|
|
|
|
|
The Yuba River is a vital tributary in the Sacramento River System, and one of SYRCL's top priorities is monitoring and improving water quality for the benefit of all the watershed's inhabitants.
The Yuba supports some of California's last remaining wild runs of chinook salmon and steelhead, both of which are listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Act. CalFed, a working group of state agencies, federal agencies, and interest groups working to improve ecosystem health in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta and San Francisco Bay, has identified the Yuba as one of the Central Valley's most important rivers for ecosystem restoration on the basis of important fisheries and potential for improvement.
The river and its tributaries also provide drinking and irrigation water supplies for several million consumers. The Yuba is a popular recreation area for residents and visitors alike. The South Yuba alone attracts over a half million people each year to its blue-green swimming holes and rock-sculpted banks.
At the same time, the Yuba Watershed has a history of dramatic alteration. The Yuba is the most diverted and dammed river in the Sierra. It underwent extensive hydraulic mining during the Gold Rush, a practice that washed the rocks and soil of entire hillsides into the river. The effects of mining are still present in the form of mercury and arsenic contamination and sediment buildup. Studies by UC Davis show that the Yuba watershed has the most extensive contamination from introduced mercury and arsenic of any watershed in the Northern Sierra. The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project ranked the Yuba River second-to-last for "Biotic Integrity" on the basis of aquatic community health; evidence of native fisheries; dams, reservoirs and diversions; and roads and roadless areas. Fire and logging also contribute sediment flows into the river. Elevated levels of Enterococcus bacteria were detected in the South Yuba during the summer of 2001, and the cause remains unknown.
Recognizing that the first step in improving water quality is to develop a thorough, scientifically-valid database of water quality information, SYRCL began an extremely successful volunteer River Monitoring Program in 2001.
|
|
|
|
