Water Resources Collections and Archives

Bristol Bay, Alaska is one of the last ecosystems left on earth that haqs gone unaltered by human impacts.  Bristol Bay watershed supports the largest wild sockeye salmon runs on the planet with nearly 42 million salmon migrating to the watersheds headwaters every year.  The proposed Pebble Mine, containing gold, copper, and molybdenum has threatened the health of this watershed.  This project asks what effects the proposed Pebble Mine will have on water quality and quantity, and more specifically, how the withdrawal of groundwater and surface water will alter the regions most pristine anadromous salmonid spawning grounds.  Though comprehensive studies have been done, the groundwater of this region remains a comples topic.  This research formulates unanswered questions related to groundwater that need to be answered before mining advances.  Due to the unknown properties of the region's groundwater and hydrologic regime, mining poses significant risk to water quality, quantity, and aquatic species of the Bristol Bay watershed.

Redwood Creek is located in Sonoma County, California.  Redwood Creek is a tributary of Maacama Creek, a tributary to the Russian River.  The reach of Redwood Creek addressed in this study is on an alluvial fan.  In summer of 2001 the California Department of Fish and Game conducted a stream inventory to determine the presence of anadromous fish in the watershed and recommended Redwood Creek be managed as an anadromous, natural production stream.  Two restoration projects have been completed in recent years, the first in 2005 and the second in 2010.  In this study we investigated the newly constructed reach to determine how the channel morphology has responded after the first water year.  We conducted cross-sectional surveys  at 4 locations along the restoration project.  Survey results show that vertical channel adjustment is occurring, and that the channel is still in the process of finding geomorphic equilibrium.  It is likely that the channel will continue to adjust in future storm events.  Cross-section monitoring should proceed into the future to determine whether channel adjustments continue, and as a basis to determine the need for adaptive management.

The Alameda County Water District (ACWD) supplies water to the cities of Fremont, Newark and Union City. Approximately 40% of this supply requirement is met using water pumped from the Niles Cone Groundwater Basin. Since 1920s, the ACWD has managed recharge operations at Niles Cone and today the water for recharge is obtained from the State Water Project, run off from Alameda Creek Watershed or from direct rain that falls on the Niles Cone region. This paper examines the dependence of recharge operations on precipitation in the Alameda Creek Watershed. Using data from the past 20 years, the paper demonstrates the dependence of Niles Cone Basin on the outlier wet year of 1997-98 to maintain a net positive water balance with respect to levels in 1988-89. Further research using longer time series data of groundwater recharge should be able to provide more evidence of the extent of this dependence on heavy rainfall years to maintain net positive groundwater levels. Such research will be significant in ensuring urban resilience in the context of climate change scenarios we seem to be facing.

This thesis focuses on the issue of biodiversity corridors along the creek in the city and uses Alamo Creek, in Vacaville, California, as our site to assess the existing creek situations from different typical sections in urban development and agricultural areas.