Delta Subsidence in California -- The sinking heart of the State

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US Department of the InteriorUS Geological SurveyFS-005-00April 2000

T

he Delta, located at the conuenceof the Sacramento and San JoaquinRivers, is blanketed by peat and peaty alluvium deposited where streams,originating in the Sierra Nevada, CoastRanges, and southern Cascade Range,enter the San Francisco Bay system. In thelate-1800s, large-scale agricultural devel-opment in the Delta required levee-build-ing to prevent frequent ooding. Theleveed marshland tracts then had to bedrained, cleared of wetland vegetation,and tilled. Levees and drainage systemswere largely complete by 1930 and the Delta had takenon its current ap- pearance, with mostof its 1,150-square-mile area reclaimed for agricultural use(Thompson, 1957).Today the Deltaincludes about 57islands or tracts thatare imperfectly protected from flooding bymore than 1,100 miles of levees. Reclama-tion and agriculture have led to subsidenceof the land surface on the developed islandsin the central and western Delta at long-

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of California once was a greattidal freshwater marsh blanketed by peat and peaty alluvium. Beginning inthe late 1800s, levees were built along the stream channels, and the landthus protected from ooding was drained, cleared, and planted. Althoughthe Delta is now an exceptionally rich agricultural area (over a $500 millioncrop value in 1993), its unique value is as a source of freshwater forthe rest of the State. It is the heart of a massive north-to-south water-delivery system. Much of this water is pumped southward for use in theSan Joaquin Valley and elsewhere in central and southern California.The leveed tracts and islands help to protect water-export facilities inthe southern Delta from saltwater intrusion by displacing water andmaintaining favorable freshwater gradients. However, ongoing subsidencebehind the levees reduces levee stability and, thus, threatens to degradewater quality in the massive north-to-south water-transfer system.

term average rates of 1–3 inches per year (Rojstaczer and oth-ers, 1991; Rojstaczer and Deverel, 1993).Many of the islands in thecentral Delta are presently 10 tonearly 25 feet (ft) below sea level. Assubsidence progresses, the levees them-selves must be regularly maintained and periodically raised and strengthened tosupport the increasing stresses on their banks. Currently, the levees are maintained to a standard cross section at a heightof 1 ft above theestimated 100-year-flood elevation.An extensive net-work of drainageditches preventsislands from flood-ing internally and maintains ground-water levels deepenough for agricultural crops to grow.The accumulated agricultural drainage is pumped through or over the levees intostream channels. Without this drainage,the islands would become flooded.The dominant cause of land subsidencein the Delta is decomposition of organiccarbon in the peat soils. Prior to agri-cultural development, the soil was water-logged and anaerobic (oxygen-poor).Organic carbon accumulated faster thanit could decompose. Drainage for agri-culture led to aerobic (oxygen-rich) con-ditions that favor rapid microbial oxida-tion of the carbon in the peat soil. Most

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Levee

0 to1010 to15Greater than 15Land subsidence,in feet below sea level

Clifton CourtForebay

ToSan Francisco Bay

ShermanIslandChippsIslandTyler I.

Grand I.

California Aqueduct(State operated)Tracy Pumping PlantSouth BayPumping PlantDelta-Mendota Canal(Federal operated)Contra Costa CanalSouth BayAqueduct

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Harvey O. BanksDelta Pumping Plant

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CALIFORNIAMaparea

( C a l i f o r n i a D e p a r t m e n t o f W a t e r R e s o u r c e s )

Delta Subsidence in California

The sinking heart of the State

The leveed tracts and islands helpto protect water-export facilities inthe southern Delta from saltwaterintrusion by displacing water andmaintaining the salinity balance.

Field studies (Deverel and Rojstaczer, 1996)determined that the increased flux of carbondioxide gas from the drained peat soils wassufficient to explain most of the carbon lossand measured subsidence. The dissolvedorganic carbon pumped from the islands inagricultural drainage could account for onlyabout 1 percent of the carbon loss. The stud-ies also showed that rates of carbon-dioxideproduction increase with increasing tempera-ture and decrease with increasing soil mois-ture.

of the carbon loss is emitted as carbon-dioxide gas to the atmosphere (Devereland Rojstaczer, 1996).

The Delta’s unique value as asource of freshwater

The Delta receives runoff from about40 percent of the land area of Californiaand about 50 percent of California’stotal streamflow. It is the heart of a mas-sive north-to-south water-delivery systemwhose giant engineered arterials transportwater southward. State and Federal con-tracts provide for export of up to 7.5 mil-lion acre-feet per year from two huge pumping stations in the southern Deltanear the Clifton Court Forebay (CaliforniaDepartment of Water Resources, 1993).About 83 percent of this water is used for agriculture and the remainder for variousurban uses in central and southern Califor-nia. Two-thirds of California’s population(more than 20 million people) gets at least part of its drinking water from the Delta(Delta Protection Commission, 1995).The waterways of the Delta are subjectto tidal action. Ocean tides propagatinginto San Francisco Bay are observed 5–6hours later along theCosumnes River inthe eastern Delta.The position of theinterface betweenthe saline waters of the Bay and thefreshwaters of the Delta depends uponthe tidal cycle and the flow of freshwater through the Delta. Before major damswere built on rivers in the Delta water-shed, the salinity interface migrated asfar upstream as Courtland along theSacramento River (California Depart-ment of Water Resources, 1993). Today,releases of freshwater from dams far upstream help reduce the maximum land-ward migration of the salinity interfaceduring the late summer. In the spring,however, reservoirs and Delta exportsconsistently act in concert to increase thelandward migration of the salinity inter-face over that expected under conditionsof unimpaired flows

1

(Knowles, 2000).Land subsidence of Delta islands indi-rectly affects the north-to-south water-transfer system, which is predicated on theavailable water supply (annual inflows tothe Delta), the viability of aquatic species populations, and acceptable water qualityin the southern Delta. The presence of the western Delta islands, in particular, is believed to effectively inhibit the inland migration of the salinity interface betweenthe Bay and Delta. If these islands wereto become permanently inundated withsaline water, the water available to themassive pumping facilities near the Clif-ton Court Forebay might become toosaline to use. The timing of levee breaksand flooding is critical in this regard.Fortunately, mostflooding occurs inwinter and spring,when major salt-water intrusion isless likely. How-ever, there are occa-sional levee failures under low-flow con-ditions. These failures can cause major short-term water-quality problems, evenif the flooded areas are later reclaimed.During one such incident, an island wasflooded under low-flow conditions, and chloride levels reached 440 parts per mil-

1Unimpaired flows refer to the hypothetical flows that would occur in the estuary without water storagediversions and exports, upstream and in the Delta, but in the presence of the existing channels and levees.

In flooded conditions,decaying tules decom-pose slowly to releasecarbon dioxide (CO

2

)and methane (CH

4

).Exposure to air acceleratesthe decay of tules and peatsoil. Organic material isconverted mainly to CO

2

and water.ANAEROBIC CONDITIONS: Oxygen poorAEROBIC CONDITIONS: Oxygen richOxygen (O

2

)Carbondioxide (CO

2

)CarbonAs peat soilsdecompose, theland “vaporizes”and subsides.

ChannelMain channelNatural levees were formedby sediments depositedduring spring floodsand stabilized byvegetation.“Tule” (bulrushand reed species)Water tablePeat soils were formedfrom decaying vegetationover thousands of years.Riparian vegetation wascleared and levees werebuilt to create farmland.Semicontinuous pumpsremove agriculturaldrainage to maintaina low water table.Levees must be periodicallyraised and reinforced tosupport increasing stressesfrom stream channels.Saucer-shaped profile re-flects greatest thicknessand subsidence of peatsoils near the center ofthe islands.

Not to scale

PREDEVELOPMENTPOSTDEVELOPMENT

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: The heart of California’s water systems

lion (ppm) at the Contra Costa Canalintake, which is well above the Califor-nia standard for drinking water of 250 ppm (California Department of Water Resources, 1995).The statewide water-transfer system inCalifornia is so interdependent thatdecreased water quality in the Delta,whether due to droughts or levee failures,might lead to accelerated subsidence inareas dependent on imported water fromthe Delta. How might this happen? Manyareas of central and southern Californiathat are dependent on Delta water also aresusceptible to another kind of subsidence.Historically, over-pumping in the San Joa-quin and Santa Clara Valleys compacted critically stressed aquifer systems, result-ing in land subsidence (Galloway and oth-ers, 1999). Before imported Delta water became available in the mid-1970s, nearly30 ft of subsidence had been measured inthe San Joaquin Valley and up to 14ft in the city of San Jose in the SantaClara Valley. Estimated damages were inthe hundreds of millions of dollars, largelydue to costs associated with constructionof flood control structures and well damage.Both the Santa Clara and San Joaquin Val-leys now rely, in part, on imported water from the Delta to augment local suppliesand, thereby, reduce local ground-water pumpage and arrest, or slow, subsidence.Degradation of the Delta source water could lead to increased ground-water useand renewed subsidence in these and other areas in California.

Sacramento River(21.2 maf)San Francisco Bay(21 maf)Contra Costa Canal(0.1 maf)Consumptive use/ channel depletion(1.7 maf)South Bay andCalifornia Aqueducts(2.5 maf)Delta-Mendota Canal(2.5 maf)East side streams (1.4 maf)Precipitation(1 maf)San Joaquin River (4.3 maf)

San Francisco Bay Pacific Ocean

BEFORE UPSTREAMDAMS BUILT

Maximum salinityinstrusions,1921 to 1943

AFTER UPSTREAMDAMS BUILT

Maximum salinityinstrusions,1944 to 1990WetyearDryyearWetyearDryyear

Annual inflowAnnual Outflow

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An artificial balance is maintained in the water exchanged betweenthe Delta and the San FranciscoBay. Freshwater inflows regulated by upstream dams and diversionssupply water to the Delta ecosys-tems and to farms and cities incentral and southern California.Subsidence of Delta islands threat-ens the stability of island levees and the quality of Delta water. Deltalevee failures would tip the water-exchange balance in favor of moresaltwater intrusion, which can ruinthe water for agriculture and do-mestic uses. Several aqueductswould be affected. Any reductionsin the supply of imported Deltawater could force water purveyorsin many parts of the State to meetwater demand with ground-water supplies. This, in turn, could renewland subsidence in the Santa Claraand San Joaquin Valleys and exac-erbate subsidence in Antelope Val-ley and other areas that currentlyare reliant on imported Delta water supplies and prone to aquifer-systemcompaction.

An amount equivalent to about 25 per-cent of the Delta’s inflow is pump-ed into California’s massive wa-ter system. Some of the restis used locally, but mostflows into the San Fran-cisco Bay.The Delta receives runoff from about 40 per-cent of the land area of California and about50 percent of California’s total streamflow.

Salinity

Salinity intrusions are linked to theinteractions of tides, water-management programs, andclimatic variability. Whenfreshwater flows de-crease, higher salinitywater can moveinto the Delta.On average, upstream control structures, suchas Folsom, Shasta, and Oroville Dams, havereduced the extent of salinity intrusionsby providing freshwater re-leases during thesummer and fall.However, fromFebruary throughearly June the reser-voirs effectively removewater from Delta outflow.The peak effect of this remov-al tends to occur in May as res-ervoirs in the southern Sierra cap-ture snowmelt runoff (Knowles,2000). This makes the Delta more sus-ceptible to salinity intrusions in the spring.

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Flow data from 1980–1991(CaliforniaDepartmentofWaterResources1993)(Note: maf,millions of acre feet)

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( C a l i f o r n i a D e p a r t m e n t o f W a t e r R e s o u r c e s )

The Tyler Island levee was breached in a 1986flood. Such levee failures have been common inthe Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta since reclama-tion began in the 1850s. Each of the islands andtracts in the Delta has flooded at least once, withseveral flooding repeatedly. About 100 levee fail-ures have occurred since the early 1890s. Initially,most of the failures were caused by overtoppingduring periods of spring flooding. Although con-struction of upstream reservoirs since the 1940shas reduced the threat of overtopping, it has notreduced the incidence of levee failure.

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