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Picture gallery from above California, the Delta and Sacramento

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 15, 2009 at 7:59 am

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the Water Education Foundation’s Executive Briefing in Sacramento. It was a wonderful chance to listen to legislators, water officials, and environmental representatives talk about the issues facing California’s water supply. It was also great opportunity to meet some of my readers, and I thank you all for your kind comments regarding the blog.

While I was there, I took some time to drive down to the Delta, and here are some of the pictures I took while I was on my trip.

This is where the California Aqueduct comes out at the top of the Tehachapi Mountains. The split in the aqueduct is called the “bifurcation point” (I love that word … bifurcation …. sounds like you’re saying something nasty but you’re not!) That is the east branch headed up towards the top of the picture – it will eventually head past Palmdale and down towards the Inland Empire. The branch headed downward in the picture is the west branch, which goes to Quail Lake (at the bottom of the screen) and then on to Pyramid Lake and Castaic Lake.

And here is Castaic Lake, from above…..

Here’s the South Bay Area. I find the patterns made in the water interesting to look at; I wonder why it is like that. I also noticed there were homes up to the water’s edge, and thought about reports that the sea level could rise 55″. From the looks of things, that could have serious impacts on the large numbers of houses and businesses located there.

One of my favorite cities that I don’t visit nearly enough….

Here’s a shot of the Bay Bridge that shows the span that is under construction. The new span is being built to replace the old one, which parts of came down in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

It wasn’t the best time to visit the Delta – I think I was about a month too early. Temperatures at night are still quite cool, and the plants and trees are just beginning to wake up from winter, as you can tell from these grapevines….

And these gnarly trees….

Even so, the Delta is always nice to visit. There’s definitely a laid back feel there, and you can drive for long periods of time without seeing another car. This is the Sacramento River, the largest river feeding into the Delta.

Check out my rental car – the best mode of transportation in the Delta, next to a boat…. I highly recommend it!

Delta farmers get their water directly from the rivers and channels, so you see big straws on the levees periodically…

and lots of funky irrigation structures, like this one:

And this one:

Some daring souls build their homes right in the water – crazy, if you ask me!

Birds also like to hang out in the Delta – although I didn’t get to see the sandhill cranes that everyone was talking about at the briefing…

An unfortunate sign of the times… many abandoned boats

Farming is, of course, the main activity in the Delta…

As is fishing and boating…

It’s a very peaceful place to be – just make sure you start out with a cooler, a map, and a full tank of gas as you can drive for miles and miles and not see anyone else (at least at this time of year ….)

Here’s the CalTrans-operated ferry, just recently refurbished:

This shot is on the outskirts of Rio Vista…

There are lots of bridges in the Delta – most of them are drawbridges. This is the bridge into Rio Vista.

Back in Sacramento, here’s somebody’s something… Could be an intake facility as just up the river is some sort of intake structure, but that’s just a guess.

Unfortunately, many municipalities dump stuff into the Delta – here’s where Sacramento’s stuff comes out… Not sure if this would be treated wastewater or stormwater.

Here is the Freeport Regional Water Project, currently under construction. This is a joint project between Sacramento County & EBMUD to draw more water from the Sacramento River. I think the plan is that EBMUD would only get water in dry years.

Here’s Sacramento’s water tank. I remember someone saying it should be painted red, like a tomato, but me, I think I’d pick black, like a mutant spider with too many legs… Or maybe they should put lights on it and make it look like a UFO. Somehow this water tank is too cool to have such a boring paint job…

Back in the plane, now headed for home. Here’s a shot of the Delta from the plane:

Here’s something else that looked interesting – some sort of discharge for agriculture, I’m presuming. Look at the salt running into it! This was further down the coast – about halfway. The plane was just starting it’s decent into Southern California when I took this picture. It’s not in the Central Valley, but on the other side of the mountains.

March 15, 2009 · Filed Under Website News

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