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.
As your summer adventures wrap up, be sure to reserve your spot
for our popular fall programs. Seating is limited and will fill
up quickly!
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.
Just one year after the signing of Senate Bill 72, the Summit will
feature a panel discussion of California’s 2028 Water
Plan Update as it undergoes a legislatively
mandated shift from being just a guidance document to a blueprint
providing a framework for implementation of actions.
Start making arrangements now to attend our first-ever
Kern River Tour and annual Water
Summit so you don’t miss out. These popular fall
programs have limited seating and will fill up quickly!
Kern River Tour | November 4-6
Join us on this special journey as
we examine water issues along the Kern
River, from its mountain-fed headwaters in the
southern Sierra Nevada to its terminus in the Central Valley west
of Bakersfield. Among the planned stops are both upper forks of
the Kern River, Lake Isabella, lower Kern River canyon, the
Friant-Kern Canal, irrigated agriculture in the valley, the Kern
Water Bank and more. Click here for more
details.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has agreed to leave some of
its water in Lake Mead this year in exchange for cash to comply
with what water managers expect to be a firm
requirement to do so through 2028. At a board meeting
Thursday, directors ratified an agreement between the water
authority and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that gives Nevada
$16.25 million in federal funds for conserving an
amount equal to one-sixth of its total Colorado River
allocation. In 2026, the authority will leave 50,000
acre-feet in Lake Mead — the struggling reservoir that supplies
about 90 percent of Southern Nevada’s water supply and
is falling to new record lows each month.
California water regulators are moving forward with a plan
backed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that would
overhaul water quality and flow rules in the sensitive
ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Bay
Delta. The State Water Resources Control Board released a new
version of its Bay-Delta plan on Wednesday. The plan lets
participating water agencies meet protections for species like
chinook salmon and Delta smelt through a 2022 deal Newsom
struck with cities and farmers to keep more water in rivers and
restore habitat, rather than the state’s tougher default flow
rules. The board also announced it would consider
adopting the plan at its Oct. 28 and 29 board meeting,
putting one of Newsom’s signature water deals on track for
adoption before he leaves office.
A deadly botulism outbreak has killed at least 13,730 birds in
the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge near the
Oregon-California border. The refuge, part of the Klamath
National Wildlife Refuge Complex, is one of the most
important stopover and breeding sites for waterfowl and
waterbirds migrating along the Pacific Flyway.
… [Biologist Teresa] Wicks said the scale of outbreaks
in recent years is unnatural, driven by human-caused changes to
the wetlands. … In early August, 14 conservation groups,
including Bird Alliance of Oregon, urged the Bureau of
Reclamation to quickly deliver water to the refuge to slow the
spread of the botulism outbreak. They requested the
release of 15,000 acre-feet of water, enough to flood one acre
of land one foot deep. [Biologist Teresa] Wicks said
this wouldn’t stop the outbreak, but could significantly slow
it down and give refuge staff a chance to catch up on
collecting dead birds.
A water commissioner for the Blue River Basin gave an update on
the state of water resources to Dillon Town Council Aug. 18.
Troy Wineland told the council that about 99% of the state has
been in some stage of drought throughout the summer after
Colorado saw its worst snowpack year on record last winter. …
Weather patterns have shifted from a La Niña to an El Niño,
Wineland said, where temperatures over the Pacific Ocean
increase and affect wind and precipitation behaviors globally.
While El Niño typically brings above-average snowfall to the
coasts and southern United States, Wineland said it
consistently brings higher temperatures to Colorado’s
central Rockies. “People are saying, ‘We had a
bad year, we’re going to rebound, and we’re going to have a
record snowback,’” Wineland said. “Please, please, please do
not put any money on it.”
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.
