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. THE FEATHER RIVER Oo-Z162 The Feather River is the most important tributary of the Sacramento River. It has a drainage area above the Oro. ville dam site of about 3,600 square miles. The seasonal runoff of the stream at that point varies from a mean of about 4V2 million acre-feet to a minimum of 1,400,000 acre-feet and a maximum of twice that mean, Flood flows have occurred up to a recorded maximum of 230,000 sec- ond.feet, The smallest recorded flow is 300 se.::ond-feet on November 9, 1931. This mean seasonal runoff represents about one.fifth of that of the entire Sacramento River drainage basin above the valley floor. It is appa.rent, therefore, that large reservoir capacity is required to regulate the magnitude of such erratic flows, to prevent flood damage and to conserve the wafers for beneficial purposeSj namely. domestic, irrigation and in- dustrial supplies. navigation, salinity control. prodl!cfion of electri.:: power, and other uses. A substantial part of the surplus waters of the Sacramento River Basin lies in the Feather River area. Studies indicate that only about one- fifth of the. mean seasonal runoff of the Feather River will be required to supply the ultimate water needs of its im. mediate, service area when properly controlled and utilized. The remainder would be conserved to the extent practic- able for exportation to areas of defident water supply, THE PROPOSED DIVERSION FOR ALAMEDA . AND SANTA CLARA COUNTIES The plan presently contemplated for serving the areas of deficiency would divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the central source of supply, at sea level. For the San Francisco Bay Area, the point of diversion would be on Italian Slough at the Alameda-Contra Costa county line. The water would be lifted by pumping to an elevation of 720 feet, when.::e it would be .::onveyed through a tunnel sorne 7,400 feet in length into a conduit consisting of canal and pipe which would serve water to the south San Francisco Bay area. WOULD SERVE WEST SIDE AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA A separate conduit of 6,000 cfs capacity to serve the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern Califor- nia would divert from Italian Slough in the San Joaquin Delta about 12 miles northwest of Tracy. The water would be lifted through a pumping plant to a canal at elevation 230 feet and would parallel the Delta Mendota Canal at a distance of one-quarter to one-half mile to the west for 75 miles to San luis Creek, where a pumping plant would lift the water to elevation 410 feet. The canal would then follow approximately on grade contour along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley passing west of Huron and Kettleman City, to the Buena Vista Hills, a distance of about 262 miles from the point of diversion, where another pumping plant would lift the water to elevation 500 feet, The canal would then extend southerly 5 miles east of Taft 10 . . and thence easterly to about 25 miles due. of Bakers. field. At this point a pump lift would raise the water to elevation 800 feet, and within two miles through another pump lift to elevation 1,500 feet at which elevation it would continue to Pastoria Creek on grade contour. A pumping plant located at Pastoria Creek would lift the water to elevation 3,357 feet to 10.5 miles of tunnel which would convey th~ water through the T ehachapi Mountains to the divide between the Santa Clara River Basin and the desert, 312 miles' distant from the point of diversion in the San Joaquin Delta, The canal would then follow easterly along the desert side of the mountains toward Fairmont Reservoir of the City of Los Angeles, passing that reservoir about one-half mile to the west and 270 feet above the water level in the reservoir. It then would follow above and south of the Antelope Valley to mile 352 where a tunnel through Portal Ridge would emerge into Amargosa Creek. The canal would follow the south side of Amargosa Creek Basin to a point south of the Palmdale Reservoir about 460 feet above that reservoir. The direction would then be south across Soledad Pass, along the south side of Antelope Val- ley, crossing Little Rock Creek below the Little Rock-Palm- dale Dam. The course would then be easterly across the Mojave Desert above the town of Hesperia, thence south- erly to a crossing of the Mojave River, and to the east portal of a 3.3.mile tunnel at elevation 3,254 feet, into Devil Can- yon, a tributary to the Santa Ana River, The route of this conduit would then follow easterly along the south slope of the mountains about 7 miles north of San Bernardino and Redlands; thence south about 10 miles east of Redlands; then easterly to a point 3 miles northeast of Beaumont into a siphon at elevation 3,174 feet to a low of 2,450 feet ele- vation across the San Gorgonio Pass between Beaumont and Banning.. The conduit would then extend southerly along the moun' tains east of the San Jacinto Valley, crossing the Riverside- San Diego line and then toward Lake Henshaw, passing above that reservoir, From that point the route would be southerly to a crossing of headwaters of the San Diego and Sweetwater rivers and to a terminus at a tributary of Tia Juana River at an elevation of 2,600 feet, for a total length of .::onduit of 570 miles from the point of diversion in the San Joaquin Delta. COULD SERVE COAST A conduit route that would serve Santa Barbara, Ven. tura, and part of San Luis Obispo counties has also been studied. At a point on the main conduit about 253 miles from the diversion point in the San Joaquin Delta pump- ing plants would lift the water to elevation 3,000 feet in the vicinity of Cienaga Canyon near Maricopa over the divide into Cuyama Valley about one.fourth mile south of where State Highway 166 crosses the divide. With addi- tional conduits and pumping plants water could be deliv- ered at an elevation of about 3,500 feet in to Mono Creek in the headwaters of the Santa Ynez Itiver, and into Matilija Creek, a tributary of Ventura River. II