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.
Big
Day of Giving is nearly over but you still have
until midnight to support the Water Education Foundation’s tours,
workshops, publications and other programs with a donation to help us reach our
$15,000 fundraising goal - we are only
$6,405 away!
At the Foundation, we believe that education is as precious
as water. Your donations help us every day to teach K-12
educators how to bring water science into the classroom and to
empower future decision-makers through our professional
development programs.
Our portfolio of programs reach many people and in many
different ways:
Today is Big Day of Giving! Your donation will help
the Water Education Foundation continue its work to enhance
public understanding of our most precious natural resource
in in California and across the West – water.
Big Day of Giving is a 24-hour regional fundraising event that
has profound benefits for our educational programs and
publications on drought, floods, groundwater, and the importance
of headwaters in California and the Colorado River Basin.
Your tax-deductible donation of
any size helps support our tours, scholarships, teacher training
workshops, free access to our daily water newsfeed and more. You
have until midnight to help us reach our $15,000
fundraising goal!
Giant pumps hum inside a warehouse-like building, pushing water
from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California
Aqueduct, where it travels more than 400 miles south to the
taps of over half the state’s population. But lately the
powerful motors at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant have been
running at reduced capacity, despite a second year of
drought-busting snow and rain. The reason: So many threatened
fish have died at the plant’s intake reservoir and pumps that
it has triggered federal protections and forced the state to
pump less water. The spike in fish deaths has angered
environmentalists and fishing advocates, who argue the state
draws too much water from the delta while failing to safeguard
fish.
The federal and state governments accused San Francisco on
Wednesday of discharging huge amounts of untreated wastewater
and sewage into the bay and the ocean for many years, violating
environmental laws and endangering beach-goers and aquatic
life. … And they said it’s been getting worse: In the rainy
season from October 2022 to March 2023, more than 4 billion
gallons were spewed into the waters. The lawsuit seeks
court orders requiring the city to change its practices, and
hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties to be paid to the
federal and state governments.
The award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative is expanding to
cover the Colorado River, and St. George News is among the
newsrooms kicking off this new reporting initiative. Called the
Colorado River Collaborative, the organization is made up of 11
Utah media partners that have agreed to report on the river,
its tributaries and destinations. Stories will explore how
Utahns are impacted by the river and how they can address a
dwindling water supply in the face of drought, climate change
and rapid growth. As a solutions journalism initiative,
Collaborative stories will also explain what can be done to
adapt to the new realities facing the river, what actions are
being taken and why.
Today is Big Day of Giving! Your donation will help
the Water Education Foundation continue its
work to enhance public understanding of our most precious
natural resource in California and across the West – water. Big
Day of Giving is a 24-hour regional fundraising event that has
profound benefits for our educational programs and publications
on drought, floods, groundwater and the importance of
headwaters in California and the Colorado River Basin. Your
tax-deductible donation of
any size helps support our tours, scholarships, teacher
training workshops, free access to our daily water newsfeed
known as Aquaforniaand more.
You have until midnight to help us reach our $15,000
fundraising goal!
As the date of reckoning for excessive groundwater pumping in
Tulare County grows closer, lobbying by water managers and
growers has ramped up. The Friant Water Authority, desperate to
protect its newly rebuilt – yet still sinking –
Friant-Kern Canal, has beseeched the Water Resources Control
Board to get involved. Specifically, it has asked board members
to look into how the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA) has, or has not, curbed over pumping that affects
the canal. Meanwhile, the Eastern Tule groundwater agency has
been doing a bit of its own lobbying. It recently hosted all
five members of the Water Board on three separate tours of the
region, including the canal. Because the tours were staggered,
there wasn’t a quorum of board members, which meant they
weren’t automatically open to the public.
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.
