THE SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA "ISLANDS"
John A Nejedly

     Prior discussions concerning the Delta have provoked requests for a more detailed statement of the history of the Delta and the changes that have occurred since 1850. This statement is prepared in response.

      Until the early 1850’s the present area of the Delta, that area roughly triangle in shape from Vernalis, the confluence of the Stanislaus and the San Joaquin, to Pittsburg to Sacramento and return, was a vast open area of long reaches with high winds, heavy wave action and ever—changing strands of earth and detritus deposited as water velocities decreased, forming myriads of meandering channels of varying depths with higher elevations of accumulated islands in between.

      While these earth and humus formations were largely transitory, wave and tidal action produced some infrequent permanent land masses above high water that were then slowly increased in size. For the most part, however, the area of the Delta was intermittently under water either from sporadic high river flows of tidal action which extended and still extends throughout the Delta.

      The principal vegetation was the tall perennial tule grass, the primary source of humus in the detritus forming the solid material in the Delta. This rich alluvial and peat composite attracted early farming interest beginning in 1851, but this activity was quite limited in time to one grain planting after the spring runoff and before substantial precipitation raised water level above the higher ground areas under cultivation. The richness of the soil, producing some 65 bushels to the acre, however, so enthused the early farmers, that efforts began to raise the periphery of partially emerged lands so that water intrusion could be prevented and more than one crop harvested.

      The first intensive activity commenced in 1858 and utilized the labor force of Chinese who had relocated to the delta area after their employment in the gold fields had ended. These laborers entered the higher Delta lands, cutting ditches above the water with long bladed serrated knives, depositing the excavated blocks of tule roots, detritus and soil on the water side of the excavation, filling the interstices with the fine alluvial sand found in shallow areas and then compacting the accumulated berm by trotting upon it.

      The first levees were only one to two feet high but were adequate to exclude the last of the spring runoff and the higher normal flows of winter. Prior to extensive planting, the areas now dyked off were burned and allowed to burn to lower ground levels two to four feet. Sheep were then grazed on the ashes, peat and soil, and after sheep had partially compacted the soil to support their weight, horses with large foot pads were introduced to further consolidate the earth for planting. Interesting, too, is the fact that the continuous tread of our tractors was developed on the Holt ranch after the experiences with the pads attached to the horses hooves produced the Holt farm tractor, later merged with the Caterpillar Tractor Company.

      Farming in the Delta thus became the new wealth of California as unlimited free fresh water, a rich soil, and a fair climate were combined to an incredible agricultural bounty.

      The success of the first large scale reclamation attracted capital to the Delta and applications for reclamation projects under the Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act followed. The federal government had deeded large areas of the Delta to the State of California for the purpose of “reclaiming” these lands for farming. The sum of one dollar per acre was required of an applicant, twenty cents being paid upon application, all payments, less administrative costs, being returned on certification by the State that reclamation had been successfully completed within three years.

      Where several separate efforts to reclaim adjacent lands had been undertaken, cooperative action was encouraged by State legislation authorizing the formation of reclamation districts which were empowered to construct and repair levees and drain the interior areas financed by assessment and taxes.

      While hydraulic mining and consequent soil transport to the Delta had substantially supplemented materials for levee construction and improved their integrity, levee maintenance and repair became increasingly expensive. As the interior lands were dried, burned and compacted, land levels in the interior became increasingly lower than the water levels in the adjacent channels. Consequently, the levees were built higher and wider and required constant attention. Cheap labor being no longer available, large steam powered clamshell dredges on barges were built in Oakland and San Francisco and brought into the Delta commencing in 1890 and remain the principal mechanical source of levee construction and maintenance today, except that internal combustion power has replaced steam.

      This equipment reversed the first mechanics of levee construction that utilized landside excavated material to form the levee. Dredges dredged from the channel side of the levees, depositing the excavated material on top of the levees and compacting the levees by construction of roadways on the levee tops. On some levees, abutting upon higher velocity channels, plants were introduced to consolidate the levees, and in higher risk sections rocks and solid rip—rap were introduced on the water side of the structures.

                The result of this activity presented new problems. As was previously pointed out, the natural Delta was a composite of small hummocks, some permanently above water level and a myriad of water channels of varying depths depending upon local velocities. The larger of these channels were navigable and were not subject to Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act reclamation. However, inspection of applications and final activities was never seriously undertaken and many natural deeper channels were filled and “reclaimed.” With the availability of large clamshell excavation, the anatomy of the Delta changed dramatically as new channels could be created or old channels obliterated in short periods of time.

      From an aerial perspective, the act of filling natural deeper channels can still be seen today in sloughs which terminate abruptly adjacent to a “reclaimed” island and sloughs which begin and end in collective land masses forming lakes. The State Tidelands Commission in the second Brown Administration of the 1970’s began a review of this circumstance, and questions were raised as to the validity of titles to lands that previously were navigable and thus not subject to “reclamations” and remained public property. Questions that could today be raised anywhere in the Delta, but no serious effort to clarify or terminate titles is apparently forthcoming.

      The second problem created by mechanical dredging was the new utilization of material from the bottom of channels on the water side of the levees to create or repair them. Deep and wide channels were dug and are still being dredged to secure materials for the levees, creating artificial channels that are, in many cases, the main interior Delta channels today and taken as natural channels and hence public areas which many of them may not be as descriptions of lands “reclaimed,” extend within the area occupied by these navigable streams.  Utilizing channel material for levee construction introduces the effect of such channel excavations, resulting in undermining the existing levee foundations.

          Descriptions of reclaimed lands were vague surveys and were not precise, and survey markers have been obliterated by time——a circumstance further compounded by the fact that the lands physically reclaimed in many cases were determined by convenience and levee placement did not correspond to property lines or lands claimed in the applications.

      Any resolution of this maze of rights, errors and deliberate actions would create such a legal labyrinth that ultimately could only be resolved by quiet title actions, legislation or constitutional action.

      As the interior of the Delta islands dried, wind action, which at times is severe in the Delta, blew off the fine surface soils. In addition, the peat base of the Delta is decomposing and consolidating, lowering the levees and the land surfaced in the island interiors. To protect the islands, the levees are continuously raised.

      As the relative differences in elevation between levee height and interior land surface increase, higher, wider and better protected levees must be built. If the suggested greenhouse effect of the earth’s warming should occur, rising sea level obviously will acerbate the problem. Some islands today are 21 feet below sea level; and when we remember that these “islands” were once at marginal sea level, we can better understand the problems of the future for these artificial structures.

      In this connection it is well to point out that the Delta land areas are called islands, yet they are the opposite of islands-—they are bowls created and protected only by the thin wall of a saucer, the levees. A dramatic reminder of the potential of these circumstances is the fact that only 17 “islands” have been flooded and one “island,” Frank’s Tract, was partially flooded, and flooded again in 1938 and then abandoned, being an open area in the Delta and an eloquent reminder of what the Delta once was and could easily become again, as it did in the devastating floods of 1871-72.

      The Delta islands, in the changing circumstance of resource management, today present a newly emerging potential that is an important part of the Delta inventory. As was pointed out before, the Delta was once a vast lake of varying shallow depths, land hummocks of varying size and permanence, and constantly changing water channels. The creation of Delta “islands” terminated this Delta pool, leaving a water mass of only intervening streams.

      As water, particularly high quality water, becomes increasingly scarce and demand for it more severe, these “islands” are being examined for a new resource, water itself.

      For example, if one island with an area of 7,000 acres, a maximum depth below high water of 21 feet, and an average depth of 12 feet were made available for the project, water storage of 84,000 acre feet capacity would be created. If the island were slowly flooded with high quality water during the winter and/or spring runoff from the Sacramento River and the stored water retained until summer domestic demand, and in multiple management with other reservoirs used for summer requirements, the following scenario may be considered. At $10.00 per acre foot that stored water would produce $840,000. At $100.00 per acre foot, it would produce $8,400,000. While $100.00 per acre foot appears unrealistic in light of the present costs of water to agriculture incident to state and federal water export projects, it should be

kept in mind that those costs may be more critically re—examined as understanding of the facts that only subsidies maintain that circumstance and that water charges are far below delivered costs. In addition, island interiors may provide for the reestablishment of the grand flyway for migratory waterfowl they once were and/or as fisheries that could provide a food supply and recreational source not subject to the prohibition of consumption of the present Delta fishery by reason of toxic mercury and selenium agricultural wastes. If the times remaining after these uses permits, the one crop regimen that established the Delta as an agricultural resource of California may be considered, the fish remaining being utilized for fertilizer.

      If reservoir use is to be anticipated, the lowering of interior Delta island land surfaces will abate as wind action and decomposition of lands then under water are largely eliminated, and the necessary wider and more protected levees may be areas for residential use.

      However, as such stored waters are in direct contact with the porous peat soil of the delta, these humus materials are absorbed by these waters, which, when treated with typical chlorine treatment, produce trihalomethanes, a carcinogenic the pervasive presence of which in domestic water supplies is of increasing concern to public health officials.

      The Contra Costa Water District has determined that rapidly deteriorating water quality in the Delta is no longer acceptable

as a constant source of domestic water for its distribution system. Chloride levels in low Delta inflow and summer months and other toxic contaminants, as the Delta has now become the ultimate sewage and water depository, agricultural, industrial and human wastes from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys have required the purchase of surplus water from the EBMUD at a cost of $160.00 per acre foot. That fact should suggest the reasonableness of the $100.00 per acre foot for Delta island water used here for discussion. A more satisfactory solution is the presently proposed reservoir in the Contra Costa Water District to store high quality spring run-off to produce an average higher quality water for all District deliveries.

      Charges for delivered tap water vary, but as both districts referred to have rate schedules above this amount for residential use, $1.00 per thousand gallons is taken for further economic analysis of the Delta island water project. An acre foot equals approximately 325,000 gallons. At $1.00 per thousand gallons to the consumer, an acre foot would produce $325.00. If water were purchased at $100.00 per acre foot and sold after treatment and delivery for $323.00 per ace foot, superficially, at least, the suggested Delta island depository may suggest consideration.

      Certainly treatment costs, reconstruction of Delta island levees, particularly on the then exposed land side of the levees, transportation costs, resolution of water rights, and other problems remain, but at $100.00 per acre foot that one island could produce $8,400,000 in income annually.

     Restoration and maintenance of levees is becoming increasingly expensive, and efforts are constantly at hand to secure financial assistance from the State.

      Aside from wave wash by pleasure craft, there is no public contribution to levee deterioration, which is increasing as stream channels are excavated to provide levee material and the “island” interiors deepen.

      As the problem acerbates, the demand for financial assistance will increase, and the argument has been and will be made that any levee break will create potentially enormous losses, even of life.  Therefore, public funding is appropriate, or so it will be claimed.

      This argument fails to consider that if levees are not adequately maintained at the expense of the farming and other interests dependent upon levee protection, the levees may (at appropriately regulated flows) allow the “islands” to be flooded and, as Frank’s Tract, become a Delta pool constituent.

      Interesting, too, is the further return to the natural Delta circumstance by the introduction of fish, fish harvest and recreation fishing during the months of storage and utilization of fish not harvested for fertilizer for the crop to follow. As further thoughts, one may consider the additional prospect of fish not subject of the Department of Health Services interdict that presently limits the consumption of fish taken in the mercury contaminated Delta and prohibits their consumption by children under six and pregnant women and the availability of these potential storage areas for reduction of flood waters in years of abnormal run—off.

      With such additional income, the Delta Island could support the substantial costs of reconstruction and maintenance. If the levee reconstruction extended to broad berms, residential utilization could be considered. Interesting prospects for an area with so many changes in such short a period.

      The Delta Islands are, today, an integral part of the Sacramento—San Joaquin Delta and estuarine system. The ecology of that system requires their presence. Without the islands, the Delta would be a dangerous and inhospitable area by reason of high winds, waves and shifting shoals. With the islands in place, for man at least, the Delta, for the most part, is a benign protected area attracting increasing recreational use and provides the most productive agriculture in the world and, for California, the single principal source of water. It has been a productive fishery, now largely emasculated by water withdrawals, altered natural flows, and toxic contamination, yet it remains a beautiful experience in its miles of meandering waterways, its isolation, its opportunities for visits to natural circumstance, and its solitude, realizing that a bit of what once was still remains.

      The Delta presents such a complex of historical and present circumstance as to demand serious concern absent the usual emotional postures that attend any discussion. Environmentally, the Delta is no longer what it once was. It is, today, in an artificial state that can only be sustained by artificial means. The general broad expanse of shallow waters and shifting lands above water level have been replaced by unnatural islands and unnatural deeper streams, all created by man. The first agriculture of the area on periodically exposed higher lands (with the farm population living in the tree tops of the sycamore and cottonwoods during the flood season) has changed to a year-round, agricultural mode with interior lands protected by levees. Those interior lands are deepening with every year, as these surfaces are reduced by wind action and deeper subsidence occasioned by removal of gas from lower wells, and eutrophication of the surface soils.

      That deepening will persist so long as that continued exposure and agricultural activity continues. The Delta, instead of the vast lake it once was, is only a limited collection of interior streams. The “Delta pool” of 1850 no longer exists.

      The waters of the Delta do not offer the reservoir and the quality of water of even fifty years ago. If suggested revised EPA standards for domestic water quality are to be taken seriously, the waters of the Delta today offer problems of toxic contamination and production of trihalomethanes after chlorine treatment that seriously affect its continued acceptance as a drinking water source or one that can only be utilized with substantially increased costs of treatment with new treatment processes or utilized only at limited times of the year.

      Deepening of remaining channels and increased flows incident to state and federal pumping acerbate the problems of levee maintenance. Failure of any levee and inflow of adjacent Delta waters, particularly at a time of high tides and salt water incursion, produces the entry of higher salt content waters into the Delta generally and into the island, the levee of which has failed. Cleansing of the Delta by subsequent fresh water flows requires time. Removal of the water and reconstruction of the levees are expensive. If salt water entry seriously affects the Delta, Delta water quality for export or for agricultural use is jeopardized.

      Thus, attention to levees, recognition of their importance to water quality in the Delta, their potential to water management as reservoirs and their future as the preeminent agricultural, recreational, fishery and water resource potential for the State, lies in the degree of attention we give to the Delta in an objective way to save what we have created, and what we desperately need to maintain.

 Source material has included sources from:
 the library of the Department of Water Resources provided by Mr. Gerald Cox, the Bancroft Library, and the DWR publication of August 1987, The Sacramento—San Joaquin Atlas.

~trihalomethanes: any of various derivatives CHX₃ of methane (as chloroform) that have three halogen atoms per molecule and are formed especially during the chlorination of drinking water....
~eutrophication: the process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients (as phosphates) that stimulate the growth of aquatic plant life usually resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen....