People

History of People in the Estuary

American Indians thrived on the shores of the Bay-Delta Estuary for thousands of years until the Spanish discovered the Bay in 1769. The Estuary has changed profoundly in the centuries since then, particularly in the last 150 years. When gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley of California in the 1840s, a flood of prospectors arrived. Hydraulic gold mining washed away entire hillsides, depositing vast amounts of debris and sediment in the Delta and permanently altering its waterways.

As the population of San Francisco grew in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s, more and more land around the edges of the Bay were filled in, paved over, or otherwise altered to make room for urban expansion. At the same time, agriculture in the Central Valley became the foundation of California's economy. In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the Central Valley Project created a series of dams, reservoirs and canals in the Estuary to provide fresh drinking water for the Bay Area and for Southern California, as well as irrigation for agriculture in the Central Valley. The last half of the 20th century saw a boom in California's industrial economy and dramatic increases in state population, placing increasing demands on the Estuary.

The Bay-Delta Today

Today, the Estuary provides drinking water for twenty-three million Californians, and 48% of the Estuary's flow is diverted to agricultural uses. More than 8 million residents live in the Bay-Delta region, and more than one million new residents are expected to move to the area in the next two decades.

12 million people per year recreate around the Estuary, boating, surfing, water-skiing, sport fishing, sight-seeing, and bird-watching. There are 290 shoreline parks, 200 duck clubs, 400 marinas, and 500,000 recreational boaters in the Bay-Delta.