The Sierra Club is working to: Promote water conservation. Stop expensive and destructive water supply projects. Protect and restore California's waterways. Safeguard our drinking water by protecting the source. click here to learn more about the San Francisco Bay-Delta -- a national jewel.

California Campaign for Clean Water

A healthy and sustainable vision for California

From headwaters in alpine basins to shimmering estuaries along the coast and desert lakes on the east side of the Sierra, California's waterways are the lifeblood for social, economic and natural life. California's rivers, streams and creeks provide drinking water, support our economy, create homes for plants and animals and offer limitless opportunities for outdoor recreation and inspiration.

For more than a century, federal, state and local governments dammed, dredged, diked and diverted California's waterways to promote growth and prosperity in the arid West. Today there are more than 1,400 dams in California and the state is one of the largest economies in the world. 20 percent of this developed water is used by cities and industry with the other 80 percent used for agriculture.

Our thirst for water is squeezing California's waterways beyond their ability to give. Over 500 lakes, rivers and streams that supply drinking water for millions of Californians are seriously polluted, fish populations have crashed along with the commercial and recreational fishing industry, and the beneficiaries of these expensive water supply projects still owe taxpayers billions of dollars.

Better Solutions

The Sierra Club is working for a future we would be proud to leave our grandchildren — a California where they can see wild birds and catch healthy fish, drink safe and clean water, canoe down free-flowing rivers, live in water-conserving cities, and eat food grown with efficient irrigation that does not poison land or water.

By investing in water conservation and recycling we can create this future and meet our water needs for decades to come. Improving the efficiency of water use in California is faster and cheaper than building water supply projects. The draft California Water Plan Update shows that water demand may actually decrease over the next thirty years in response to investments in water use efficiency and recycling.

Promoting water conservation

Since the days of the Owens Valley water grab, American ingenuity has provided water agencies with dozens of new tools to meet our water needs through conservation and efficiency. Los Angeles managed to cut residential water use by nearly 20 percent since the 1980s in the face of constantly increasing population and that is just the beginning.

According to the draft California Water Plan Update, we can meet water needs well into the future without taking more water out of the environment. The draft Plan from the Department of Water Resources estimates that water conservation in the urban sector can save 1.2 to 2.4 million acre feet of water. One acre-foot of water equals 326,700 gallons — enough to serve approximately two households with enough water for a year. Another report from the Pacific Institute estimated that up to one-third of California's current urban water use — more than 2.3 million acre-feet-can be saved using simple off-the-shelf technology. The report found that at least 85 percent of this savings (over 2 million acre-feet) can be saved cost effectively — meaning less than what it would cost to add new supply.

Working to save water in California's cities
In 1991 the Sierra Club, along with nearly 100 urban water agencies and environmental groups, signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Urban Water Conservation in California (MOU). The MOU commits these water agencies to implement proven water conservation measures called Best Management Practices (BMPs). That same year, the California Urban Water Conservation Council was created to oversee the MOU and increase efficient water use statewide.

Today more than 300 agencies have joined the Council by signing onto the MOU. The Sierra Club continues to be an active participant as a member of the Steering Committee for the organization. Beyond working for implementation of the BMPs, which has saved thousands of acre feet of water, the Council has supported countless policy changes that have further boosted water conservation in the state. With California's success, momentum is now growing for a National Water Conservation Council modeled after our cutting edge work in California. Learn more about the California Urban Water Conservation Council at www.cuwcc.org.

What can you do?

1. Visit the H2Ouse to find out how much water you are using at home, the best ways to save water in and around your home and a guide for beautiful water conserving gardens.
2. Flex Your Power to Save Water and Energy:
   Find rebates, local retailers, energy efficient product guides and more.

Stop expensive and destructive water supply projects

One of the most dangerous threats is not a dam, but an innocuous-sounding project called the South Delta Improvement Program. Under the direction of President Bush and Governor Schwarzenegger, state and federal agencies are planning to increase pumping in the San Francisco Bay-Delta by as much as 27 percent. This would divert up to one million acre feet of water from the Bay-Delta every year in the face of scientific studies showing that the ecosystem is collapsing. One million acre feet of water is more than 325 billion gallons -- enough water to serve 2 million households.

Protecting and restoring California's waterways

The problem:
More than 60 percent of all native fish species in California are extinct, endangered, or declining in population and more than 90 percent of riparian and wetland habitat is gone. About 95 percent of the historical salmon and steelhead habitat is gone and, not surprisingly, Winter Run Chinook salmon populations in the San Francisco Bay-Delta have declined by more than 90 percent since the early 1970s and the commercial salmon fishing fleet has shrunk by 75 percent since the 1990s.

Despite this decline, only one percent of California's rivers are protected from dam building and other harmful actions. It is time to protect these special places before it's too late.

Learn more about what you can do to protect California wilderness and rivers!

The San Francisco Bay-Delta
The Bay-Delta (where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet the San Francisco Bay) is a national jewel — the largest estuary on the West Coast. From the Sierra to the Sea, the Bay-Delta and its Central Valley watershed are home to 120 species of fish and other wildlife. The Delta's 1,600 square miles of marshes, islands and sloughs nurture half of the Pacific flyway, 80 percent of California's commercial fisheries and a healthy recreation economy for boating, fishing and windsurfing.

photo courtesy of The Bay Institute

The Bay-Delta is also the hub of the state's water system, supplying water to more than 22 million Californians and over 7 million acres of farmland. Our dependence on the Bay-Delta has led to its ecological collapse.

Today:

• On average, about half of the fresh water that once flowed naturally into the Bay-Delta is diverted to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and cities
• All but one of the major tributaries to the Bay-Delta are dammed
• More than 90 percent of the Bay's original wetlands are lost to development, dredging and landfill
• Winter Run Chinook salmon populations have declined by more than 90 percent since the early 1970s
• California has lost 75 percent of its commercial salmon fishing boats over the last 15 years
• The recreational fishing industry has lost $6 billion over the last 25 years
• 88 million pounds of pesticides and toxic chemicals flow into the Bay each year
• Chemicals in Bay Area fish are known to cause cancer, birth defects, and other health problems in humans

For decades, little was done to address the increased concentration of pollutants, intrusion of salt water, and the resulting diminished water quality in the Bay-Delta. In the early 1990s, the state was finally forced to adopt water quality standards, partly because of the drastic decline in once-robust populations of spring-run Chinook salmon and Delta smelt. The Sierra Club continues to press on state and federal officials to live up to their obligations to protect and restore the Bay-Delta. By protecting water quality and flows in the Delta and its watershed, we are working to protect the health of Californians and the environment at the same time.

Photos courtesy Sierra Club Collection; all rights reserved.