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.
The Water Education Foundation’s
2025 Annual
Reportis now available in an interactive,
digital format and recaps how we accomplished a lot of
“firsts” last year.
A standout moment was our first-ever Klamath River
Tour, where we brought 45 participants into the heart of
the watershed that underwent the nation’s largest dam removal
project.
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Foundation’s tours, workshops, publications and other programs
aimed at building water literacy across California and the West!
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At the Foundation, we believe that education is as precious as
water. Your donations help us empower next-generation
leaders from all sectors of the water world to broaden their
knowledge and build their collaborative skills through our
popular Water Leader programs in
California and the Colorado River Basin.
… In recent weeks the Interior Department has contacted farm
districts, cities, tribes and other water users in
Arizona, California and Nevada looking to
extend Biden administration contracts that paid out nearly $1.4
billion from Democrats’ signature climate law to entities that
agreed to fallow fields, tighten conservation measures or
otherwise forgo water deliveries. At the same time,
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered up a list of projects
from the region’s seven governors to address the river’s
long-term problems, for which the federal government could be a
“potential cost-share partner.” The menu of proposals they
delivered a week ago includes 85 projects totaling more than
$50 billion — a price tag that far exceeds what Interior
currently has in its coffers.
The Trump administration has offered one of its most detailed
explanations of why it wants to stop dam removal on
Northern California’s Eel River, citing in a
letter numerous concerns that include water, power, wildfire
safety and even the state’s “radical leadership.” Still, big
questions remain. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent the
three-page letter Friday in response to a Congressional
inquiry about her agency’s sudden interest in a pair of
relatively obscure PG&E-owned dams. … The dams, in Lake
and Mendocino counties, are part of the Potter Valley
hydroelectric project, which Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is
seeking to retire because of its age and expense. … In
the letter obtained by the Chronicle, Rollins said her agency
is actively looking for someone new to operate the
project, to both continue power generation and maintain water
supplies.
A developing El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is showing its
earliest atmospheric fingerprints, with scientists detecting
shifts in pressure, wind patterns and ocean temperatures that
could shape weather across the United States in the months
ahead. … While California is not typically in the path
of tropical systems, forecasters say warmer ocean waters and
more favorable storm tracks can increase the risk of tropical
moisture reaching the region. That can translate into heavy
rainfall and flash flooding in parts of Southern California,
particularly in late-season setups. AccuWeather also warns of
an elevated flood risk across the broader Southwest,
including Arizona and New Mexico, where remnants of
Pacific storms can interact with monsoon moisture and produce
intense rainfall far inland.
… Desalination plants are notoriously large electricity
users. Some have natural gas pipelines running to them to fuel
dedicated power plants. The company OceanWell estimates its
technology will cut that electricity use by up to 40%. Its goal
is to anchor an array of units 4.5 miles offshore, at a cost of
$500 million to $1 billion, to deliver 60 million gallons of
water per day. That’s enough for about 400,000
people. Prompted by severe water cutbacks four years ago,
the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has been working with
Menlo Park-based OceanWell to develop a cheaper, less
power-hungry way to turn saltwater into drinking water without
sucking in tons of sea life. In a recent test at a
local reservoir, it worked.
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.
