(UTC)

the article's usage should reflect that of the bay area locality.  Like hell it should.  If that was the standard by which we wrote Wikipedia, there'd be a lot of strange-sounding articles. The standard is clearly laid out in WP:UE, that we use whatever is most commonly reflected in reliable sources.

For now, strange though the inclusion of "the" sounds to my midwestern ears, I must grant that U.S. Geological Survey is a very powerful source supporting inclusion of the "the".  But it is not the only such source, and I consider the question to be an open one.  I have no plans to hunt down other sources to counter it, but I just did not want to allow the canard that local usage is our standard to go by.  (And, if I am wrong about this, I don't mind being shown the facts.  But this certainly flies in the face of everything I've seen in the last four years.)   19:14, 23 January 2011