The Delta Cross Channel is a facility in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that diverts water from the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento� ...

. The facility was built in 1951 in

Walnut Grove, California Walnut Grove is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sacramento County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade– Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,542 at the 2010 census, up from 669 at t ...

. It diverts water to Snodgrass Slough, from where it flows to the

Mokelumne River The Mokelumne River ( or ; ''Mokelumne'', Miwok for "People of the Fish Net") is a -long river in northern California in the United States. The river flows west from a rugged portion of the central Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley and ul ...

, then to the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

, towards the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant, which is the intake for the Delta-Mendota Canal, 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 an ...

. The distance from the channel to the Jones Pumping Plant is about .

Operation

The diversion is controlled by two

sluice gate Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

s that each measure by and weigh 243 tons and extend across the channel. The channel is long, has a bottom width of , and was designed to divert a capacity of of water per second under normal conditions, but can divert up to if required. The facility was built to augment the flow of the Sacramento River through the Delta to the Jones Pumping Plant. It ensures an adequate supply of water for the Jones Pumping Plant and irrigation supplies for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while controlling ocean salinity. The gates close when the river floods, specifically when the flow on the Sacramento River reaches per second, to prevent flooding on the San Joaquin River, and if the amount of water is so low that the Central Valley Project cannot deliver water. The gates also close during the winter to protect the fisheries in the Delta, specifically the

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

fishery. The winter closure of the facility was requested by a consortium of wildlife protection agencies, including the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

, the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The gates are generally open during the summer months.

References

{{Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta Agriculture in California Aqueducts in California Irrigation in the United States San Joaquin Valley Sacramento River Transportation buildings and structures in Sacramento County, California Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta United States Bureau of Reclamation Central Valley Project