DELTA FACTS 

     The Delta is located in Northern California, inland of the San Francisco Bay going towards Sacramento.  Highways 80 and 5 boarder the Delta and Highway 12 crosses the Delta east to west in about the middle of the Delta region.  The boundaries of the Delta were legislatively defined by the Federal and State governments when the Federally-funded Central Valley Project was planned as part of the "New Deal" after the Depression.  The Legal Delta Region includes land of five counties, and portions of several larger cities like Sacramento, West Sacramento, Stockton and Antioch, and smaller cities like Rio Vista, Byron, Walnut Grove, Freeport, Clarksburg, Courtland and Isleton.  There are 62 major named islands and hundreds of smaller islands.  There are over 700,000 acres in the Legal Delta region.  The maps to the right show the defined boundaries of the Delta and current Delta road and island locations.

     If you drink water or wine in California, or eat rice, vegetables, nuts and fruits, or use natural gas to heat your home, all of those goods are available to you at the relatively low price you pay because the Delta exists.  Fresh water from the Delta is pumped out to be transported to other areas of California to supply the drinking water for 22 million Californians and for millions of acres of California agricultural and industrial uses.

     If you care about helping to feed other people of the world, the rice grown on the west side of the Sacramento River feeds hundreds of millions of people.  Water running through the Delta helps to create larger rice and staple farming areas to feed the world, not just the USA population.  One of the motivations for more demand of Delta water is to create larger land areas west of Sacramento for seasonal rice growing to export the rice to China and other areas of the world.  The USGS slide to the right describes an evolution "back to" a historic water flow and use of the land but is actually a revision of the Delta lands for several targeted purposes.  Restoration of the Delta to its historic flows would require that NO water be pumped out of the Delta.  The new vision for the Delta-the proposals on the table now- increase the amount of water pumped out of the Delta.  The rest of the world's hungry populations (and the businesses that sell the food product) will benefit if more water is taken from the Delta, even though the water rights belong to others.  The modern day Robinhood story is unfolding:  Take from the water-rich Delta so the state can sell to the water-poor Southern California and Central Valley farmers to build more houses and feed more of the world's population.

The Delta is a natural land formation that was listed as "swamp and overflow lands" when California was first surveyed before becoming a state.  Some of the Delta islands were naturally formed, as shown by the maps to the right, and there were natural levees with native trees and plants along the banks, as shown from a sketch from an 1861 publication.  Other islands were "reclaimed" lands as authorized by the state and federal governments in the 1800's.  The state sold the land to citizens to be reclaimed for use as farmland and other beneficial uses.  The land owners built up the levees to protect against the occasional floods that could happen in wet years.  The 1935 map to the right shows the Delta Islands at that time, which is very close to the Delta as it is today. 

Important to note:  The names of Delta Islands, rivers, waterways or sloughs and cities and city locations have changed over the years, which has caused confusion for persons who are not aware of Delta reclamation history.  So, for example, the map to the right lists islands called "Priest" and "Sutter" where Ryer Island stands today, and there is a Sutter Island in the more northern section.  And oddly enough, there are two Ryer Islands in Solano County, one in the Suisun Bay area, which further confuses the uninformed scientist, map reviewer or traveler.  The waterway names have also changed over time.  When the first maps were made of this area, the Sacramento River had several "forks" so the early maps reflect names like "Sacramento Middle Fork" which later was renamed "Steamboat Slough" by the time the 1861 book was published about the area.  Both the main Sacramento River and a winding part of the San Joaquin River were referred to as "Old River" at various times, so this can lead to confusion when reading historic books on the region.  Even the city names changed!  Where Rio Vista is located now, at least one early map refers to "Suisun City".  There really is a Suisun City, but its not in the Delta and not on the Sacramento River.  Even usually accurate online map websites like Google have gotten the island names confused over the last several years, which makes it hard for persons doing Delta research or traveling to the Delta.  The 1935 Soils Survey map to the right and the road map listed above give correct current names for the Delta Islands
What is a levee?

     Most of the 700,000 plus acres is used for farming.  Wine and table grapes, corn, saffron, hay, wheat, pears, the best cherries you will ever eat in your life, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and many other vegetables and fruits are grown in the Delta.  Animals raised for food such as cows, lamb and chicken are raised in the Delta.  The Delta is also a good place to raise horses and hunting dogs and other domestic pets.  Some Delta land owners have developed marinas and RV resorts to take advantage of the great fishing and water sports rivers and sloughs found in the Delta.  And then there are the residential communities like what is found on Grand Island, Snug Harbor, along Hwy 160 at Isleton, Ryde, Bethel Island, Courtland, Clarksburg, Walnut Grove, Freeport, and the mobile home communities on Andrus Island like Korth's and El Rancho.  There is also industrial use of Delta lands in locations like Antioch, West Sacramento, Rio Vista and Stockton.

     However, ownership of the water flowing through the Delta is a different issue related to water rights.  This is a HUGE issue in California and the US.  "Who owns the water?" is the key question along with "Who gets to control the water?".  The Federal government wants to control the water, the state wants to control the water, the land owners with riparian water rights want to continue to use the water rights that came with the purchase of their land, fish want to use the water to stay alive, environmentalists want to use the water to create new habitat areas and promote carbon farming or tule farms to help the ozone, developers want to control the water so they can do more housing development in other areas, industrial companies want to control the water so they can expand their manufacturing processes, and Central Valley and SoCal farmers want to control the water so they can continue to make naturally desert lands into productive farmland.  Who owns the Delta water and who gets to control it are the big legal questions of the 21st Century.  The answers are very complicated and contentious.  We can not answer these questions and can only refer you to links on the subject. 

0 That is right.   The first levees were built in the 1860's and by the 1906 huge earthquake in San Francisco the Delta was already developed with most of the islands as they are configured today.  Those levees were handmade and presumably less structurally sound than the levees of today.  In fact, no Delta levee has been shown to have broken or caused a flood in response to a bay area earthquake.  The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake was another one that took down bridges, roads and buildings in the Bay area.  Did any Delta levees fail?  No.

So why has the media made such a big deal about the "possibility" that a major Bay Area earthquake could destroy the Delta levees?  There are only two logical reasons....1) to convince the voting population that the levees are not sustainable so we might as well take them from the land owners and knock the levees down to create new habitat and tule farms and 2) to keep the Delta island land values as low as possible until the government can validate taking the Delta lands back from the farmers and businesses that bought the lands long ago.

Take a good look at the new map to the right showing the potential damage to California from the shaking of major earthquakes.  This study (if correct) should limit growth of any area in red for the protection of the population...right?  Why do we only hear about how limits should be placed on Delta development?  And if this study is correct, why hasn't a levee been damaged in a past earthquake?  Just because the government spent millions of dollars on scientific studies and created colorful fancy maps does not mean its the TRUTH.  The DRMS Phase 1 study is also a good example of science mis-applied to result in portraying false information.

     The sole reason DWR has been intentionally misleading the public and legislators about the risk of levee failure is to validate the state's claim that the Delta is "not sustainable" as the islands are configured today.  You should care because the officials who you elected into office, and the persons whose salaries and pensions you pay for through your income tax are intentionally fabricating facts as a means to an end.  If the state makes the wrong decisions about the Delta and water use, guess who's going to pay for the mistakes?

You.  California's urban water user and tax payer.
 

Verification DRMS is wrong as to Delta Island Flood History

Resources comparing Delta flood history

Example of wrong Delta Island history used in current scientific study, perpetuating the distribution of false information

US ACE 2006 Report to Congress