Local reservoirs and streams and groundwater are the primary
sources of supply for communities along the north coast and the
upper Sacramento Valley. Redding also receives water from
the Central Valley Project, which begins in the Sacramento River
in Shasta County, while Oroville receives water from the State
Water Project, which begins at Oroville Dam on the Feather
River.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday the addition of a
historic Northern California mine to the Superfund National
Priorities List — a federal index that ranks hazardous waste
site risk and helps in prioritizing cleanup operations.
The Afterthought Mine, located in Shasta County about 200
miles north of Sacramento, produced gold, silver, copper, lead
and zinc from 1862 to 1952, according to the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). … Both the mine and the
Afterthought Smelter, about a mile downstream, were “in direct
contact with surface water” in the adjacent Little Cow Creek,
according to the EPA’s Hazard Ranking System documentation
record. … Little Cow Creek, which is frequented by
fishing enthusiasts, also hosts a variety of wetland wildlife
and has been designated as a critical habitat for steelhead
trout, per the document. Other fish found in the waterway
include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, Chinook salmon, brown
trout, brook trout and rainbow trout, according to the EPA.
