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Arcade Creek is a waterway in Northeastern Sacramento County in central California, United States.
The creek begins in Orangevale, California and flows into the Sacramento River through the Natomas East Main Drainage Canal. It is roughly 16.2 miles long with a basin area of about 29.7 square miles (19,000 acres) and has a floodplain from 120 to 200 feet.
Due to archeological finds along Arcade Creek, it has been classified as one of the most important archeological sites in the United States. [1] The erosion of several sediment layers revealed an artifact-bearing layer of dirt nine feet under the top soil layer in one area. This layer yielded 75 artifacts. Researchers link these artifact to the Nisenan People, originally from the Early Horizon period, dating to around 6000 to 3000 BC. [2] The artifacts included flakes and cores of hand stones, cobble-choppers, hammerstones, arrow heads, mortar and pestles. In one area, an ancient Native American sweat house was discovered. This led researchers to believe that the abundance of Bucheye Trees in the area is due to the building of sweat houses and other living structures.
Around 3000 years ago, the Nisenan people settled around Arcade Creek. They chose this area probably due to the abundance of oak trees. The trees provided acorns, shelter, nutrients for vegetation growth and small game. The Arcade creek area was also provided underground vegetation bulbs that could be dug out using sticks.
In the 1800s, Arcade Creek was added to the northernmost Mexican land grants for California. Governor Manuel Micheltorena [3] of Alta California from 1842 to 1845, gave 44,000 acres to Elijah Grimes, who named it Rancho Del Paso.
In the 1860s, during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, Arcade creek acquired national fame and central focal point.
Charles Crocker took the first state geologist Josiah Whitney for a ride along the Arcade creek. When Crocker asked Whitney where the entrance to the mountains is, Whitney is quoted saying "Well, the true base is the Sacramento River, but for the purpose of this bill, Arcade Creek is as fair a place as any." [4]
Arcade Creek is a small, urbanized watershed that is influenced by water quality problems, moderate flooding due to runoff, street drainage and overflow, all of which has had a significant negative impact on habitat conditions. It is a watershed whose main stretch of creek is about 16.2 miles long and drains about 38 square miles (24,484 acres) of water. It begins in the upper part of Orangevale California, and flows through Sacramento, Roseville, and Citrus Heights. Its main feeder sources include Cripple Creek, Mariposa Creek, South Branch Arcade Creek, San Juan Creek, Brooktree Creek, Coyle Creek, Kohler Creek and Verde Cruze Creek. [5] At approximately 270 feet, and 20 feet at elevation, Arcade Creek flows into Steelhead Creek also referred to as the Natomas East Main Drainage Canal. Arcade Creek was once filled with a biodiversity of small game and native plants, but due to the urbanization of the surrounding areas, it is now mostly surrounded by commercial and residential buildings. There are still a few sections by the creek left untouched, but these sections are heavily influenced and altered by the surrounding land uses.
California in general has a Mediterranean climate which means that Arcade Creek has winters that are cool and wet, and hot dry summers. It also receives about 17 to 22 inches of precipitation annually. These spouts of precipitation often occur in the winter season and are short intense water events. Historically, during the summer there were times in which part of the creek would run dry. Due to this, it is believed that the salmonids that inhabited the creek were reaching the top of their fundamental niche and with urbanization eventually were unable to make their way up the creek. Furthermore, due to increase temperatures and industrialization of the surrounding areas, there has been a large reduction of vegetation biodiversity and the vegetation that does grow there is mostly nonnative species.
Storm drains lead into Arcade Creek which in winter causes the creek to swell and flood. It holds street gutter water during the summer, which has led to historically high summer water flows.
In addition, due to the concentrated and quick discharge storm water during summer, and the quick intense precipitation during the winter, the creek experiences high velocity and water flow which leads to further erosion, sedimentation, flooding and channel degradation.
Over the last 150, Arcade Creeks hydrology has changed drastically. Due to infrastructure building, peak flow has increased in volume while the construction of drainage systems and loss of land have decreased volume of depression storage. Both these two factors have caused an increase in peak flows as well as higher scour capacity. In the early years, the creek would run dry in some sections but starting about 45 years ago and due to urbanization, the stream flows perennially. During the summer months low flows run about 2 cubic feet per second (cfs), while the average base flows from between 15 and 20 cfs. During pea flows of intense storm systems, it can be as high or higher than 2,800 cfs. Arcade Creek is prone to flooding due to levees on both sides of the stream between Marysville blvd. and adjoining of Steelhead Creek in addition to constriction of channel flow due to road structures. Because of this during heavy storms and large amounts of precipitation, the golf course northeast and the residential area southeast are prone to flooding. Flooding stage gets reported via automatic sensors located at Scott Road and Deer Creek Crossing. CEQA-mandated a need to implement flood control in which the City of Citrus Heights approved a development plan that would provide three basins with a total of 20 acres that would receive and collect any storm water that spills over the creeks banks. Arcade Creeks groundwater is shallow, about 8 to 15 feet deep in depth, but due to being deeply incised from high flows this shallow groundwater lost. In addition, due to the fact that Arcade Creek has a large volume of urban runoff and drainage into the creek, it is filled with toxic pollutants, fertilizers, bacteria, metals, pesticides, soap, grease, fats, oil and other hydrocarbons. Arcade Creek also experiences high volume of litter and trash due to being surrounded by residential and commercial buildings. For the past 10 years, the USGS and Sacramento River Watershed Program have been monitoring Arcade Creeks water quality. It was found that the dissolved oxygen levels were among the lowest, while containing some of the highest contaminant concentration among the bodies of water tested. In 2001, SRWP determined that Arcade Creek ranked #7 in highest concentration of mercury, while having the highest levels of dissolved copper (4.0 ug/L), highest concentration of Zinc, fourth highest in copper, and third highest in arsenic contamination. In addition, Arcade Creek was found to have the highest number diazinon, chloropyrifos, prometon, and prowl which are strong pesticides. Because Arcade Creek flows into the Sacramento River, which leads to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and is used as drinking water for over 20 million people toxicity is a major concern.
A majority of the surrounding area of Arcade Creek is residential, commercial and transportation infrastructure. [6] Two major roofed infrastructures that infiltrate Arcade Creek are the Sunrise-Bird cage mall and American River College.
In addition to land use, Arcade Creek contains over sixty public parks such as Rusch Community Park, Temp Community Park, and Crosswoods Community Park. One of the most noteworthy parks is the Del Paso Regional Park - the largest public open space. Within Del Paso Park is the Sacramento Horseman's Association that has equestrian trails leading along the creek. There are also forty-six elementary schools, nineteen middle and high schools, and the American River College located within Arcade Creeks boundaries. In addition, there are also three golf courses located within its watershed.
Before the Gold Rush in 1848, Arcade Creek was filled with a large amount of biodiversity. It included a complex system of perennial grasslands, oak savannahs, seasonal wetlands and riparian forests. It was mostly dominated by blue oaks (Quercus douglasii) and valley oaks (Quercus lobata) but now its patchy sections of wildlife are mostly dominated with cottonwood, willow and Oregon ash. As settlers came and made changes to the environment, oak trees were removed and flora was removed in order to make way for agriculture use and urbanization. The vernal pools and seasonal wetlands all but depleted due to floodplain constriction and water allocation for development. Patchy sections of plant communities exists between developed land, but are now filled with both native (Oak Woodland which include live oak Quercus wislizenii, valley oak, and blue oak and Riparian Forest flora which include Barbara sedge (Carex barbarae), creeping wild rye (Leymus triticoides), and deergrass) and nonnative plants. The nonnative plants are slowly taking over these plots of land as they tend to be more aggressive and abundant. What little patches of wildlife remain are rapidly declining due to bordering land development and recreational uses.
The birds in the Arcade creek area include mallards, wood ducks, red-shouldered hawks, Cooper's hawks, great egrets, belted kingfishers, California quail and acorn woodpeckers.
The native animals include California ground squirrels, western grey squirrels, botta's pocket gophers, beaver, North American river otters, raccoons and striped skunks. Some nonnative species include fox squirrels, black rats, Norway rats, house mice, Virginia Opossums, alligator lizards, sharp-tailed snakes, gopher snakes, pond turtles, western toads, bullfrogs and domestic cats and dogs. Some species that once inhabited the Arcade Creek area include grizzly bears, Tule elk, black-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, ringtails, cottontails and badgers.
Arcade Creek was once a natural spawning site for Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. Neither fish species has observed in the creek for over 20 years due to lack of suitable rearing and spawning habitat. Because Arcade Creek runs into the Sacramento River, which is still a spawning habitat for these species, there is concern about contamination and how the toxicity of Arcade Creek will further affect these fish.
There are many restoration acts and plans focused on recovering and maintaining Arcade Creeks natural habitats and wildlife. One major one includes the Arcade Creek Watershed Plan which is focused on enhancing: flood control, water quality, recreation, wildlife and aquatic habitat, land use, public safety, scenic resources, public stewardship and education, fire management and stakeholder collaboration to help improve the watershed overall quality and value.
The Sacramento River is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for 400 miles (640 km) before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay. The river drains about 26,500 square miles (69,000 km2) in 19 California counties, mostly within the fertile agricultural region bounded by the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada known as the Sacramento Valley, but also extending as far as the volcanic plateaus of Northeastern California. Historically, its watershed has reached as far north as south-central Oregon where the now, primarily, endorheic (closed) Goose Lake rarely experiences southerly outflow into the Pit River, the most northerly tributary of the Sacramento.
The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside counties, before cutting through the northern Santa Ana Mountains via Santa Ana Canyon and flowing southwest through urban Orange County to drain into the Pacific Ocean. The Santa Ana River is 96 miles (154 km) long, and its drainage basin is 2,650 square miles (6,900 km2) in size.
The Trinity River is a major river in northwestern California in the United States and is the principal tributary of the Klamath River. The Trinity flows for 165 miles (266 km) through the Klamath Mountains and Coast Ranges, with a watershed area of nearly 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2) in Trinity and Humboldt Counties. Designated a National Wild and Scenic River, along most of its course the Trinity flows swiftly through tight canyons and mountain meadows.
The Eel River is a major river, about 196 miles (315 km) long, of northwestern California. The river and its tributaries form the third largest watershed entirely in California, draining a rugged area of 3,684 square miles (9,540 km2) in five counties. The river flows generally northward through the Coast Ranges west of the Sacramento Valley, emptying into the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles (16 km) downstream from Fortuna and just south of Humboldt Bay. The river provides groundwater recharge, recreation, and industrial, agricultural and municipal water supply.
Coyote Creek is a river that flows through the Santa Clara Valley in Northern California. Its source is on Mount Sizer, in the mountains east of Morgan Hill. It eventually flows into Anderson Lake in Morgan Hill and then northwards through Coyote Valley to San Jose, where it empties into San Francisco Bay.
Malibu Creek is a year-round stream in western Los Angeles County, California. It drains the southern Conejo Valley and Simi Hills, flowing south through the Santa Monica Mountains, and enters Santa Monica Bay in Malibu, California. The Malibu Creek watershed drains 109 square miles (280 km2) and its tributary creeks reach as high as 3,000 feet (910 m) into Ventura County, California. The creek's mainstem begins south of Westlake Village at the confluence of Triunfo Creek and Lobo Canyon Creek, and flows 13.4 miles (21.6 km) to Malibu Lagoon.
The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows 16.2 miles (26.1 km) from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura Valley, with its final 0.7 miles (1.1 km) through the broader Ventura River estuary, which extends from where it crosses under a 101 Freeway bridge through to the Pacific Ocean.
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks and tallest waterfall in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness. After an absence of half a century, ocean-run steelhead trout are able to return to Alameda Creek to mingle with remnant rainbow trout populations. Completion of a series of dam removal and fish passage projects, along with improved stream flows for cold-water fish and planned habitat restoration, enable steelhead trout and Chinook salmon to access up to 20 miles (32 km) of spawning and rearing habitat in Alameda Creek and its tributaries. The first juvenile trout migrating downstream from the upper watershed through lower Alameda Creek toward San Francisco Bay was detected and documented in April 2023.
Sonoma Creek is a 33.4-mile-long (53.8 km) stream in northern California. It is one of two principal drainages of southern Sonoma County, California, with headwaters rising in the rugged hills of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and discharging to San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay. The watershed drained by Sonoma Creek is roughly equivalent to the wine region of Sonoma Valley, an area of about 170 square miles (440 km2). The State of California has designated the Sonoma Creek watershed as a “Critical Coastal Water Resource”. To the east of this generally rectangular watershed is the Napa River watershed, and to the west are the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds.
San Juan Creek, also called the San Juan River, is a 29-mile (47 km) long stream in Orange and Riverside Counties, draining a watershed of 133.9 square miles (347 km2). Its mainstem begins in the southern Santa Ana Mountains in the Cleveland National Forest. It winds west and south through San Juan Canyon, and is joined by Arroyo Trabuco as it passes through San Juan Capistrano. It flows into the Pacific Ocean at Doheny State Beach. San Juan Canyon provides a major part of the route for California State Route 74.
Alhambra Creek is a stream in Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California.
The American River is a 30-mile (50 km)-long river in California that runs from the Sierra Nevada mountain range to its confluence with the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento. Via the Sacramento River, it is part of the San Francisco Bay watershed. This river is fed by the melting snowpack of the Sierra Nevada and its many headwaters and tributaries, including the North Fork American River, the Middle Fork American River, and the South Fork American River.
Adobe Creek, historically San Antonio Creek, is a 14.2-mile-long (22.9 km) northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto on its way to the Palo Alto Flood Basin and thence to southwestern San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Historically, Adobe Creek was a perennial stream and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from the Bay, but these salmonids are now blocked by numerous flood control structures, including a tidal gate at the creek's mouth and a long concretized rectangular channel culminating in an impassable drop structure at El Camino Real. The co-founders of Adobe Systems both lived on Adobe Creek.
Stony Creek is a 73.5-mile (118.3 km)-long tributary of the Sacramento River in Northern California. It drains a watershed of more than 700 square miles (1,800 km2) on the west side of the Sacramento Valley in Glenn, Colusa, Lake and Tehama Counties.
The Middle Fork American River is one of three forks that form the American River in Northern California. It drains a large watershed in the high Sierra Nevada west of Lake Tahoe and northeast of Sacramento in Placer and El Dorado Counties, between the watersheds of the North Fork American River and South Fork American River. The Middle Fork joins with the North Fork near Auburn and they continue downstream to Folsom Lake as the North Fork, even though the Middle Fork carries a larger volume of water.
Keswick Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Sacramento River about 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Redding, California. Part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project, the dam is 157 feet (48 m) high and impounds the Keswick Reservoir, which has a capacity of 23,800 acre⋅ft (29,400,000 m3). The dam's power plant has three turbines with a generating capacity of 117 megawatts (MW), which, in 1992, was uprated from its original 75 MW. The dam and reservoir serve as an afterbay to regulate peaking power releases from the Shasta Dam upstream.
Pacheco Creek is a 28 miles (45 km) west by southwest flowing stream which heads in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County and flows to San Felipe Lake, the beginning of the Pajaro River mainstem, in San Benito County, California.
Cottonwood Creek is a major stream and tributary of the Sacramento River in Northern California. About 68 miles (109 km) long measured to its uppermost tributaries, the creek drains a large rural area bounded by the crest of the Coast Ranges, traversing the northwestern Sacramento Valley before emptying into the Sacramento River near the town of Cottonwood. For its entire length, it defines the boundary of Shasta and Tehama counties. Because Cottonwood Creek is the largest undammed tributary of the Sacramento River, it is known for its Chinook salmon and steelhead runs.
Cow Creek is a tributary of the Sacramento River in Shasta County, California. About 46.9 miles (75.5 km) long measured to its longest source, it drains a hilly, rural region at the northern end of the Sacramento Valley east of Redding. The creek begins at Millville at the confluence of Old Cow and South Cow Creek and flows west to Junction, where it turns south, joining the Sacramento near Anderson. Despite its name, Cow Creek is closer in size to a river, especially in winter when it is prone to large flash floods, accounting for up to 21 percent of the Sacramento's peak flows at Red Bluff.
Thomes Creek is a major watercourse on the west side of the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. The creek originates in the Coast Ranges and flows east for about 62 miles (100 km) to join the Sacramento River, at a point about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Corning in Tehama County.