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.
Some people in California and across the West struggle to access
safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their everyday needs
for drinking, cooking and sanitation.
There are many ways to support our nonprofit mission by donating
in someone’s honor or memory, becoming a regular contributor or
supporting specific projects.
As atmospheric rivers blasted across California this year, they
brought epic amounts of rain and snow follwing a three-year
drought.
Devastating and deadly floods hit parts of the state and now all
eyes are on the potential for more flooding, particularly in
the San Joaquin Valley as the record amount of snow in the
Sierras melts with warmer temperatures.
With anticipated sea level rise and other impacts of a changing
climate, flood management is increasingly critical in California.
As our programs team at the Water
Education Foundation organizes annual events like next week’s
Water 101 Workshop, our journalism team raises water awareness
daily through Aquafornia, our water newsfeed that
helps you stay current.
Our journalists – Nick
Cahill, Chris Bowman,
Alastair
Bland and Jenn Bowles – have
covered water-related news for years, making them ideal curators
of the most important and interesting water stories from around
California and the West.
Spring is a busy time at the Water Education
Foundation! Don’t miss these upcoming opportunities to visit
important regions in the state’s water story firsthand and
engage directly with water experts in California and across the
world. Plus, you can meet our team in person at our
annual open house to learn more about how
we educate and foster understanding of California’s most precious
natural resource — water!
Water 101 Workshop: April 5
Last call to register for our
Water
101 Workshop, an annual daylong course on California
water hosted at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento! View an agenda here for our popular workshop
that details the history, geography and the legal and political
facets of water in California. Plus, workshop participants are
invited to grab one of the few remaining seats on the
optional groundwater tour April 4. Find more details and
register
here by this Friday, March 29!
At least $11 billion would be needed to upgrade wastewater
treatment facilities across the Bay Area if regulators impose
anticipated stricter environmental rules, according to a
regional water board that seeks to protect the San Francisco
Bay. The upgrades at dozens of sewage treatment plants,
needed to prevent toxic algae blooms and protect fish, would
cost an average of $4,000 per household, and consumers may end
up funding the improvements. The key culprit? Nitrogen
found in urine and fecal matter, which feeds the growth of
algae.
Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District, which
supplies water to farmers who grow most of the nation’s winter
vegetables, planned to start a conservation program in April to
scale back what it draws from the critical Colorado River. But
a tiny, tough fish got in the way. Now, those plans won’t start
until at least June so water and wildlife officials can devise
a way to ensure the endangered desert pupfish and other species
are protected, said Jamie Asbury, the irrigation district’s
general manager.
Hydropower generation in the U.S. West plunged to a 22-year low
last year — dropping 11 percent from the year before, according
to a new federal data analysis. The total amount produced
in the region amounted to 141.5 million megawatt-hours, or
about 60 percent of the country’s total hydroelectricity output
in the 2022-23 “water year,” per the data published
by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
… On the other hand, a series of atmospheric rivers in
California spurred an increase in hydroelectricity production
in the Golden State — nearly doubling it in comparison to the
previous water year, the analysis noted.
National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists shared a map on
social media that reveals which Southern California cities
will be hit hardest by an approaching storm expected to arrive
this weekend. California has faced an abnormally wet winter as
moisture-laden storms and atmospheric rivers dumped a deluge of
rain and snow on the state, beginning in January. The excessive
rainfall has resulted from a slew of atmospheric rivers that
have battered the state this month. Last year, more than a
dozen of them helped alleviate the state’s severe drought
situation and replenished many of the state’s reservoirs, but
the storms also caused devastating floods and landslides.
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.
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.