Why Was This Organization Formed?

AquAlliance was formed to challenge threats to the hydrologic health of the northern Sacramento River watershed. AquAlliance will protect the ground water and wetlands in northern California to sustain family farms, communities, creeks and rivers, native flora and fauna, vernal pools, and recreation. Achieving these objectives is essential to restoring North America’s largest inland estuary: the San Francisco Bay Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. There is no other entity that is both prepared and willing to confront the escalating attempts to divert more water from the northern Sacramento River hydrologic region as demand south of the Delta has far outstripped supply.

A report by the State Water Resources Control Board reveals that there are rights, permits, and licenses that seek over ten times the amount of water that could be shared in a given year (2008). Despite the numerical discrepancies, federal and state water agencies have multiple planning efforts and completed documents that seek to match these unrealistic commitments with actual water, which threatens the Sacramento River hydrologic region’s ecology and economy. In the final analysis, this watershed is so central to California’s prosperity that AquAlliance must ensure its vitality not only for the region, but also for 25 million Californians who rely on it for drinking water, myriad biological systems, and sustainable economic activity.