Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
One of many agricultural drains on the Sacramento River. (Department of Water Re-
sources)
trol project, and the feds had allocated $23 million. According to Kelley,
“Its authorized works included 980 miles of levees; 7 weirs or control
structures; 3 drainage pumping plants; 438 miles of channels and canals; 7
bypasses . . . encompassing an area of 101,000 acres; 5 low water check
dams; 31 bridges; 50 miles of collecting canals and seepage ditches; 91
gauging stations; and 8 automatic shortwave radio water-stage transmit-
ters.” Californians had achieved their goal of replumbing the bay-delta
watershed.
Shasta Dam also helped to put a big dent in the 600,000 cubic feet per
second of water that the valley's first settlers so dreaded sweeping through
their towns and orchards. Behind the dam, runoff could be trapped and
released more slowly over time; other, smaller headwater dams promised
to bolster flood-flow regulation capacity further.
As these measures were being taken to control flows, people living on
the valley floor acquired a new sense of security. In the rural counties of
Colusa, Yuba, Yolo, and Sutter, the population grew by 170 percent be-
tween 1910 and 1950, and in more urban Sacramento County it increased
by 309 percent, according to Kelley. During this time period, the system
finally seemed to weather flood years with only minor, not major, levee
breaks. But the lull would not last forever. And the flood-control proj-
ect—originally designed to protect agricultural lands—now found itself
