Clifton Court Forebay is a
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
in the
San Joaquin River Delta region of eastern
Contra Costa County, California
) of the San Francisco Bay
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1 = State
, subdivision_name1 = California
, subdivision_type2 ...
, southwest of
Stockton. The estuary region the forebay is located in is only 1m to 3m above mean sea level.
History
The body of water was created in 1969 by inundating a tract as part of the
California State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is a state water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the California Department of Water Resources. The SWP is one of the largest public water ...
.
It serves as the intake point of the
California Aqueduct
The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Cali ...
for transport to
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
, and feeds the
Delta–Mendota Canal
The Delta–Mendota Canal is a aqueduct in central California, United States. The canal was designed and completed in 1951 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as part of the Central Valley Project. It carries freshwater to replace San Joaquin R ...
(a part of the
Central Valley Project
The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a federal power and water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation and m ...
) to recharge
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...
river systems.
Geological context
If a large enough earthquake happens near or at the Clifton Court Forebay, the California water system for irrigation and municipal use will be adversely affected. Several earthquakes have nearly shut down the Forebay. The
2014 South Napa earthquake
The 2014 South Napa earthquake occurred in the North San Francisco Bay Area on August 24 at . At 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale and with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe''), the event was the largest in the San Francisco Bay Are ...
and the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...
came very close to shutting down the Forebay intake system.
The Clifton Forebay is a wetland system that drained nearby small rivers into the Pacific Ocean. Only in recent times was its freshwater drainage functions turned into a gateway to water storage.
The Central Valley region that this forebay interfaces with is very gradually filling in the central valley with sediments. The region may be rebounding from recent run ins with glaciations that affected North America.
In popular culture
A documentary about the decline of the United States' infrastructure, ''The Crumbling of America'',
was commissioned by the U.S.
A&E network
A&E is an American basic cable network, the flagship television property of A&E Networks. The network was originally founded in 1984 as the Arts & Entertainment Network, initially focusing on fine arts, documentaries, television drama, dramas, and ...
in the late 2000s. The documentary is typically shown on the
History
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
television channel in the United States, although other educational broadcasters globally have shown it. It features the Clifton Court Forebay as a "strategic piece of California freshwater infrastructure" subject to shutdown for up to two years if struck by an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or greater.
See also
*
List of dams and reservoirs in California
Following is a list of dams and reservoirs in California in a sortable table. There are over 1,400 named dams and 1,300 named reservoirs in the state of California.
Dams in service
:''Please add to this list from the below sources.''
Former ...
*
List of lakes in California
There are more than 3,000 named lakes, reservoirs, and dry lakes in the U.S. state of California.
Largest lakes
In terms of area covered, the largest lake in California is the Salton Sea, a lake formed in 1905 which is now saline. It occupies ...
Related sites
Reservoir mapHistory of the California Aqueduct system
References
{{San Francisco Bay watershed
California State Water Project
Reservoirs in Contra Costa County, California
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
Infrastructure completed in 1969
1969 establishments in California
Reservoirs in Northern California