Butte Creek Sources to Chico

1
Butte CreekSources to Chico

• T. E. Chapman
• CE 296B
• Assignment 4

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Upper Butte Creek Watershed

• Watershed Overview
• Waterbodies Water Use
• Land Use
• Beneficial Uses
• Nonpoint Source Pollution Sources
• Management of Nonpoint Source Pollution

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Watershed Overview

• Upper Butte Creek
• Western slope of Sierra Nevada range
• 130,600 acres
• Butte, Tehema, Plumas counties
• Mountainous, sparsely developed region
• Rugged terrain
• 47 less than 7 slope
• 30 between 7-15 slope
• 23 over 15 slope

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Watershed Overview (cont.)

• Population
• 35,000
• Main Cities
• Paradise, Magalia, Centerville, Butte Meadows
• Average precipitation
• 59.62 in/yr
• Sources of water
• drainage from western slope of Sierra Nevada

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Waterbodies Water Use

• Primary Streams
• Butte Creek, Middle Butte Creek, Little Butte
  Creek
• 296 linear miles of streams
• avg. 275,200 acre-ft/yr surface water flow
• 127,000 acre-ft/yr surface water withdrawl for
  agricultural use
• Man-made waterbodies
• Hydroelectric
• 1 dam 2 canals

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Waterbodies Water Use (cont.)

• Man-made waterbodies (cont.)
• Irrigation
• 57 dams
• Major Reservoirs
• Paradise (irrigation) - 11,500 acre-ft
• Magalia (irrigation) - 2,900 acre-ft
• Butte Creek flow from watershed
• 406 cfs average daily mean flow
• 911 cfs daily mean wet weather flow
• 81 cfs daily mean dry weather flow

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Average Daily Mean Flow by Year
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Land Use

• 7,600 acres residential
• urban, suburban, sprawling rural residential
• 10,500 acres agricultural
• grazing and animal husbandry
• 111,900 acres undeveloped
• forest
• former mining areas
• undeveloped lands

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Land Use (cont.)

• Mining
• 13 inactive mines
• mine tailings common feature of streams
• Habitat
• 476 riparian species
• 6 special status species
• 35 potential fish species
• 11 native species throughout watershed

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Beneficial Uses

• Primary
• Water supply
• Agricultural
• Paradise Irrigation District
• Durham Mutual Irrigation District
• Ranchers
• Municipal
• Habitat
• Riparian
• Aquatic

• Secondary
• Recreation
• Contact
• Rafting, boating
• Non-contact
• Fishing
• Hiking
• Hydroelectric power

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Nonpoint Source Issues

• Primary nonpoint sources of pollution
• Animal waste
• biostimulants, pathogens
• Surface run-off
• Developed areas
• Historical human uses
• Mining logging
• Toxic inorganics, biostimulants, sediments
• Septic tanks
• biostimulants, pathogens

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Nonpoint Source Issues (cont.)

• Impaired Existing Beneficial Uses
• Habitat
• Aquatic habitat
• biostimulants, sediments
• Riparian habitat
• biostimulants, toxic inorganics
• Recreation
• depleted fisheries

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Primary Nonpoint Source Pollutant Problems

• Little Butte Creek
• Pollutants
• Biostimulants
• Suburban run-off
• Animal waste
• Septic systems
• Sediments
• Upstream erosion
• Development
• Dam operations

• Other Streams
• Pollutants
• Biostimulants
• Animal Waste
• Septic systems
• Sediments
• Upstream erosion
• Development
• Dam power operations

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Management of Nonpoint Source Pollution

• Reducing Sedimentation
• Maintain healthy groundcover on steep slopes
• restrict further logging
• buy back lands along creek for preservation
• Implement BMPs for suburban and sprawling
  residential areas
• small detention basins
• construction livestock erosion control
• limit further creek side development

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Management of Nonpoint Source Pollution (cont.)

• Reducing Sedimentation (cont.)
• Remove dams and diversions in key spawning
  areas
• probably not socioeconomically feasible
• Require minimum flows along creeks
• also needed for restoring fisheries

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Management of Nonpoint Source Pollution (cont.)

• Reducing biostimulants
• implement BMPs for suburban and sprawling
  residential areas
• improved septic systems or switch to sanitary
  sewers
• probably not socioeconomically feasible
• other BMPs
• green waste
• stormwater collection (towns)
• BMPs for animal waste
• difficult due to large number of small holding
  areas