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R.
San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere in central and southern California.
nes
Cosum
The leveed tracts and islands help to protect water-export facilities in
the southern Delta from saltwater intrusion by displacing water and
Grand I.
maintaining favorable freshwater gradients. However, ongoing subsidence
behind the levees reduces levee stability and, thus, threatens to degrade
water quality in the massive north-to-south water-transfer system. Riv
er Tyler I.
Rio Vista
Levee
T
o
ent
he Delta, located at the confluence term average rates of To
am
n
cr Joa qui
of the Sacramento and San Joaquin 1–3 inches per year San Sa
Ri
Francisco v er
Rivers, is blanketed by peat and (Rojstaczer and oth-
n
Bay Sherman
Sa
Island
peaty alluvium deposited where streams, ers, 1991; Rojstaczer
originating in the Sierra Nevada, Coast and Deverel, 1993). Chipps
Island Antioch
Ranges, and southern Cascade Range, Many of the islands in the
enter the San Francisco Bay system. In the central Delta are presently 10 to Contra Costa Canal Stockton
late-1800s, large-scale agricultural devel- nearly 25 feet (ft) below sea level. As
opment in the Delta required levee-build- subsidence progresses, the levees them-
ing to prevent frequent flooding. The selves must be regularly maintained and
Harvey O. Banks
leveed marshland tracts then had to be periodically raised and strengthened to Delta Pumping Plant Clifton Court
drained, cleared of wetland vegetation, support the increasing stresses on their Forebay
South Bay
and tilled. Levees and drainage systems banks. Currently, the levees are maintained Pumping Plant
were largely complete by 1930 and to a standard cross section at a height Tracy Pumping Plant
California Aqueduct
of its 1,150-square- (State operated)
An extensive net-
mile area reclaimed
work of drainage
for agricultural use
ditches prevents The dominant cause of land subsidence
(Thompson, 1957).
islands from flood- in the Delta is decomposition of organic
Today the Delta ing internally and carbon in the peat soils. Prior to agri-
includes about 57 maintains ground- cultural development, the soil was water-
islands or tracts that water levels deep logged and anaerobic (oxygen-poor).
are imperfectly protected from flooding by enough for agricultural crops to grow. Organic carbon accumulated faster than
more than 1,100 miles of levees. Reclama- The accumulated agricultural drainage is it could decompose. Drainage for agri-
tion and agriculture have led to subsidence pumped through or over the levees into culture led to aerobic (oxygen-rich) con-
of the land surface on the developed islands stream channels. Without this drainage, ditions that favor rapid microbial oxida-
in the central and western Delta at long- the islands would become flooded. tion of the carbon in the peat soil. Most
Field studies (Deverel and Rojstaczer, 1996) ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS: Oxygen poor AEROBIC CONDITIONS: Oxygen rich
determined that the increased flux of carbon
dioxide gas from the drained peat soils was Exposure to air accelerates
sufficient to explain most of the carbon loss the decay of tules and peat
soil. Organic material is
and measured subsidence. The dissolved converted mainly to CO2
organic carbon pumped from the islands in and water.
agricultural drainage could account for only
about 1 percent of the carbon loss. The stud-
ies also showed that rates of carbon-dioxide Oxygen (O2)
production increase with increasing tempera- In flooded conditions, Carbon
ture and decrease with increasing soil mois- decaying tules decom- dioxide (CO2)
ture. pose slowly to release
carbon dioxide (CO2) As peat soils
and methane (CH4). decompose, the
Carbon land “vaporizes”
and subsides.
1Unimpaired flows refer to the hypothetical flows that would occur in the estuary without water storage
diversions and exports, upstream and in the Delta, but in the presence of the existing channels and levees.
lion (ppm) at the Contra Costa Canal Clara Valley. Estimated damages were in
intake, which is well above the Califor- the hundreds of millions of dollars, largely
nia standard for drinking water of 250 due to costs associated with construction
ppm (California Department of Water of flood control structures and well damage.
Resources, 1995). Both the Santa Clara and San Joaquin Val-
leys now rely, in part, on imported water
The statewide water-transfer system in
from the Delta to augment local supplies
California is so interdependent that
and, thereby, reduce local ground-water
decreased water quality in the Delta,
pumpage and arrest, or slow, subsidence.
whether due to droughts or levee failures,
Degradation of the Delta source water
might lead to accelerated subsidence in
could lead to increased ground-water use
areas dependent on imported water from
and renewed subsidence in these and other
the Delta. How might this happen? Many
areas in California.
areas of central and southern California
that are dependent on Delta water also are
susceptible to another kind of subsidence.
Historically, over-pumping in the San Joa- The Tyler Island levee was breached in a 1986
flood. Such levee failures have been common in
quin and Santa Clara Valleys compacted the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta since reclama-
FUTURE STRATEGIES
REFERENCES
California Department of Water Resources, 1993, Sac- Bay-Delta estuary and watershed: Interagency Eco- For additional information contact:
ramento-San Joaquin Delta atlas: California Depart- logical Program for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Kimberly Taylor
ment of Water Resources, 121 p. Estuary Newsletter, v. 13, no. 1, p. 5–23. U.S. Geological Survey
———, 1995, Delta levees: California Department of Rojstaczer, S.A., and Deverel, S.J., 1993, Time depen- Placer Hall, 6000 J Street
Water Resources, 19 p. dence of atmospheric carbon inputs from drainage of Sacramento, CA 95819
Delta Protection Commission, 1995, Land use and organic soils: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 20, p. (916) 278-3264
resource management plan for the primary zone of the 1,383–1,386. ktaylor@usgs.gov
Delta: Delta Protection Commission, 60 p. Rojstaczer, S.A., Hamon, R.E., Deverel, S.J., and Helpful internet sites:
Deverel, S.J., and Rojstaczer, S.A., 1996, Subsidence of Massey, C.A., 1991, Evaluation of selected data to http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov
agricultural lands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, assess the causes of subsidence in the Sacramento- http://calfed.ca.gov
California. Role of aqueous and gaseous carbon fluxes: San Joaquin Delta, California: U.S. Geological Sur-
Water Resources Research, v. 32, p. 2,359-2,367. vey Open-File Report 91-193, 16 p.
Galloway, D.C., Jones, D.R., and Ingebritsen, S.E., Thompson, John, 1957, The settlement geography
1999, Land subsidence in the United States: U.S. Geo- of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California:
logical Survey Circular 1182, 177 p. Palo Alto, Calif., Stanford University, Ph.D. dis-
sertation, 551 p.
Knowles, Noah, 2000, Natural and human influences
on freshwater flows and salinity in the San Francisco