Among other issues, it is sinking and a couple of solutions are offered, one of which is to allow it to become a marsh again, which could be a good idea, depending on the viability of what that involves in terms of the people and economies that are now there.
Sinking Delta
Where tules replace corn, they grow soil. It's no quick fix, but it could save levees.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, October 17, 2007
WITCHELL ISLAND – A stretch of dirt road cutting through this 3,500-acre island near Rio Vista offers a stark look at two different futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
One side of the road is a farm field, with corn stretching in orderly and silent rows across hundreds of acres. It sits at least 5 feet lower than the road, a result of decaying peat soils that have made many Delta islands into deep bowls through a process called subsidence.
On the other side is a soggy marsh, its floor nearly level with the road. The marsh is thick with tules and cattails reaching 10 feet overhead. Songbirds and waterfowl rise between pockets of open water. The air is filled with chirping and quacking.
