Guadalupe River (California)
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The Guadalupe River is a short river in California that runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains flowing north through San Jose, California, and emptying into the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. The river's course is contained completely in Santa Clara County.
Much of the river is surrounded by parks. The river flows through Almaden Quicksilver County Park, home to former mercury mines dating back to when the area was governed by Mexico. The entire 3 mile downtown stretch, from Interstate 280 to Interstate 880, is part of the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens, one of the largest urban parks currently in development in the United States.
The river is the home to the only known salmon spawning run through a major U.S . downtown area (with the exception of Anchorage, Alaska). However, the salmon run is considered endangered, so fishing for them is illegal. Additionally, due to the mercury contamination in the river water, eating other types of fish caught from the Guadalupe River is actively discouraged.
In 1777, Mission Santa Clara de Asis and el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe were founded along the river, but both had to be moved away from the river because of mosquitos in the summertime and flooding during the winter. The river occasionally floods in downtown San Jose as well as in Alviso, with floods in 1995 and 1997 being declared National Disaster Areas by President Clinton. A major flood control project, designed to control a 100 year flood, is scheduled to be competed in December, 2004.
See also
References
- Guadalupe River flood control project (http://www.spk.usace.army.mil/civ/guadalupe/), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Fuller, Amanda; Addressing the Environmental Mercury Problem in Watersheds: Remediation in the Guadalupe River Watershed, San Jose, California (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~es196/projects/2002final/Fuller.pdf) (PDF); University of California, Berkley; 2002.
External links
- Guadalupe River Park and Gardens website (http://www.grpg.org)
- Fish ladder on Guadalupe River promises hope for salmon and steelhead recovery (http://www.fishsniffer.com/dbachere/112298guadalupe.html)