Lower Salinas River Watershed

From CCoWS Wiki
Revision as of 19:03, 5 April 2011 by Gabrielaa (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

The Lower Salinas River Watershed is the name given by the Regional Water Quality Control Board Central Coast Region to the lower portion of the Salinas River and the Salinas Reclamation Canal. Although composed of several sub-watersheds, the name Lower Salinas Watershed is commonly used for administrative purposes.

Location

The Lower Salinas Watershed is located in Monterey County, and covers the towns of Salinas, he watershed area of the Salinas River from Gonzales Road downstream to its confluence with Moss Landing Harbor"

Watershed Description

The project area is bounded by the Gabilan Range to the east, the Sierra de Salinas range to the west, and the Monterey Bay to the northwest.
TMDL Project Area
The TMDL study is defined by the lower 400 square miles of the Lower Salinas Valley and includes two major watersheds, the The Gabilan / Reclamation Ditch Watershed and The Lower Salinas Watershed.

Surface water sources include precipitation, releases from reservoirs, groundwater, and return flows from agricultural irrigation. Mean annual precipitation in the project area ranges from approximately 13 to 16 inches per year with the majority of precipitation occurring between November and April.

Land use in the project area includes intensive agriculture as well as the urban centers of Salinas, Castroville and Prunedale.

The project area is characterized by both ephemeral and perennial stream reaches, as the Lower Salinas River runs dry during the summer months, and in comparison the lower Reclamation Ditch flows year-round.

Description

Environmental Concerns