Guadalupe Watershed

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The Calero Reservoir. Caleroreservoir2500ppx.JPG
The Calero Reservoir.

The Guadalupe Watershed consists of 170 square miles (400 km2) of land within northern California's Santa Clara County. This watershed is owned and managed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The surface runoff from this area drains into the various rivers (namely the Guadalupe), streams, reservoirs or other bodies of water which all eventually gets carried into the San Francisco Bay (indicated below, with surrounding counties in red). Essentially, all the water from the creeks and rivers that make up the Guadalupe watershed, including water from storm drains, flows into the Guadalupe River, and then flows downstream into the San Francisco Bay at the Alviso Slough in Alviso. The Guadalupe watershed's main tributaries include Los Gatos Creek, Trout Creek, Hendrys Creek, Ross Creek, Pheasant Creek, Rincon Creek, Herbert Creek, and Golf Creek. Six major reservoirs exist in the watershed: Calero Reservoir on Arroyo Calero, Guadalupe Reservoir on Guadalupe Creek, Almaden Reservoir on Los Alamitos Creek, Vasona Reservoir, Lexington Reservoir, and Lake Elsman on Los Gatos Creek.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection for Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. The district encompasses all of the county's 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2) and serves the area's 15 cities, 1.9 million residents and more than 200,000 commuters. The district's three water treatment plants can produce as much as 210,000,000 US gallons (800,000 m3) of drinking water a day. Another part of the district's mission is to manage flood and storm waters along the county's hundreds of miles of creeks and rivers in an environmentally sensitive manner.

Surface runoff The flow of excess stormwater, meltwater, or water from other sources over the Earths surface

Surface runoff is the flow of water that occurs when excess stormwater, meltwater, or other sources flows over the Earth's surface. This might occur because soil is saturated to full capacity, because rain arrives more quickly than soil can absorb it, or because impervious areas send their runoff to surrounding soil that cannot absorb all of it. Surface runoff is a major component of the water cycle. It is the primary agent in soil erosion by water.

San Francisco Bay bay on the California coast of the United States

San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the US state of California. It is surrounded by a contiguous region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and is dominated by the large cities of San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland.

Contents

The area covered by the Guadalupe River and its tributaries spreads over the neighboring cities of San Jose, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Campbell, and Santa Clara.

San Jose, California City in California, United States

San Jose, officially the City of San José, is an economic, cultural and political center of Silicon Valley, and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2017 population of 1,035,317, it is the third-most populous city in California and the tenth-most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 square miles (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California and one of the most affluent counties in the United States. San Jose is the most populous city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively.

Los Gatos, California Town in California, United States

Los Gatos is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 30,391 according to the 2013 United States Census Bureau. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Los Gatos is ranked the 33rd wealthiest city in the United States. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area at the southwest corner of San Jose in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a population of 41,544 as of 2017. Los Gatos is part of Silicon Valley, with several high technology companies maintaining a presence there. Most notably, streaming and content creator Netflix is headquartered in Los Gatos and has developed a large presence in the area.

Monte Sereno, California City in California, United States

Monte Sereno is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. The population was 3,341 at the 2010 census. The city is located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of San Jose, immediately northwest of Los Gatos, and southeast of Saratoga. The city is named for the 2,580-foot (790 m) El Sereno Mountain, upon the slopes of which the southern portion of the city is built. The community is entirely residential, with no commercial zoning and 99% single-family housing, and is an upscale Silicon Valley bedroom community. Monte Sereno shares the 95030 ZIP code with the town of Los Gatos. Many municipal services are provided under contract by Los Gatos.

Mercury contamination

The Guadalupe watershed was an area of high activity during the California Gold Rush, and as a result, Mercury toxicity and its effects on surrounding citizens and wildlife is a major concern for the area, and monitored intensively. Because mercury is an effective magnet for gold, miners during the Gold Rush would regularly line their sluices with mercury to amalgamate the gold out. An estimated 6,500 tons of mercury was lost in the system of creeks and rivers along the coast between 1850 and 1920, and is still being detected today in the water, animal life, and riverbeds of these affected tributaries.

California Gold Rush gold rush from 1848 until 1854 in California

The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had severe effects on Native Californians and resulted in a precipitous population decline from disease, genocide and starvation. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory, to having one of its first two U.S. Senators, John C. Frémont, selected to be the first presidential nominee for the new Republican Party, in 1856.

Mercury (element) Chemical element with atomic number 80

Mercury is a chemical element with symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is commonly known as quicksilver and was formerly named hydrargyrum. A heavy, silvery d-block element, mercury is the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is the halogen bromine, though metals such as caesium, gallium, and rubidium melt just above room temperature.

The effects of mercury on aquatic environments are very complex and create a number of health and safety risks. The most dangerous effect is its conversion into methylmercury by bacteria in rivers and lakes, which is in fact a more toxic substance than plain mercury. Methylmercury has a capacity to be taken in by insects and other invertebrates which the fish eat, which are in turn consumed by humans. Through this process of biomagnification, the methylmercury concentration increases the further up the food chain it reaches.

Methylmercury cation

Methylmercury (sometimes methyl mercury) is an organometallic cation with the formula [CH3Hg]+. It is the major source of organic mercury for all humans. It is a bioaccumulative environmental toxicant.

Biomagnification

Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or biological magnification, is the increasing concentration of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in the tissues of tolerant organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain. This increase can occur as a result of:

Health effects

Methylmercury is known for impairing neurological development in fetuses, infants, and small children. Exposure in the womb from a mother's consumption of contaminated fish and shellfish can harm a baby's newly developing brain and nervous system. There are notable impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills in children that have been exposed to methylmercury in the womb. Methylmercury also causes a number of problems in adults, including impairment of the peripheral vision,"pins and needles" feelings, usually in the hands, feet, and around the mouth, lack of coordination of movements, impairment of speech, hearing, walking, and muscle weakness.

Environmental effects

Methylmercury that bioaccumulates in fish and the fish and other animals that eat them can reach harmful levels very quickly. Just how high these levels are depends on several factors, such as local non-air releases of mercury, naturally occurring mercury in soils, physical and biological properties of the water-body in question, and the age, size, and types of food the fish eats. Birds and mammals that eat fish are the most affected in the ecosystem because of their placement as predators in the food chain. Effects of methylmercury exposure on wildlife include death, as well as reduced fertility, slower growth and development, and abnormal behaviors that can drastically effect the animals survival.

Santa Clara Valley Water District involvement

The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) is not only the county’s water wholesaler, but is also the steward of all the rivers, streams, and reservoirs for the area. The SCVWD reached an agreement with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board by which a $1 million long-term project was funded in order to reduce the levels of mercury contamination in the Guadalupe Watershed, including all areas from the upper Santa Cruz Mountains all the way to the San Francisco Bay. A survey was initiated in September 2003 in order to find adequate methods of disposing of mercury deposits. The disposal of these deposits is being funded by the California State Cleanup and Abatement Account.

Santa Cruz Mountains mountain range in California, United States

The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from the San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continue south to the Central Coast, bordering Monterey Bay and ending at the Salinas Valley. The range passes through the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey, with the Pajaro River forming the southern boundary.

There are numerous projects in the Guadalupe Watershed that the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been working towards delivering, including: [1]

Related Research Articles

Guadalupe River (California) river in the United States of America

The Guadalupe River mainstem is an urban, northward flowing 14 miles (23 km) river in California whose much longer headwater creeks originate in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The river mainstem now begins on the Santa Clara Valley floor when Los Alamitos Creek exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek just downstream of Coleman Road in San Jose, California. From here it flows north through San Jose, where it receives Los Gatos Creek, a major tributary. The Guadalupe River serves as the eastern boundary of the City of Santa Clara and the western boundary of Alviso, and after coursing through San José, it empties into south San Francisco Bay at the Alviso Slough.

Almaden Valley, San Jose Neighborhood of San Jose in Santa Clara, California, United States

Almaden Valley, or simply Almaden is a valley and primarily upper middle class residential neighborhood of San Jose, California, in South San Jose.

Coyote Creek (Santa Clara County) river in United States of America

Coyote Creek is a river that flows through the Santa Clara Valley in California, United States.

Stevens Creek Reservoir

Stevens Creek Reservoir is an artificial lake located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains near Cupertino, California. A 1,063-acre (430 ha) county park surrounds the reservoir and provides limited fishing, picnicking, hiking, and horseback riding activities. Although swimming is not allowed, non-power boating is allowed. No powered boats or jet skis are allowed.

Stevens Creek (California) river in the United States of America

Stevens Creek is a creek in Santa Clara County, California. The creek originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the western flank of Black Mountain in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve near the terminus of Page Mill Road at Skyline Boulevard. It flows southeasterly through the Stevens Creek County Park before turning northeast into Stevens Creek Reservoir. It then continues north for 12.5 miles through Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale and Mountain View before emptying into the San Francisco Bay at the Whisman Slough, near Google's main campus.

Los Gatos Creek (Santa Clara County, California) river in the United States of America

The Los Gatos Creek runs 24 miles (39 km) in California through Santa Clara Valley Water District's Guadalupe Watershed from the Santa Cruz Mountains northward through the Santa Clara Valley until its confluence with the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose. The Guadalupe River then continues onward into San Francisco Bay.

Upper Penitencia Creek is actually one of two creeks by the name Penitencia Creek in the northeastern Santa Clara Valley of Santa Clara County, California. They are both tributaries of Coyote Creek. The upper creek was diverted southwestward, connecting it directly to Coyote Creek ca. 1850 by a farmer to irrigate his fields, permanently splitting Upper Penitencia Creek from Lower Penitencia Creek. Upper Penitencia Creek drains the western slopes of Mount Hamilton of the Diablo Range, and passes through Alum Rock Park, before ending at its confluence with Coyote Creek at Berryessa Road. In December 2018, the San Francisco Estuary Institute published a report commissioned by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to establish a vision for Upper Penitencia Creek's lower four miles focusing on ways "to expand flow conveyance and flood water storage from the Coyote Creek confluence upstream to the Dorel Drive bridge in a manner that works with the existing landscape features and supports habitats for native species".

Uvas Reservoir

Uvas Reservoir is an artificial lake located west of San Martin, California in the United States. The reservoir is surrounded by a 626-acre (253 ha) park managed by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. The park provides limited fishing ("catch-and-release"), picnicking, and hiking activities. Boating is not permitted in the reservoir.

Anderson Lake (California)

Anderson Lake, informally called Anderson Reservoir, is an artificial lake in Santa Clara County, California, United States, near Morgan Hill. A 4,275-acre (1,730 ha) county park surrounds the reservoir and provides limited fishing, picnicking, and hiking activities. Although swimming is prohibited, boating, water-skiing and jet-skiing are permitted in the reservoir.

Permanente Creek river in the United States of America

Permanente Creek is a 13.3-mile-long (21.4 km) stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the namesake for the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization. Named by early Spanish explorers as Arroyo Permanente or Rio Permanente because of its perennial flow, the creek descends the east flank of Black Mountain then courses north through Los Altos and Mountain View culminating in southwest San Francisco Bay historically at the Charleston Slough but now diverted via the Permanente Creek Diversion Channel to Stevens Creek and the Mountain View Slough in San Francisco Bay.

Saratoga Creek river in the United States of America

Saratoga Creek is a north-northeast flowing creek in Santa Clara County, California.

Almaden Reservoir

Almaden Reservoir is an artificial lake in the hills south of San Jose, California in the United States. It borders on the 4,163-acre (1,685 ha) Almaden Quicksilver County Park, which provides limited fishing ("catch-and-release"), picnicking, hiking, and horseback riding activities. Swimming and boating are not permitted in the reservoir.

Calero Reservoir

Calero Reservoir is an artificial lake in the Santa Teresa Hills south of San Jose, California, United States. A 4,471-acre (1,809 ha) county park surrounds the reservoir and provides limited fishing ("catch-and-release"), picnicking, hiking, and horseback riding activities. Although swimming is prohibited, boating, water-skiing and jet-skiing are permitted in the reservoir.

Calabazas Creek (Santa Clara County) river in the United States of America

Calabazas Creek is a 13.3-mile-long (21.4 km) northeast by northward-flowing stream originating on Table Mountain in Saratoga, California in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses through the cities of Saratoga, San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, culminating in the Guadalupe Slough in south San Francisco Bay.

San Tomas Aquino Creek river in the United States of America

San Tomas Aquinas Creek, known locally as San Tomas Aquino Creek, is a 16.5-mile-long (26.6 km) stream that heads on El Sereno mountain in El Sereno Open Space Preserve in Saratoga, California in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It flows north through the cities of Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Campbell, Santa Clara and San Jose before its confluence with the Guadalupe Slough in south San Francisco Bay.

Guadalupe Creek (Santa Clara County) river in the United States of America

Guadalupe Creek is a 10.5 miles (16.9 km) northward-flowing stream originating just east of the peak of Mount Umunhum in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses along the northwestern border of Almaden Quicksilver County Park in the Cañada de los Capitancillos before joining Los Alamitos Creek after the latter exits Lake Almaden. This confluence forms the Guadalupe River mainstem, which in turn flows through San Jose, California, and empties into south San Francisco Bay at Alviso Slough.

Alamitos Creek river in the United States of America

Alamitos Creek or Los Alamitos Creek is a 7.7-mile-long (12.4 km) creek in San Jose, California, which becomes the Guadalupe River when it exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek. Los Alamitos Creek is located in Almaden Valley and originates from the Los Capitancillos Ridge and the Santa Cruz Mountains. This creek flows through the Valley's Guadalupe Watershed, which is owned by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The creek flows in a generally northwesterly direction after rounding the Los Capitancillos Ridge and the town of New Almaden, in the southwest corner, before ambling along the Santa Teresa Hills on northeast side of the Almaden Valley. Its environment has some relatively undisturbed areas and considerable lengths of suburban residential character. Originally called Arroyo de los Alamitos, the creek's name is derived from "little poplar", "alamo" being the Spanish word for "poplar" or "cottonwood".

Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department

Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, sometimes referred to as Santa Clara County Parks Department or Santa Clara County Parks, is a government department in Santa Clara County, California. The department manages 29 parks with a total area over 52,000 acres (21,000 ha).

Vasona Reservoir

Vasona Reservoir is an artificial lake located in Los Gatos, California, United States. A 152-acre (62 ha) county park surrounds the reservoir and provides limited fishing, picnicking, and informal play activities. Although swimming is not allowed, human-powered boating is permitted in the reservoir.

References

  1. ↑ Project information collected from www.valleywater.org
Sources
  1. Davidson, Philip W.,Myers, Gary J.,Weiss, BernardShamlaye, Conrad F., Cox, Christopher; Neurotoxicology. Prenatal methyl mercury exposure from fish consumption and child development: A review of evidence and perspectives from the Seychelles Child Development Study
  2. Malamud-Roam, Frances P., Ingram, B. Lynn, Hughes, Malcolm, Florsheim, Joan L.; Quaternary Science Reviews. Holocene paleoclimate records from a large California estuarine system and its watershed region: linking watershed climate and bay conditions
  3. Ng, Daniel Kwok-Keung, Chan, Chung-Hong, Soo, Man-Ting, Lee, Robert Shing-Yan; Pediatrics International. Low-level chronic mercury exposure in children and adolescents: Meta-analysis
  4. US State News:Illinois Department of Public Health Announces 2007 Consumption Advisory.Copyright 2007 HT Media Ltd.
  5. Zhang L., Wang W.X.Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 26 (4): 787-794 APR 2007. Size-dependence of the potential for metal biomagnification in early life stages of marine fish

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