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!
Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California,
reached capacity on Monday for a second straight year after
another relatively wet winter. The rising waters come as state
reservoir managers have been reducing outflows from the lake in
recent weeks — as winter inflows tailed off and the threat
of downstream flooding waned — allowing the reservoir to
slowly fill to its current 899-foot elevation, or 3.52-million
acre-feet of water. … Lake Oroville contains 28% more water
than it historically has on this date. “This is great news
for ensuring adequate water supply for millions of Californians
& environmental needs,” the state Department of Water Resources
posted Monday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.
In another move to build water resilient systems in the West
and particularly in the Colorado River Basin, the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation announced Monday $147 million in federal grants
to help underserved communities dogged by water scarcity
issues. The funding will support 42 projects in 10 states. In
eastern Utah, nearly $6.6 million was granted to the Ute Indian
Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation which operates the
Ute Tribe Water Systems, providing water service to tribal
members.
A federal judge ruled Monday afternoon that a California dam
harms endangered salmon when it conducts flood control
operations. Coyote Valley Dam, operated by the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, protects the city of Ukiah from flooding from
nearby Lake Mendocino. In 2022, fisheries biologist Sean White
sued the Corps claiming the dam’s flood control operations kick
up sediment in the water, increasing turbidity and harming
endangered Central California coast steelhead, coho and Chinook
salmon. White’s previous requests for injunctive relief were
denied in 2023, yet he was granted summary judgment on his
claims on Monday after providing more data. U.S. District Judge
Jacqueline Scott Corley, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote in her
18-page opinion that it was beyond dispute that the dam’s
operations harm the fish.
A rare late season storm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on some
regions of Northern California over the weekend, breaking at
least one daily snowfall record. The storm, which swept in from
the Gulf of Alaska, dropped about 31 inches of snow on Lower
Lassen Peak, 26 inches at Palisades Summit and 22 inches at
Soda Springs Ski Resort and 16 inches at Kingvale, according to
the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office. The UC
Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory at Donner Summit
recorded 26.4 inches of snow in a 24-hour period on May 5,
making it the “snowiest day of the season at the lab,”
according to a social media post. The last record was 23.8
inches on March 3.
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.
