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.
Mark your calendars now for our upcoming fall 2026
programs! Registration will open soon, so make sure
you’re among the first to hear by signing up for Foundation announcements!
Water Summit | October 29
Don’t miss the Water Education
Foundation’s 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit in downtown Sacramento! Our premier event of
the year features leading policymakers and experts addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West.
Our Layperson’s
Guide to California Water has been completely
updated for 2026, providing a comprehensive overview of the
ways water is used, as well as its critical ecological role,
throughout the state. The 24-page publication traces the history
of the vital resource at the core of California’s identity,
politics and culture since its founding in 1850.
To prop up a declining Lake Powell, the federal
government plans to significantly cut Colorado River releases
from Powell to Lake Mead and to boost releases from
Upper Colorado River Basin reservoirs to Powell, Arizona’s top
water officials say. … The reductions now under
consideration wouldn’t be severe enough to force additional
cuts in water supplies for the Central Arizona Project canal
system beyond those the three Lower Basin states have agreed to
take starting in 2027, under proposals they’ve submitted to the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. But it would leave Lake Mead in a
much more vulnerable position to receive deeper cuts in the
future if 2027 brings another dry year on the river.
Oakley has become the first Bay Area city to temporarily
ban new data centers, signaling a more cautious approach
as other parts of Silicon Valley continue to line up
projects to meet rising demand for artificial
intelligence. The Oakley City Council voted
unanimously Tuesday to impose a 45-day moratorium on data
center projects, barring the city from accepting or processing
related land-use applications. … The decision follows
growing concern among residents in the eastern Contra Costa
city about the impacts of large-scale data centers,
particularly their heavy demand for electricity and
water.
… By all accounts, fire season across the West has arrived,
months earlier than normal, ushered along by record breaking
heat, drought and wind. The National Interagency Fire Center
says this year’s fire season will be significant, noting
regions of the Southwest and Great Basin have no snow
at all. Melt-off in those areas is up to four to six
weeks earlier than even the prior earliest melt-off dates.
While the shocking lack of snowpack at high elevations and
crispy grasses in lower elevations portend a potentially
apocalyptic wildfire season, some wildfire experts look at
those predictions with an asterisk. “The one thing that
can save us from a bad fire season is if we get precipitation,”
says Camille Stevens-Rumann, a Colorado State University fire
ecology associate professor.
Kearny, Arizona has implemented severe water restrictions after
the mayor said the city’s water allotment could run out
sometime this summer. An emergency water decree went out
in January, asking people to cut back on water usage, but the
usage went up. Now that severe restrictions are in place,
residents are starting to cut back a bit. But even then, Kearny
will likely use up its water allotment by July 15.
… Kearny gets its water from the nearby Gila River. Its
usual allotment is 600 acre-feet. But this year, based on lake
levels, the allotment was cut by more than 80%. The town is
already down to 60 acre feet left, according to Curtis Stacy,
the mayor.
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.
