California benefits from a diverse
array of rivers that provide water for cities and farms as well
as vital habitat for fish, birds and other species and recreation
for people. Many of the state’s rivers have been dammed or
diverted for water supply and flood control. Some are designated
as wild and scenic rivers, mainly along the North Coast of
California, and remain undammed for all or parts of their run.
Still other rivers in the state have been used as conduits for
treated wastewater and agricultural runoff.
The Carson River begins in the
Sierra Nevada southeast of Lake Tahoe as two separate forks.The
united Carson River flows through the Carson Valley and into
Lahontan Reservoir, draining after 184 miles into the Carson Sink
wetlands in the Great Basin of Nevada.
Serving as the “lifeline of the
Southwest,” and one of the most heavily regulated rivers in the
world, the Colorado River provides water to 35 million people and
more than 4 million acres of farmland in a region encompassing
some 246,000 square miles.
The Klamath River flows 253 miles
from Southern Oregon to the California coast, draining a basin of
more than 15,000 square miles. The watershed and its fisheries
have been the subject of negotiation since the 1860s negotiations
that have intensified and continue to this day.
The New River flows north from
Mexico near Cerro Prieto, through the city of Mexicali and into
the United States through the city of Calexico, California,
towards the Salton Sea.
The river channel was created when the Salton Sea formed in 1905
after the Colorado River broke through a series of dikes and
extensive flooding occurred in the Salton Sink.
The Klamath, Trinity, Eel, Russian
and Smith rivers are the major northern streams that drain this
sparsely populated, forested coastal area that stretches from San
Francisco to the Oregon border. These rivers and their
tributaries flow west to the Pacific Ocean and account for about
40 percent of the state’s total runoff.
The Russian River drains the
sparsely populated, forested coastal area that stretches from San
Francisco to the Oregon border.
Along the Russian, federally funded dams have created Lake
Mendocino (at the Coyote Dam) and Lake Sonoma (Warm Springs Dam).
Locally built aqueducts channel water from these lakes into
growing Marin and Sonoma counties.
The Sacramento River is California’s
largest river, providing 35 percent of the state’s developed
water supply. The river helps support the valley’s millions of
acres of irrigated agriculture and is home to wildlife and a
range of aquatic species, including rearing habitat for 70
percent of all salmon caught off the California coast.
From its headwaters high in
California’s Sierra Nevada, the Truckee River flows into and
through Lake Tahoe, continuing down the Truckee River canyon to
the Reno metropolitan area and then across miles of Nevada high
desert before flowing into Pyramid Lake, 40 miles northeast of
Reno.
The San Joaquin River, which helps
drain California’s Central Valley, has been negatively impacted
by construction of dams, inadequate streamflows and poor water
quality. Efforts are now underway to restore the river and
continue providing agricultural lands with vital irrigation,
among other water demands.
