Blue Rock Springs Creek

Blue Rock Springs Creek is a 3.4-mile-long (5.5 km)[2] stream that rises on Sulfur Springs Mountain in southwestern Solano County, California. A bicycle trail is positioned along the creekside in some of the lower reaches.[3] Water quality is impaired in Blue Rock Springs Creek due to historic cinnabar extraction in this watershed. Blue Rock Springs Creek has been tested for the toxin diazinon and found to have attained an elevated value of 40.9 micrograms per liter; diazinon is a toxic pesticide associated with golf course maintenance. The 36-hole Blue Rock Springs Golf Course lies in this watershed; although diazinon has been banned for golf course use in the U.S., its persistence in the environment is quite high. The stream has had application of a hydrological transport model to analyze flooding potential and to aid in the design of certain stream channel modification carried out in the last quarter of the 20th century to accommodate urbanization of some of the lower reaches.

Blue Rock Springs Creek
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
RegionSolano County
CityVallejo
Physical characteristics
SourceSulfur Springs Mountain
 • location10 miles (16 km) east of Vallejo
 • coordinates38°6′43″N 122°11′4″W[1]
 • elevation400 ft (120 m)[1]
MouthRindler Creek
 • location
Solano County Fairgrounds in Vallejo
 • coordinates
38°7′51″N 122°13′40″W[1]
 • elevation
85 ft (26 m)

Cinnabar deposits were extracted from this watershed in the early 1900s at Hastings Mine and St. John's Mine.[4][5] Shaft construction occurred no earlier than 1918 and mining had ceased by the year 1930.

See also

References
  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Blue Rock Springs Creek
  2. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 10, 2011
  3. Vallejo Watershed Alliance newsletter with photo of bicycle path along Blue Rock Springs Creek
  4. Environmental Assessment of the Columbus Parkway Widening between Ascot Parkway and the Northgate Development, Vallejo, Earth Metrics Inc. Report 7853, California State Clearinghouse, Sept, 1989
  5. U.S.Bureau of Mines, Mercury Potential in the United States
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