Water Quality
The State of California Regional Water Quality Control Board considers the most significant water quality parameters in Sonoma Creek to be: turbidity, pathogens and nitrates. Turbidity is an issue because of historical problems of erosion of stream banks, especially in the presence of ongoing land development in Sonoma Valley. Increased sedimentation has a variety of adverse impacts including direct harm to aquatic organisms and the more specific impact of altering streambed gravels to reduce productivity of spawning habitats; additionally sedimentation of pools decreases the efficacy of anadromous fish summering habitat by increasing critical summer water temperatures in these pools. Pathogens appear to be linked to septic tank or leach field failures in some of the rural reaches, particularly in the upper valley sections. Nitrates enter the stream system from excess fertilizers applied to land uses in the drainage basin and may also be present in septic wastes improperly entering the creek. Sediment and nitrates may also enter the stream through urban stormwater runoff in the city of Sonoma reach.
Read more about this topic: Sonoma Creek
Famous quotes containing the words water and/or quality:
“But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward, the voices of Duty call—
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.”
—Sidney Lanier (1842–1881)
“A person must have a good memory to keep the promises he has made. A person must have a strong imagination to be able to have pity. So closely is morality tied to the quality of the intellect.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)