Report finds delta among most vulnerable rivers

The river system that makes up the backbone of the state’s economy ranks as one of the most imperiled watersheds in the nation, putting at risk drinking water for millions of Californians as well as billions of dollars worth of crops and urban infrastructure, according to an annual report on the country’s most important waterways.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, whose fingers extend from the slopes of Mount Shasta in the north to vast farm fields near Fresno in the south, is “extremely vulnerable to catastrophic failure” from over-pumping and declining ecosystems, according to American Rivers, a Washington, D.C., conservation group.

And increasingly, surging storm waters and rising sea levels induced by global climate change threaten to ravage the delicate network of levees and channels that route water through the confluence of the two rivers and protect low-lying cities such as Sacramento, Lathrop and Stockton.

Source: Report finds delta among most vulnerable rivers – SFGate

Date: 02 June, 2010