Sacramento River
Sacramento River Rio del Santísimo Sacramento | |
---|---|
Native name | Río Sacramento (Spanish) |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Cities | Mount Shasta, Dunsmuir, Redding, Anderson, Red Bluff, Princeton, Colusa, Davis, Sacramento, West Sacramento, Isleton, Rio Vista, Antioch |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Confluence of Middle and South Forks |
• location | Near Mount Shasta, Siskiyou County |
• coordinates | 41°16′24″N 122°24′05″W / 41.27333°N 122.40139°W[1] |
• elevation | 3,674 ft (1,120 m)[2] |
• average | 28,139 cu ft/s (796.8 m3/s)[6][7] |
• minimum | 3,970 cu ft/s (112 m3/s)[6] |
• maximum | 489,000 cu ft/s (13,800 m3/s)[6][7] |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Cache Creek, Putah Creek |
Nicknames | Sac River, Nile of the West[8] |
The Sacramento River (
The Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of the southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, which had one of the densest Native American populations in California. The river has provided a route for trade and travel since ancient times. Hundreds of tribes sharing regional customs and traditions have inhabited the Sacramento Valley, first coming into contact with European explorers in the late 1700s. The Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de los Sacramentos in 1808, later shortened and anglicized into Sacramento.
In the 19th century, gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the
Since the 1950s the watershed has been intensely developed for water supply and the generation of hydroelectric power. Today, large dams impound the river and almost all of its major tributaries. The Sacramento River is used heavily for irrigation and serves much of Central and Southern California through the canals of giant state and federal water projects. While it is now providing water to over half of California's population and supporting the most productive agricultural area in the nation, these changes have left the Sacramento greatly modified from its natural state and have caused the decline of its once-abundant fisheries.
Course
Upper river
The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake: the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River. The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta, at the confluence of North, Middle and South Forks in the Trinity Mountains of Siskiyou County. It flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou, before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles (97 km), past Dunsmuir and Castella, before emptying into Shasta Lake near Lakehead in Shasta County. The McCloud River rises on the east slope of Mount Shasta and flows south for 77 miles (124 km) through the southern Cascade Range, roughly parallel to the Upper Sacramento, eventually to reach the McCloud Arm of Shasta Lake.[10]
The Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in
Sacramento Valley
Below Shasta Dam the Sacramento River enters the
Southeast of
About 20 miles (32 km) further downstream, the Sacramento River reaches the Tisdale Weir. During floods, water overtops the weir and flows east into the
Lower river
As the river continues south it approaches the Sacramento metro area, the largest population center in the watershed.
Downstream of Sacramento, the river enters the
Below Rio Vista, the lower Sacramento River is rejoined by the Deep Water Ship Channel and the Yolo Bypass and curves southwest along the base of the Montezuma Hills, forming the border of Solano and Sacramento Counties. This part of the river is dredged for navigation by large oceangoing vessels and averages three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) across. North of Antioch and Pittsburg, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers join at the head of Suisun Bay, marking the official end of both rivers. The combined waters flow west through Suisun Bay and the Carquinez Strait into San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay, joining the Pacific at the Golden Gate.[10]
Discharge
Following the Columbia River, the Sacramento is the largest river by discharge on the Pacific coast of the continental United States. The natural runoff of the river is 22 million acre feet (27 km3) per year, or about 30,000 cubic feet per second (850 m3/s). Before dams were built on its tributaries, the river flooded up to 650,000 cubic feet per second (18,000 m3/s) during the rainy season, equal to the flow of the Mississippi River. Late summers of particularly dry years could see flows drop below 1,000 cubic feet per second (28 m3/s).[14][15] Large volumes of water are withdrawn from the Sacramento River for irrigation, industry and urban supplies. Annual depletions (water not returned to the river after use) are about 4.72 million acre feet (5.83 km3) for irrigation and 491,000 acre-feet (0.606 km3) for urban use. An additional 7.61 million acre feet (9.39 km3) is reserved for environmental uses, primarily to maintain a minimum fresh water outflow in the Delta to combat salinity.[16]
The
Although the Sacramento River nominally begins near Mount Shasta, the true hydrological source of the Sacramento River system is the Pit River, which is by far the largest of the three rivers flowing into Shasta Lake. At the USGS Montgomery Creek gauge, the average flow of the Pit River was 4,760 cu ft/s (135 m3/s) for the period 1966–2013.[19] By comparison, the Sacramento River at Delta gauge, a few miles above Shasta Lake, recorded an average of 1,191 cu ft/s (33.7 m3/s) for the period 1945–2013.[20] The McCloud River had an average discharge of 775 cu ft/s (21.9 m3/s) for the 1967–2013 period.[21] Since the 1960s, the McCloud River flow has been reduced and the Pit River flow increased due to diversion of water for hydropower generation; however the total volume of water entering Shasta Lake remains the same.[19][21] Before Shasta Dam was built, the volcanic springs feeding the Pit and McCloud Rivers provided the majority of river flow in dry summers when the Upper Sacramento and other tributaries slowed to a trickle.[11]
Monthly combined discharge of Sacramento River at Freeport and Yolo Bypass near Woodland (cfs)[22][23]
Watershed
The Sacramento River's watershed is the largest entirely in California, covering much of the northern part of the state. The
By discharge, it is the second-largest
The major drainage basins bordering that of the Sacramento are that of the Klamath in the north, the San Joaquin and Mokelumne to the south and the Eel River in the west. The Russian River also lies to the west and the endorheic (closed) Honey Lake and Eagle Lake basins to the north. On the east side are many endorheic watersheds of the Great Basin including the Truckee River and Carson River. Parts of the Sacramento watershed come very close to, but do not extend past, the border of California and Nevada.[28][29]
Physiography
The basin's diverse geography ranges from the glacier-carved, snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the sea-level (and often lower) marshes and farmlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The highest point is 14,104 feet (4,299 m) at Mount Shasta, a dormant stratovolcano near the headwaters of the Sacramento River.[30] The Sierra Nevada peaks generally decrease in height from south to north—from over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the headwaters of the American River near Lake Tahoe, to 5,000 to 7,000 feet (1,500 to 2,100 m) in Lassen County where they adjoin the Cascade Range. On the west side, the Coast Ranges are the opposite, increasing in height to almost 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the north. The arid volcanic plateaus in the northeast, which are characterized by alternating hills and large sedimentary basins, typically lie at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet (910 to 1,520 m).
Most of the Sacramento Valley is below 300 feet (91 m) in elevation; in its lower course, the Sacramento River drops only about 1 foot (0.30 m) per mile.[10][31] Between the bajadas or alluvial slopes extending from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges, are the low floodplains of the Sacramento River. The river flows at an elevation somewhat higher than the surrounding terrain due to deposits of sediment over millennia that created raised banks (essentially natural levees). The banks separate the river from the lowlands to the east and west that once served as vast overflow basins during winter storms, creating large areas of seasonal wetlands. Since the 19th century, artificial levee systems have been constructed to enable farming in the fertile flood plain. Today there are 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of irrigated farmland in the Sacramento Valley. Due to the reduction of the floodplain area, the speed of flood flow in the Sacramento River has increased, creating a significant hazard for the farms and towns along its course. By the early 20th century engineers had realized not all the floodplains could be safely reclaimed, leading to the intentional creation of flood bypasses where development is limited to annual crops and recreational uses.
Further south, much of the delta region is actually below sea level: subsidence caused by
Land use
The Sacramento River watershed is home to about 2.8 million people; more than two-thirds live within the Sacramento metropolitan area.[15] Other important cities are Chico, Redding, Davis and Woodland. The Sacramento River watershed covers all or most of Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Plumas, Yuba, Sutter, Lake and Yolo Counties. It also extends into portions of Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, Lake (in Oregon), Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento, Solano and Contra Costa Counties. The river itself flows through Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, Yolo, Sacramento, Solano and Contra Costa, often forming boundaries between the counties.[24]
Many of the mountainous regions of the watershed are administered by the
Geology
By geologic standards, the Sacramento is a fairly young river; the borders of its watershed began to form only a few million years ago as magma welling up below the Earth's crust pushed up by the
As the Sierra rose, water erosion and glaciation carved deep canyons, depositing massive amounts of sediment to form a coastal plain between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. About 3 million years ago, multiple
The Monterey Bay outlet of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers was blocked off by uplift about 2 million years ago, and runoff from the Sierra began to transform the Central Valley into a gigantic lake, called
History
Native Americans
The Sacramento River and its valley were one of the major Native American population centers of California. The river's abundant flow and the valley's fertile soil and mild climate provided enough resources for hundreds of groups to share the land. Most of the villages were small. Although it was once commonly believed that the original natives lived as
Most of the Sacramento Valley's native peoples relied on hunting, gathering and fishing, although agriculture was practiced in a few areas. Settlement size ranged from small camps to villages of 30–50 permanent structures.[45] Acorns were a staple food, and the Sacramento Valley's riparian zones, which supported seven species of native oaks, provided these in abundance. Native Americans pounded the acorns into flour, which they used to make bread and cakes. Abundant salmon and steelhead runs in the Sacramento River and its tributaries were harvested using fishing weirs, platforms, baskets and nets. The river also provided shellfish, sturgeon, eel and suckerfish They also hunted waterfowl, antelope and deer which all existed in huge numbers in the rich valley bottom and marsh lands.[46]: 119 Before European contact, the indigenous population of the Sacramento Valley has been estimated at 76,000 people.[46]: 119
European exploration and settlement
The first outsiders to see the river were probably the members of a
The next visitors were
Gold Rush
Although just one of thousands of American emigrants that poured into California over the next few years when California became part of the United States,
After the
Post-Gold Rush development and effects
The influx of migrants brought foreign diseases like
As mining developed from simple methods such as panning and sluicing to a new form of commercialized extraction,
It was not long after Sacramento surpassed a population of 10,000, then the Great Flood of 1862 swept away much of it (and almost everything else along the Sacramento River) and put the rest under water. The flood waters were exacerbated by the sediments washed down by the millions of tons by hydraulic mining, which filled the beds of the Sacramento, Feather and American rivers up to 7 feet (2.1 m) in Sacramento and also covered thousands of acres of Central Valley lands.[67][68] A flood in 1875 covered the city of Marysville and when it subsided the town's streets were filled with debris and rocks washed down from the "hydraulicking" going on upstream.[67][69]
Repeated floods and increased demand for Sacramento River water saw a plethora of massive changes to the environment beginning in the 20th century. An early project was undertaken to raise the entire city of Sacramento about 11 feet (3.4 m) above its original elevation.[70][71] This was followed by much bigger engineering projects to control and store the floodwaters of the Sacramento River; the building of these public works would radically transform the river during the 20th century.[71]
Dams and water use
From the late 19th century through the 20th century, California experienced an economic boom that led to the rapid expansion of both agriculture and urban areas. The Central Valley was becoming a heavily developed irrigation farming region, and cities along the state's
In 1873, Colonel B.S. Alexander of the Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the Central Valley's hydrology and irrigation systems and proposed a great network of pumps and canals that would take water from the Sacramento River in the north, and transport it to drought-prone central and southern California, especially the San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento River basin receives "two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's precipitation though it has only one-third to one-quarter of the land. The San Joaquin River watershed occupies two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's land, but only collects one-third to one-quarter of the precipitation."[73] The topography of the Sacramento River watershed makes it particularly prone to flooding. Storm water runs quickly off the steep mountains flanking the Sacramento Valley, but with few exceptions the alluvial valley floor is strikingly flat, slowing down the runoff and causing it to overflow the river banks. Before flood control works were built, the winter floods frequently transformed the valley into an inland sea. In 1880 State Engineer William H. Hall developed the first flood control plan for the Sacramento River. Hall recognized that with the combination of flat topography and extremely heavy winter runoff volumes, a system of levees alone could not hope to contain flooding, as had been proven time and again in the flood prone city of Sacramento.[74]
Sacramento River Flood Control Project
The Sacramento River Flood Control Project was authorized by the federal government in 1917. While it intended to contain minor floods in the river banks by strengthening the existing levee system, the main feature was a series of bypasses, or sections of the valley intentionally designed to flood during high water. Weirs placed at strategic points along the Sacramento River release water into the bypasses when the river reaches a certain stage, relieving the pressure of floodwaters on the main channel. The bypasses are then allowed to drain slowly once flood crests have passed. For most of the year, the bypasses remain dry and are used for annual crops such as rice. Some of the principal features are the Butte Basin, Colusa Basin, Sutter Bypass and the Yolo Bypass. The Butte Basin is a large lowland area on the east side of the river between Hamilton City and Colusa; the geographically similar Colusa Basin is located to the west. The Sutter Bypass begins at Colusa and runs parallel to the east side of the Sacramento River until reaching the confluence with the Feather River. The Yolo Bypass, located on the west side of the river, starts at the confluence of the Feather and rejoins the Sacramento in the Delta. Although termed "bypasses", the system essentially reconnects the Sacramento with a portion of its historic flood plain, which it would have naturally flooded had the levee system not been in place.[74][75]
Central Valley Project
During the
State Water Project
In 1960, construction began on the State Water Project, whose primary purpose was to deliver water to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.[72] Oroville Dam – the tallest dam in the U.S. – was built on the Sacramento's largest tributary, the Feather River. A series of channels were enlarged in the Delta to facilitate water flow from the Sacramento to the Banks Pumping Plant and the California Aqueduct, which can carry as much as 4.2 million acre feet (5 km3) of water each year.[80] From its origin at the Delta the canal runs 444 miles (715 km) southwards through the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, providing irrigation water to farmlands along its length, and lifted almost 3,000 feet (910 m) over the Tehachapi Mountains via four large pumping stations. The project irrigates 750,000 acres (300,000 ha) of land in the San Joaquin Valley and serves 22 million people in Central and Southern California.[81][82]
Over the years, several other plans materialized to divert rivers from California's
The
Ecology and environmental issues
The Sacramento River and its drainage basin once supported extensive
Located along the
There were once 9 species of amphibians that used the Sacramento River,[93] but some have become extinct and most other populations are declining due to habitat loss caused by agriculture and urban development. Amphibians originally thrived in the marshes, sloughs, side-channels and oxbow lakes because of their warmer water, abundance of vegetation and nutrients, lower predator populations and slower current. This population once included several species of frogs and salamanders; the foothill yellow-legged frog and western spadefoot are listed as endangered species.[94]
Riparian and wetlands areas along the Sacramento once totaled more than 500,000 acres (2,000 km2); today only about 10,000 acres (40 km2) remains. Much of this consists of restored stretches and artificially constructed wetlands. Levee construction has prevented the river from changing course during winter and spring floods, which was crucial to the renewal of existing wetlands and the creation of new ones. Since the late 19th century the river has been mostly locked in a fixed channel, which once could shift hundreds of feet or even several miles in a year because of floods. In 2010, about 100 miles (160 km) of the river's riparian forests were undergoing restoration.[18][95]
UC Davis initiated a project known as The Nigiri Project which takes place under the Yolo Bypass in the rice field floodplains adjacent to the Sacramento River. The name comes from a form of Japanese sushi which contains a slice of fish on top of a compressed wedge of vinegared rice. Salmon migrate from the Central Valley rivers to the ocean where they increase in size for one to three years then return to rivers to spawn, if a young fish is larger when they enter the ocean, they will have more of a chance to return for spawning. According to UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences these rice fields adjacent to the Sacramento River will serve as potential nurseries for salmon. UC Davis also concluded from past experimental releases of salmon, that the Yolo Bypass floodway could have up to 57,000 acres of a productive breeding habitat with almost no cost to farmers. The Nigiri project has demonstrated off-season agriculture fields such as the rice fields under the Yolo Bypass next to Sacramento River can serve as an important floodplain habitat and feeding ground for juvenile or endangered fish. UC Davis noted juveniles grew much bigger and faster within the flooded rice fields when compared to those released in the Sacramento River. Public agencies, conservation groups and landowners have all been working together and conducting experiments since 2011. Experiments conducted on rice fields took place at the Knaggs Ranch property within the Yolo Bypass by Sacramento River for four consecutive winters. UC Davis shares their results produced the fastest growth of juvenile Chinook salmon in the Central Valley to ever be recorded. The Nigiri project attempted to see if these floodplains as surrogate wetlands which can be controlled to copy the Sacramento River system's annual natural flooding cycle the native fish depend on. Runoff water from agriculture is used to flood the fields for most of this experiment adjacent to the Sacramento River. The water is eventually flushed back into the Delta ecosystem through agricultural canals.[96]
Anadromous fish
The Sacramento River fall chinook stock is the driver of commercial and recreational salmon fisheries off California and most of Oregon.
— Pacific Fishery Management Council, 2008[97]
Second only to the Columbia River on the west coast of the United States in Chinook salmon runs, the Sacramento and its tributaries once supported a huge population of this fish. Millions of salmon once swam upstream to spawn in the Sacramento; as recently as 2002 eight hundred thousand fish were observed to return to the river.[98][99] The Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems are home to the southernmost existing run of chinook salmon in North America.[89]
Starting in the 20th century, dam construction blocked off hundreds of miles of salmon-spawning streams, such as the upper Feather and American Rivers, and the entirety of the Pit and upper Sacramento rivers. Pollution from farms and urban areas took a heavy toll on the river's environment, and heavy irrigation withdrawals sometimes resulted in massive fish kills. Since 1960, when the big pumps at the head of the California Aqueduct in the Delta began their operation, the pattern of water flow in the Delta has been changed considerably leaving the fish confused as to where to go, resulting in many generations dying off because they have not been able to find their way upstream. In 2004, only 200,000 fish were reported to return to the Sacramento; in 2008, a disastrous low of 39,000.[97][98][100]
In 1999, five hydroelectric dams on Battle Creek, a major tributary of the Sacramento River, were removed to allow better passage of the fish. Three other dams along the creek were fitted with fish ladders. The river is considered one of the best salmon habitats in the watershed because of its relatively cold water and the availability of ideal habitat such as gravel bars.[101][102]
By the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the government blamed crashing fish populations on overfishing, especially off the Northern California and Oregon coast, which lie directly adjacent to the migration paths of Sacramento River salmon. This has resulted in a ban on coastal salmon fishing for several years since 2002.[103] The Red Bluff Diversion Dam, although not a large dam and equipped with fish passage facilities, also presents a major barrier. Because of inadequate design, roughly 25–40% of the incoming fish get blocked by the dam each year. The dam has also become a "favorite spot" for predatory fish to congregate, feasting on the salmon that get trapped both above and below the dam.[104] As of 2010, the salmon run has shown slight signs of improvement, probably because of that year's greater precipitation.[105]
In 1995, a gate on the Folsom Dam on the American River broke open, causing the river's flow to rise by some 40,000 cubic feet per second (1,100 m3/s). The water traveled down the Sacramento and washed into the Pacific; the influx of fresh water was such that it confused thousands of anadromous fish to begin migrating up the river, thinking that the river had risen because of late-autumn storms.[106]
Whales
On May 14, 2007, onlookers and media spotted two humpback whales traveling the deep waters near Rio Vista. The duo, generally believed to be mother and calf (Delta, the mother and Dawn, her calf), continued to swim upstream to the deep water ship channel near West Sacramento, about 90 miles (140 km) inland. There was concern because the whales had been injured, perhaps by a boat's propeller or keel, leaving a gash in each whale's skin. The whales were carefully inspected by biologists and injected with antibiotics to help prevent infection. After days of efforts to lure (or frighten) the whales in the direction of the ocean, the whales eventually made their way south into San Francisco Bay, where they lingered for several days.[108] By May 30, 2007, the cow and calf apparently slipped out unnoticed under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Pacific Ocean, likely under cover of night.[109][110]
Sea lions
Recently, sea lions have been found traveling far up the Sacramento in search of nutrient rich salmon. These individuals tend to be young males looking to bulk up before breeding season. The recent boom of sea lion sightings in the river has been attributed to the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, leading to a resurgence in sea lion populations, requiring the species to expand its range.[111]
Common locations to spot sea lions are underneath the Tower Bridge, the mouth of the Feather River, and the confluence of the Sacramento and American River at Discovery Park.[112]
Pollution
For a river of its size, the Sacramento is considered to have fairly clean water. However, pollutants still flow into the river from many of its tributaries and man-made drains or channels.
Another form of pollution the Sacramento River is suffering from is plastic pollution. According to researchers from University of Berkley, they recorded over 7 trillion microplastics are deposited in the San Francisco Bay each year with the Sacramento River being a major contributor. They also found one fourth of microplastics in California's fish's stomach's such as the anchovy, striped bass and salmon.[120]
In July 1991, a train derailed near Dunsmuir, California alongside the Sacramento River. A tank car split open, spilling about 19,500 gallons of the pesticide metam sodium into the river. The chemical formed a stinking, bubbling, green glob that moved 45 miles (72 km) down the river, killing everything in its path. More than one million fish were killed, including at least 100,000 rainbow trout, and thousands of other aquatic creatures as well as nearby trees. Next, the green glob entered Shasta Lake, California's largest reservoir. Fortunately, a system of aerating pipes at the bottom of the lake had been set up to dissipate the chemical, reducing it to almost nothing by the 29th, preventing further environmental destruction. The tank car carrying the metam sodium through California was of a type that the National Transportation Safety Board said had "a high incidence of failure" in accidents. Furthermore, the tank car was not labeled, so the train's crew was unaware of the danger posed by the chemical.[121][122]
Diazinon was a major pollution problem in the Sacramento River which would originate from agricultural and urban storm water discharges. Diazinon is used for orchards which grow peaches, plums, and almonds to mitigate the number of insects and pests like spider mites and aphids. A wide variety of organizations and groups came together to reduce diazinon concentrations in the Sacramento and Feather River systems. Their collaboration and hard work led to the removal of 79 river miles from the 303(d) list for diazinon impairments in 2010 according to the Environmental Protection Agency.[123]
See also
- Auburn Dam
- Bass Festival
- Blue Tent Creek
- Delta Dawn
- List of crossings of the Sacramento River
- List of rivers of California
- United States Exploring Expedition
References
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- ^ "South Fork Sacramento River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. January 19, 1981. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ Benke and Cushing, p. 547
- ^ "Boundary Descriptions and Names of Regions, Subregions, Accounting Units and Cataloging Units". U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
- USGSgage 11447650 Sacramento River at Freeport and USGS 11453000 Yolo Bypass near Woodland. Flood flows diverted around the Sacramento area via the Sacramento River Flood Control Project are recorded by the Yolo Bypass gage.
- ^ a b c d e "USGS Gage #11447650 on the Sacramento River at Freeport, CA (Water-Data Report 2013)" (PDF). Water Resources of the United States. U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 11, 2016. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
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- ^ Angel, Devanie (December 5, 2002). "The 'reasonable' environmentalist: When John Merz talks about the Sacramento River, people listen". Chico News & Review. Sacramento River Preservation Trust. Archived from the original on September 2, 2004. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
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{{cite book}}
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Ellis, Tom. "How Much Water Flows Through The Sacramento River During a Flood Event?". Family Water Alliance. Archived from the original on June 5, 2010. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
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- ^ The Columbia River has a flow of 265,000 cubic feet per second (7,500 m3/s), seven times that of the Sacramento. There are other rivers that come close to the Sacramento's discharge such as the Skagit River, with 18,000 cubic feet per second (510 m3/s), or the Klamath River, with 17,000 cubic feet per second (480 m3/s). The Colorado River, which is heavily drawn from for irrigation and municipal water supply, no longer reaches the sea; even its historic flow of 22,000 cubic feet per second (620 m3/s) did not come close to the Sacramento.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Works cited
- Benke, Arthur C.; Cushing, Colbert E. (2011). Rivers of North America. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-08045-418-4.
- Exploring the great rivers of North America. National Geographic Society. 1999. ISBN 0-7922-7847-X. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
Exploring the great rivers of North America.
- Kelley, Robert Lloyd (1998). Battling the inland sea: floods, public policy, and the Sacramento Valley. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21428-5. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
- Harton, Deborah; McCloud, Ron (2010). Dunsmuir. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-8056-2. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
- Royce, Josiah; Wells, Ronald (2002). California: a study of American character: from the conquest in 1846 to the second vigilance committee in San Francisco. Heyday Books. ISBN 9781890771522. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
External links
- Sacramento River realtime flows and forecasts Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- SacramentoRiver.org
- Sacramento River Watershed Program
- Sacramento River Flooding – Online Video from KVIE Public Television
- "A Toxic Nightmare: The Dunsmuir Metam Sodium Spill Revisited"