California Water Resources
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Date: MAY 02 - 04, 2008 | |
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Trip OverviewContext : Guided excursion through Northern California waterscape including dams, irrigation systems & users, rivers and streams.Participants: Geog 647 Water Resources class. Leader: Nancy Wilkinson, Jason Henderson Research Questions: What is out there and what do people think about it? Itinerary: Day One: Yuba County WMA, Oroville Dam. Day Two: Place 1, Place 2, Place 3 Day Three: Place 1, Place 2, Place 3 Detailed itinerary Participants' Conclusions |
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Day One: Yuba County WMAMarysville was named after Mary Murphy Covillaud, a survivor of the
Donner Party. Its levees (you're driving on them) were begun after
hydraulic mining tailings raised the riverbed 20 feet. Marysville became a
"walled city" at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers. Its dikes
now stand 35' above city streets. In 1955, a flood killed 40 people here;
the tragedy increased support for the construction of Oroville Dam.
Rice grows on poorly-drained soils in this region. PicturesStatements |
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Day One: Oroville SRAAt 770' tall, Oroville Dam (1968) is the tallest dam in the US. It spans 6,920 feet across the crest and was built of 80 million cubic yards of tailings--enough to build a two-lane highway around our planet. Its powerhouseÕs six generators produce up to 678,000 kw, enough to power the cities of Sacramento & Oakland. Lake Oroville stores 3.5 MAF of Feather River water for release to the Sacramento River and the State Water Project pumps in the Delta. The California Aqueduct carries water for San Joaquin Valley irrigation and municipal use as far south as San Diego. PicturesStatements |
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Day Two: Feather River Fish HatcheryFeather River Fish Hatchery (1967), built as a mitigation for loss of spawning areas beneath Lake Oroville. About 9,000 salmon & 2,000 steelhead are artificially spawned here every Fall. Young fish hatch in incubators and live in raceways until large enough for release. Their instincts will guide them back to the hatchery when they mature. PicturesStatements |
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Day Two: Tehama County River ParkThe adjoining SRA protects native riparian forest that is winter home to the Bald Eagle, summer nest site for the Yellow Billed Cuckoo, and displays some of the last remaining riparian habitat to be found in California. Over 100 plant species occur in the area; most prominent is the Valley Oak. We stop at the county park because it's free, and because it provides better access to the river. PicturesStatements |
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Day Two: Whiskeytown ReservoirWhiskeytown Reservoir (CVP) stores Trinity River water delivered from Claire Engle Lake via a tunnel through the Trinity Mountains. From here, water flows down the Sacramento to the Delta. Before the CVP, this water would have flowed to the Pacific via the Klamath River, a north coast stream. PicturesStatements |
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Day Three: Shasta DamShasta Dam, 600 feet tall, completed in 1938. Tallest dam in the world when it was completed. Lake Shasta is the CVP's and the state's largest reservoir: 4.5 MAF. Water released through the dam's turbines flows down the Sacramento River. Shasta power helps subsidize the CVP's pumps at Tracy, which lift water nearly 200 feet into the Contra Costa Canal and the Delta-Mendota Canal. PicturesStatements |
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Conclusions |
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