Piner Creek

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Piner Creek
Pinercr@conflwsantarosacr.jpg
Piner Creek immediately above the confluence with Santa Rosa Creek
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Red pog.svg
Location of the mouth of Piner Creek in California
Location
Country United States
State California
Region Sonoma County
City Santa Rosa, California
Physical characteristics
Source Fountaingrove Lake
 - location Santa Rosa, California
 - coordinates 38°29′12″N122°43′10″W / 38.48667°N 122.71944°W / 38.48667; -122.71944 [1]
 - elevation495 ft (151 m) [1]
Mouth Santa Rosa Creek
 - location
west of Santa Rosa, California
 - coordinates
 38°26′43″N122°46′35″W / 38.44528°N 122.77639°W / 38.44528; -122.77639 Coordinates: 38°26′43″N122°46′35″W / 38.44528°N 122.77639°W / 38.44528; -122.77639
Basin size6.3 sq mi (16 km2)

Piner Creek is a stream in northeast Santa Rosa, California, United States ( 38°27′40″N122°45′05″W / 38.46111°N 122.75139°W / 38.46111; -122.75139 ) which originates as an outlet of Fountaingrove Lake. Piner Creek discharges to Santa Rosa Creek which in turn joins the Laguna de Santa Rosa. [2] The upper reaches in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains are at elevations of 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90 meters), while the lower and middle reaches are located on the Santa Rosa Plain at elevations of between the 110- and 140-foot (33- and 43-meter) contours; [3] therefore, these lower reaches have a gradient of about 1:250 toward the southwest. Geologic studies in the lower and middle reaches of Piner Creek indicate groundwater levels ranging from three to 15 feet (one to 5 meters) below the surface. [4] Prior to extensive urban development of the middle and lower reaches, the landscape earlier bore extensive agricultural uses including plum orchards, which fruit was subsequently processed for prunes.

Stream A body of surface water flowing down a channel

A stream is a body of water with surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. The stream encompasses surface and groundwater fluxes that respond to geological, geomorphological, hydrological and biotic controls.

Santa Rosa, California City in California, United States

Santa Rosa is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. Its estimated 2016 population was 175,155. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Redwood Empire, Wine Country and the North Bay; the fifth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont; and the 28th most populous city in California.

California State of the United States of America

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

Contents

The Piner Creek watershed consists of 4,048 acres (16.4 km2), approximately three-fourths of which lies within the municipal boundaries of the city of Santa Rosa. [5] About one-third of the watershed is developed as residential use, and about one-sixth of the land is open space or used for recreation or agriculture. One of the early surviving architectural features of Sonoma County is within the Piner Creek catchment basin: A well preserved Round Barn, constructed in 1899, a testament to the 19th century pasturage uses within this watershed. [6]

Drainage basin Area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet

A drainage basin is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. The drainage basin includes all the surface water from rain runoff, snowmelt, and nearby streams that run downslope towards the shared outlet, as well as the groundwater underneath the earth's surface. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at lower elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins, which in turn drain into another common outlet.

Pasture land used for grazing

Pasture is a concrete spatial area where farmers keep livestock for grazing.

Hydrology

Fountaingrove Lake, the origin of Piner Creek Fountaingrovelakelead.jpg
Fountaingrove Lake, the origin of Piner Creek

Piner Creek originates in the lower Mayacmas Mountains at Fountaingrove Lake. From its outlet at Fountaingrove Lake, Piner Creek flows down a relatively steep gradient, initially over a riprap lined channel, which has been modified in association with some alterations to lower Fountaingrove Lake. Thence Piner Creek flows northerly of an upscale modern office park before crossing under Redwood Highway and U.S. Highway 101. West of the U.S. 101 Freeway, Piner Creek winds through a retail and commercial/industrial area, before crossing under Piner Road near Coffey Lane; in this reach there is a large historic release to groundwater of solvent from manufacturing uses stemming back to the 1970s and 1980s.

Fountaingrove Lake reservoir in Santa Rosa, California

Fountaingrove Lake is a reservoir in the city of Santa Rosa, California, United States. Formed by the Fountaingrove Dam, the lake is fed from the east by Piner Creek, which is also the lake's sole outlet.

Riprap rock used for armouring structures

Riprap, also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armor or rubble, is rock or other material used to armor shorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against scour and water or ice erosion. Common rock types used include granite and limestone. Concrete rubble from building and paving demolition is sometimes used.

Retail is the process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. Retailers satisfy demand identified through a supply chain. The term "retailer" is typically applied where a service provider fills the small orders of a large number of individuals, who are end-users, rather than large orders of a small number of wholesale, corporate or government clientele. Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products. Sometimes this is done to obtain final goods, including necessities such as food and clothing; sometimes it takes place as a recreational activity. Recreational shopping often involves window shopping and browsing: it does not always result in a purchase.

Water quality of Piner Creek is characterized by pH levels that are mildly basic, with upper reach pH levels about 8.5, declining to lower reach levels at 7.8 just above the discharge to Santa Rosa Creek. [7] The headwaters soils are typically of pH about 6.9. Water quality of Piner Creek is generally low in turbidity, except for highest flow periods resulting from heavy rains; the water is free from odor. Springtime water temperatures are typically in the range of 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit (16 to 18 degrees Celsius).

pH measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution

In chemistry, pH is a scale used to specify how acidic or basic a water-based solution is. Acidic solutions have a lower pH, while basic solutions have a higher pH. At room temperature (25 °C), pure water is neither acidic nor basic and has a pH of 7.

Base (chemistry) substance that can accept hydrogen ions (protons) or more generally, donate a pair of valence electrons

In chemistry, bases are substances that, in aqueous solution, release hydroxide (OH−) ions, are slippery to the touch, can taste bitter if an alkali, change the color of indicators (e.g., turn red litmus paper blue), react with acids to form salts, promote certain chemical reactions (base catalysis), accept protons from any proton donor or contain completely or partially displaceable OH− ions. Examples of bases are the hydroxides of the alkali metals and the alkaline earth metals (NaOH, Ca(OH)2, etc.—see alkali hydroxide and alkaline earth hydroxide).

Turbidity The cloudiness of a fluid caused by large numbers of particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye

Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.

Piner Creek terminates at its confluence with Santa Rosa Creek, which watercourse discharges to the Laguna de Santa Rosa; the Laguna de Santa Rosa ultimately forms a confluence with the Russian River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Santa Rosa Creek stream in California

Santa Rosa Creek is a 22-mile-long (35 km) stream in Sonoma County, California, which rises on Hood Mountain and discharges to the Laguna de Santa Rosa by way of the Santa Rosa Flood Control Channel. This article covers both the creek and the channel.

Watercourse channel that a flowing body of water follows

A watercourse is the channel that a flowing body of water follows. In the UK, some aspects of criminal law, such as The Rivers Act 1951, specify that a watercourse includes those rivers which are dry for part of the year.

Laguna de Santa Rosa wetland in Sonoma County, California, USA

The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a 22-mile-long (35 km) wetland complex that drains a 254-square-mile (660 km2) watershed encompassing most of the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County, California, United States.

Geology

Piner Creek before its confluence with Santa Rosa Creek, on the Santa Rosa Plain Pinercrabvstarosacrkconfl.jpg
Piner Creek before its confluence with Santa Rosa Creek, on the Santa Rosa Plain

As recently as the Miocene period, twelve million years ago, the entire watershed of Piner Creek was on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. After significant volcanic uplift and tectonic movement, the headwaters region of the Mayacmas Mountains emerged above the ocean. Piner Creek was one of the drainages that began to drain the new landmass, in formation of the eventual Santa Rosa Plain, through which the middle and lower reaches of Piner Creek flow. Occasional basaltic outcrops are seen in the upper reach of Piner Creek, betraying the volcanic origin of the Mayacmas Mountains. [8]

The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Charles Lyell; its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.

Pacific Ocean Ocean between Asia and Australia in the west, the Americas in the east and Antarctica or the Southern Ocean in the south.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.

Basalt A magnesium- and iron-rich extrusive igneous rock

Basalt is a mafic extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich lava exposed at or very near the surface of a terrestrial planet or a moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Basalt lava has a low viscosity, due to its low silica content, resulting in rapid lava flows that can spread over great areas before cooling and solidification. Flood basalt describes the formation in a series of lava basalt flows.

The upper reach of Piner Creek watershed is characterized by presence of Goulding cobbly clay loam soil; this soil has slopes of up to 15 percent and is subject to moderate erosive potential. [9] The actual soil depth is typically only about 20 inches (50 cm) and may contain up to 25 percent cobblestones. Historic use of this soil has been for grazing. As the stream approaches the Santa Rosa Plain immediately east of U.S Highway 101, slopes diminish to a gradient of five to 15 percent and the predominant soil type is Felta very gravelly loam. This Felta soil is characterized by an upper surface grayish-brown color and texture of a fine, sticky and plastic nature.

West of U.S. Highway 101, Piner Creek flows over the Santa Rosa Plain at gradients of less than two percent. Here the predominant soil type is Zamora silty clay loam, which has been deposited as an alluvial fan as the floodplain formed. [9] The upper soil surface of the Zamora material is grayish-brown hard, firm, sticky and plastic. Permeability is moderately slow and fertility is high for these lower reach soils, which has resulted in historic orchard use and present day vineyards.

Ecology

Formal habitat evaluation of Piner Creek has been conducted along with a number of other streams within the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed. Habitat value of Piner Creek was found to be Fair compared to higher values scored by Matanzas Creek and Brush Creek and lower values scored by Colgan Creek. [5] Most of the watercourse has been modified to accommodate urban development within Santa Rosa, and some alterations have been conducted to achieve higher levels of flood control. The dominant tree along the banks of Piner Creek is the coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia ; within the streambed, a large number of cattail, Typha latifolia , stands are observed. A considerable number of bird species are found along the stream banks of Piner Creek.

Based upon benthic macroinvertebrate sampling in Piner Creek, a low faunal diversity was found; moreover a declining trend of such biodiversity was noted over the period 2000 to 2003. [5] In comparison with other streams of the Santa Rosa Creek watershed, Piner Creek was assessed to have above average epifaunal cover, riffle frequency and siltation characteristics. The high population level of tubificids in Piner Creek indicate the presence of excessive organic loading, [10] mostly due to high nitrate and phosphate runoff from urban uses (and possible reduced dissolved oxygen levels).

See also

Historic Round Barn, built in 1899, located in the Piner Creek watershed Roundbarnsocounty.jpg
Historic Round Barn, built in 1899, located in the Piner Creek watershed

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References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Fountaingrove Lake
  2. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey, Santa Rosa Quadrangle (1954, photorevised in 1980)
  3. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey, Aerial photograph stereo pair series (years 1957, 1965, and 1973)
  4. ↑ Environmental Site Assessment, 3230 and 3240 Coffey Lane, Santa Rosa, California Earth Metrics Incorporated, October 4, 1989
  5. 1 2 3 Biological and Physical/Habitat Assessment in the Santa Rosa Watershed (2002)
  6. ↑ History of Sonoma County, California Archived 2012-01-07 at the Wayback Machine .
  7. ↑ Water chemistry of the Laguna de Santa Rosa Watershed, Lumina Technologies, Santa Rosa, Ca. (2007)
  8. ↑ Volcanic Regions: Mayacamas and Sonoma Mountains
  9. 1 2 Soil Survey, Sonoma County, California, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Government Printing Office, Washington DC, May 1972
  10. ↑ E.B. Welch and T. Lindell, Ecological effects of wastewater , F P Spoon, London, England(2000)
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