend $100 million
on water conservation across two years. …
[Amazon Water Sustainability Lead Will] Hewes cited a new
$2.4 million project that aims to improve irrigation efficiency
on tribal farmland in northern Arizona. … [T]he project
would install high-tech sensors that give farmers
real-time data about when crops need water, ultimately
reducing their draw on Lake Mead, the nation’s largest
reservoir.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signedseven new data center regulations into
law Monday, as public concerns about the facilities’ demands
for water and electricity have reached a fever pitch. Newsom
signed a raft of bills that require data center
operators to report their water consumption and pay
for upgrades to offset any increased electricity grid demands.
… One of the measures was a resurrected measure from
Assemblymember Diane Papan, D-San Mateo. The governor vetoed a
similar bill last year that would have required data centers to
disclose their water usage when applying for licenses.
Chinook salmon have been laying eggs in gravelly nests in the
Sacramento River for millennia. But California’s biggest river
is now so warm that biologists expect a significant number of
the eggs won’t hatch. Environmental advocates blame the Trump
administration. They say the federal government took too much
water out of Shasta Lake for farms in the Central Valley,
leaving the reservoir too warm for many salmon eggs to
survive in a vital spawning area downstream from Shasta
Dam. … State biologists who monitor salmon
nests in the Sacramento River estimated on Sept. 4 that
about 20% of the eggs may not survive. The
river has gotten warmer since then.
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.
