Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-12-21
VALLEY DRAINAGE.
AN ENGINEERS VIEW OF AN I'M
PORTANT QUESTION.
How to Prevent Overflow of the
Sacramento River and to
Reclaim Lowlands.

4
1t is clear, concise and free from technica
expression. Mr.. Grunsky was for ten year
an engineer in the State Engineers Office
and one of the first problems be began t.
study in that position was the proper treat
ment of the Sacramento river:
| Every resident upon the banks of the Sacra
mento river, weighs in his mind. as the rainy
season sets in, the probability of an inundatioI
| at the point where he lives. If his lands have
escaped flooding for several seasons if his levee.
| have been raised higher and made broader thar
those of his neighbor across the stream, he lure.
himself into fancied security, regardless of the
/ many changes in the character of the water
| courses which nature and the works of man are
\ constantly making, and the effect of which he
does not appreciate until some great catastrophe
proves to him at his cost, that conditions prevail
which he had before thought impossible.
1t is my purpose this evening to indicate very
| briefly and without any attempt TO make my
| descriptions complete, the provisions which
| nature has made for the drainage of the Sacra-
| me2to valley, then shall allude to the changes
which have recently been made through the
| agency of man, and finally shall point out
what nature herself indicates S the best and
| only proper method of improving our drainage
system.
| Sacramento river carries to the sea water
which is collected by its innumerable tributaries
from &c 600 square miles of surface. On seasons
of unusual rainfall such as have not occurred in
sion OF wet winters, there is added to this area
ordinarily drained by the river all of that part
| of California and Oregon within the watershed
of Goose lake, being probably about 3,C00 square
miles.
When Goose Lake oyerfows its waters enter
| Pit river and are delivered into the Sacramento
rlver. Ihat 1t does overflow at times is evi-
denced by the waterways leading from it to
Pit river. No other conclusion can be
drawn, from the fact that the lake has not over
| flowed for long period, than that this period
haa afnf1 fail
which have preceded it, and it follows as
| matter of course that so long as no good cause
c-n be assigned for permanent change in the
climate of this coast, we must concede the pos.
sibility of greater rains, wetter winters than
| have prevailed in California since 1860.
After long continuous southwesterly course
| Pit river unites with the Upper Sacramento
river above Redding. Thence its course
is almost due south to its outfall into
Suisun bay. The river breaks through the
ridge of hills just north of this valley the can
yon in which it there flows being known as
Iron Canyon, and thence holds its course, tor
| $50 miles, through smooth surfaced valley the
width of which ranges from 20 to so miles, and
whose length in an air line is about $50 miles.
For untold ages the material washed from the
slopes of the Coast range and Sierra Nevadas
has been carried into this valley by the main
stream and its tributaries. Some OF it has been
swept far out to sea; some has lodged in the
bays and some has served to build up the sur
face of our valley, to raise the very ground we
| live upon above the level OF the sea
| This leyeling process will continue for ages
yet to come. 1t cannot be checked by man.
though it may to a large extent be guided and
controlled. In its natural condition the river
has deposited more silt upon its banks than else
where, and these have thus been raised above
| the general level of the valley land. fall oil
/ five to fifteen feet can be noted as existing
almost everywhere from the bank of the river
back to the lowest points of the valley land
which are generally from a mile TO five miles
from the river. IL thus appears that the river
! flows along ridge in channel whose dimen-
| s1ons are not alone dependent upon the volume
of flow of the river. but also upon the effect OF
such distractions as the rivers tributaries may
from time to time bring down from the mount
aims.
Cache creek, which at one time discharged its
waters into the main stream at Knights Land
| ing, gradually built ridge of ground along its
course so high that it could not maintain its
ped upon the ridge, but, breaking its banks,
sought a new outlet, and now sends its waters
| TO sink ar to spread in the vast TUE basin west
of the Sacramento river.
Putah creek has position analogous to tina.
of Cache creek, but has not yet succeeded in ex.
tending the ridge ON which it enters the valley
lands as far eastward as Sacramento river.
Feather river, aided by its bIanches the Yuba
and the Bear, has been piling its cargo of silt
into the valley toward point little south OF
| or below the former mouth OF Cache creek
The American river has rolled into one i'm
mediate neighborhood the well-kpown Poverty
Ridae and Cemetery hills. 1t is still rolling It's
detritus down upon us, raising the lands beyond
the north leyee and those upon its right bank.
The distractions thus gradually interposed to
the tow OF water IN the Sacramento river to-
gether with the variable amount of water which
must for greater or less periods pass through the
| waterways of the valley to the bay, are factors
which have been potent in determining the
rivers size.
| 1t is to be remembered in this connection that
| the river IS at flood stage only for very short
periods that the character of It's bed and sides
cannot b. expected to conform to the require
mems of its flood flow, but must necessarily
conform to the volume of its flow at stages
which represent it less than bank full and that
IT can never be hoped TO find river similar to
the sacramento which will not from time to
| time, in its natural condition, overflow its
banks.
If all the water of the Upper Sacramento
could be brought down between levees to
knights Landing, where the river is very
narrow, 1t would be necessary to there raise the
banks OF the stream at least iorty feet above
their natural hight before it could be hoped to
pass the flood between them.
1t is a fact well known TO us all, that there
are lands, not far back from our river some.
what nearer Suisun Bay than this city, whose
surface is SO low that, We're they not protected
from inundation by embankmeDts of EARTH
would be permanently submerged. There are
other lands which would be submerged at each
high tide. II is also well known that the surface
of tome of these lands, generally called ttLe
lands, is covered with peat, which consists
principally of tule roots and other vegetable
matter. The existence of the peat which was
itself formed by slow process, is here alluded
nature has been building up the lowest portions
of our valley lands Had there been rapid
deposit of silt over these low lands no such
formation as peat would have ever been pos
sible. Its existence is conclusive proof that for
ages past the natural condition of our river Ie-
mained practically unchanged.
When our pioneer fathers and mothers first
settled upon the banks of the Sacramento river
none but natural distractions were interposed
to the flow OF its waters. During ordinary win
tiers the river rose to the height OF its banks and,
fNrQ pTfi in Il
at least once each season. During such high
stages its waters, overlapping the banks at its
lowest points, flowed toward the depressions
lying upon either side of the river and mum
dating the country to greater or less extent
according to volume and duration of the food
wave, sought direct outlet across country to
the bay.
general submersion of the river banks.
except throughoutthe lower part of its course,
was almost an impOssibility. Here at Sacra-
meBto. where at low water tie rise and fall of
the tide was from two to three feet, and where
the extreme low water plane of the river was
less than four feet above the low water low
tide of San Francisco bay, the water of the river
was crystal clear and it was deep-probably fit.
teen feet on an average for width of 600 feet at
the lowest stage OF the river. The river banks
had height of twenty feet above low water
yet even these banks were at times overtopped
by such extreme rises as those of lS61-62, in
which season the water surface was more than
two feet above them for period of about three
weeks.
Since that time, by reason of the vastly in
creased volume OF debris, due TO the process of
hydraulic mining, which the waters of Feather.
Iuba. Bear and American rivers have been
called upon TO transport, the character of some
portions of the Sacramento river has undergone
great change. Without attempting to make a
general statement of changes due principally to
this cause an idea of their magnitude can e
obtained by comparing the present condition of
the river at Sacramento with its former condi-
ton. as above described.
The tidal flow no longer reaches Sacramento
The low water plane of the river is fully seven
feet higher than it was in 1919 and at the low
water period the average depth OF water for a
width of 600 feet does not exceed four feet. In
three feet higher than the old low water sur
face of the river. The water way in front of
Sacramento, If a hood wave were to come down
the r1ver to morrow at the same hight as the
water of 1862, would be eighteen feet less ip
depth for width OF 600 feet than it ves in that
year.
But this is not all. Since our last great food.
which o Cured in the season above alluded To,
reclamation laws have been passed, which.
though of most laudable intent, have unfortu-
nateiy led to most pernicious practices The
right was established for the owners of lands
susceptible OF being reclaimed by one system OF
works, 10 organize as a qilasi-corpoEation and TO
carry out the works necessary to protect such
lands from overflow. Without an endeayor TO
provide the drainage channels required to carry
the water which must annually come down the
river, in fact in total disregard of lhe general
drainage problem as presented in this valley,
one reclamation scheme after another was car
ried out. In each case the land to be reclaimed
was protected from overflow by q bank of ear.h
Leyee after leyee was thrown up on high bank
Ian nf ho