About the San Joaquin

Fast Faqs

• The San Joaquin River is part of the San Francisco Bay-Delta watershed, which provides drinking water to 22 million Californians.
• From its source in the Sierra Nevada to the San Francisco Bay Delta, the San Joaquin River Basin covers about 38,000 square miles, or one-fifth (20%) of California. The basin is about the same size as the state of Indiana.
• The San Joaquin River has many headwaters in the Sierras east of Fresno. From the headwaters to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the river stretches 350 miles.
• Historically, anadromous fish (fish that spend part of their lives in a river and part in the ocean, such as salmon and steelhead) could travel as much as 231 miles up the main stem of the San Joaquin River to spawn. Today the fish travel more than 50 miles up the river, where the Merced River meets the main stem.
• Scientists have estimated that the 1945 spring run of Chinook salmon was as high as 56,000 fish. When Friant Dam construction was completed in 1946 the spring run disappeared and never recovered.
• Marshes, forests, rivers and streams are nature’s tools for cleaning the air and water, yet only 5% of these habitats remain within the State of California.
• The San Joaquin River irrigates one million acres of farmland that produces over $2 billion in crops every year, accounting for 32.9 percent of all employment in the San Joaquin Valley.