Central Valley Project Overview

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | August 23rd, 2010

A history of the construction of the Central Valley Project. Throughout his political life, Thomas Jefferson contended the United States was an agriculturally based so

A history of the construction of the Central Valley Project. Throughout his political life, Thomas Jefferson contended the United States was an agriculturally based society. Agriculture may be king, but compared to the queen, Mother Nature, it is a weak monarch. Nature consistently proves to mankind who really controls the realm. The Central Valley of California is a magnificent example of this. The Sacramento River watershed receives two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's precipitation though it only has one-third to one-quarter of the land. The San Joaquin River watershed occupies two-thirds to three-quarter of northern California's land, but only collects one-third to one-quarter of the precipitation. The Sacramento Valley suffers from floods, and floods and droughts alternately afflict San Joaquin.

Changing ecosystems: a brief ecological history of the Delta

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | February 15th, 2010

The San Francisco Estuary is a young estuary, about 6-10,000 years old in its present location. It became established during periods of high climatic variability (reflect

The San Francisco Estuary is a young estuary, about 6-10,000 years old in its present location. It became established during periods of high climatic variability (reflected in extreme floods and long droughts) compared to the relatively stable past 150 years. The Delta was formed as a huge freshwater marsh through the interaction of river inflow and the slow rise of sea level with the growth and decay of tules and other plants. This interaction resulted in the deposition of large amounts of organic matter, creating layers of peat that kept pace with sea level rise. These peat layers formed the soils of most of the present Delta ‘islands’, which were actually complex patches of floodable marsh. The channels among the islands were historically shifting, winding distributaries of the entering rivers that moved inflowing water through the Delta, providing access to upstream areas for large runs of migratory fish. The movement and quality of water in these channels was strongly affected by tidal action.  These attributes also created a complex of diverse and shifting habitats that supported a wide variety of functions for an ecological system in which there was no clear separation between aquatic and terrestrial components.

Chronology of major litigation involving the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | January 1st, 2013

A chronology of major litigation involving the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project from 1950 to 2007.

A chronology of major litigation involving the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project from 1950 to 2007.

Clay Mineralogy of Pleistocene Lake Tecopa

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 1979

Climatic backdrop for Pueblo cultural development in the southwestern United States

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | May 24th, 2022

While climatic triggers for collapse and population migrations of ancestral Pueblo communities have been proposed, little is known about the overall climatic backdrop for

While climatic triggers for collapse and population migrations of ancestral Pueblo communities have been proposed, little is known about the overall climatic backdrop for the entire pre-Hispanic Pueblo period (ca. 1300 to 460 B2K). Here, we report data from stalagmite HC-1, from Hidden Cave, Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, covering the past 3400 years, showing an interval of increased frequency of droughts from 1260 to 370 yr B2K that is coeval with the entire pre-Hispanic Pueblo period. Our record suggests that this puebloan Late Holocene climatic interval was the most arid and highly variable climatic period of the last 3400 years. Climatic conditions favoring the introduction of cultivation existed prior to the Pueblo period during more pluvial-like conditions from at least 3400 to 1260 yr B2K. Hence, the change from the Desert Archaic/Basketmaker to Pueblo cultures was associated with a quick transition to increasing aridity into and through the Pueblo period associated with greater urbanization and the establishment of pueblo population centers.

Colorado River Aqueduct Recording Project 1998

National Park Service (NPS) | December 15th, 1988

The Colorado River Aqueduct Recording Project is part of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a long-range program that documents historically-significant eng

The Colorado River Aqueduct Recording Project is part of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a long-range program that documents historically-significant engineering, industrial, and maritime sites In the United States. The HAER program is administered by the Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) Division of the National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. The recording project was co-sponsored during the summer of 1998 by HABS/HAER under the general direction of E. Blaine Oliver, Chief; and by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Gary M. Snyder, Chief Engineer, and Wally M. Lieu, Assistant Chief Engineer. The measured drawings, historical report, and photographs were prepared under the direction of Eric N. DeLony, Chief of HAER, The recording team included Supervisory Architect Andrew Johnston (University of California, Berkeley) and architects Chrysti Chun (Illinois Institute of Technology), Imola Klrlzsa'n (ICOMOS, Romania), Sydney Mainster (University of California, Berkeley), Elizabeth Mllnarik (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), and Nina Shatberashvili (ICOMOS, Republic of Georgia); Project Historian J. Philip Gruen (University of California, Berkeley); and photographer Jet Lowe (Washington, D. C.) Additional drawings were provided by architects Christopher B. Brown (University of Washington) and Adrim Maksay (Transylvania Trust Foundation, Romania). Engineer Allien Whitsett (Metropolitan Water District of Southern California) provided consultation and advice. Devon Kobayashi (Metropolitan Water District of Southern California) served as HAER liaison.

Colorado River Aqueduct, Historic American Engineering Record

National Park Service (NPS) | August 1st, 1998

The Colorado River Aqueduct pumps water from the Colorado River through, over, and across mountains and desert in a 242- mile-longmarchtothecoastalplainofSouthernCaliforn

The Colorado River Aqueduct pumps water from the Colorado River through, over, and across mountains and desert in a 242- mile-longmarchtothecoastalplainofSouthernCalifornia. When completed,itwasoneofthelongestwater-conveyancefacilitiesin the world. The aqueduct includes power lines, tunnels, siphons, covered conduits, open canals, dams, reservoirs, and five pumping plants, involving ingenious engineering solutions and newly- introduced construction equipment. The project also employed over 35,000 people during its eight-year span and as many as 10,000 at one time, making it southern California's single-largest work opportunity during the Great Depression. In 1995, the Colorado River Aqueduct was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Today, it is the major water supply for urban and suburban southern California.

Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct

City of Los Angeles | January 15th, 1916

Death Valley

Scientific American | August 22nd, 1903

Judging from the many high sensation stories and frequent references to Death Valley, there is evidently a popular interest in that dreaded locality, which is in part e

Judging from the many high sensation stories and frequent references to Death Valley, there is evidently a popular interest in that dreaded locality, which is in part explicable by the name it bears. The stories published are, as a rule, of little value, and give no idea of the climate, topography, fauna, and flora of a more absolute and arid desert than the Sahara. Our great deserts of the southwest have been but little written about by geographers and travelers, and it is only recently that accurate official reports upon them have been made. Capt. Clarence E . Dutton, in his report on the Grand Canon, gave a description of the deserts of northern Arizona. Captain Gaillard, of the Mexican Boundary Commission, has given us, in a popular magazine, probably the best article that has as yet been written on an American desert. He was well qualified to write, because he traversed the entire region from the Rio Grande to the Pacific, erecting monument s to mark the boundary between Mexico and the United States. Mr. W.J. McGee, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, who recently made the journey through Southern Arizona and Mexico, to study the Seri Indians, who live on the Isle of Tiburon in the Gulf of California, has given us a fine description of the desert in his report and in separate articles in the Journal of Geography. A valuable article on the American Desert, by Robert T. Hill, has just appeared.

Debris-Restraining Barriers of the Yuba River

Scientific American | November 19th, 1904

In the years following the discovery of gold in California, the processes of mining for this precious metal caused the removal of vast quantities of detritus from the w

In the years following the discovery of gold in California, the processes of mining for this precious metal caused the removal of vast quantities of detritus from the western slopes of the Sierra Mountains into the streams and rivers of the valleys below. Gold was found in the beginning in gravel beds, where it had probably been deposited by rivers flowing in prehistoric times. These gravel beds exist in great numbers in a comparatively small area along the western slopes of the Sierra Mountains near the headwaters of streams draining into the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. In securing gold from these mountains the sorting action of water was necessary, and in order to facilitate mining operations. ditches of great length and size were built, frequently at great expense, to carry water to the localities where gold had been discovered. Streams of water under great pressures were directed at these gravel banks through nozzles sometimes as large as nine inches in diameter, to break down the gravel banks and wash the detritus through sluice ways where the gold could be caught. Streams carry ing as much as 3,500 miner's inches were not uncommon. It is thus easily seen that such powerful agencies would rapidly wash down whole hillsides, which would naturally be carried into the canyons and small streams in the vicinity of the mines, to be washed farther and farther down stream with each succeeding rainy season. These mining operations were carried on for a number of years without interruption until the valley country below became more thickly populated, when the injuries caused to the rivers and the neighboring farm lands became important enough to cause those damaged to seek legal redress.