Washington Creek
Encyclopedia
Washington Creek is a southward-flowing stream
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 in Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 which enters the city of Petaluma
Petaluma, California
Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. In the 2010 Census the population was 57,941.Located in Petaluma is the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836 by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San...

 and discharges to the Petaluma River
Petaluma River
The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough near its mouth. It springs from farmlands southwest of Cotati and flows generally southward through Petaluma's old town and of tidal marshes to end in northwest San Pablo Bay.-History:The word...

.

Course

Washington Creek rises on the west flank of Sonoma Mountain
Sonoma Mountain
Sonoma Mountain is a prominent landform within the Sonoma Mountains of southern Sonoma County, California. At elevation of , Sonoma Mountain offers expansive views of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Sonoma Valley to the east...

 and descends to the southwest. It crosses under Adobe Road just north of East Washington Street, then parallels East Washington Street through Rooster Run Golf Club and into suburban Petaluma, crossing under Sonoma Mountain Parkway and Maria Drive. After East Washington Creek enters from the east the creek continues southwestward, passing under North McDowell Parkway and U.S. 101. Emerging from the U.S. 101 interchange, the creek flows westward, crossing under Madison Street and Holly Lane to enter the Petaluma River just north of the Payran Street bridge.

Habitat and pollution

On March 7, 2000, a Sonoma Mountain dairy rancher pleaded "no contest" to charges that in 1999 he dumped 732000 US gal (2,770.9 m³) of manure and urine into Washington Creek. This was reportedly the first time a Sonoma County dairy farmer had faced fines stemming from criminal charges in a creek pollution case.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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