Waterways Map (Click to download pdf version of the map)
The waterways map shows some of the 770 miles of waterways—creeks, streams, and rivers—that thread themselves through Santa Cruz County. Water is a life force: redwoods, oaks, wildflowers, birds, coyotes, rows of crops, the starfish clinging to shore rocks and us—every living thing in our world is nourished by water. When we look for life on other planets, one of the first things we look for is water.
If you live in Santa Cruz County, you live in a watershed. Do you know which?
A watershed is basically a drainage basin. Within a watershed, all stormwater runs down from the highest point in the hills, to the lowest point, which might be a stream, river, lake or bay. On its way, water travels over the land—across farm fields, forests, lawns and streets—or it seeps down through the soil into underground aquifers we can pump for drinking water (see related content).
SC Watersheds Map (Click to download pdf version of the map)
Most people live in one of the four main watersheds:
- San Lorenzo River
- Soquel Creek
- Aptos Creek
- Pajaro River
All of these rivers and larger creeks have smaller creeks and streams flowing into them. For example, Carbonera Creek in Scotts Valley joins the San Lorenzo River, Valencia Creek joins Aptos Creek. Along the North Coast, a half dozen creeks drain directly into the ocean.
All of the county's watersheds, except one, are entirely located within our county Our exception, the Pajaro River, is a multi-county watershed, mostly in San Benito County, with parts in Santa Clara and Monterey counties, and a very small portion in Santa Cruz County. This 832,000-acre watershed is three times the size of all of Santa Cruz County and almost ten times the size of the San Lorenzo River watershed. A main reason that 1995 Pajaro River flood surprised a lot of people in the Pajaro Valley was because it hadn't been raining that heavily there, but it had been pouring upstream in San Benito County.
In Santa Cruz County, all watersheds drain to Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean, home to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a place so rich in marine life that we have taken extraordinary steps to protect it. Protecting the Sanctuary doesn’t just mean prohibiting offshore drilling or the dumping of waste from ships, it also includes protecting the ocean's water from contaminants in the water that drains from the land. What we do on the land shows up in the water that drains into the Bay.
From Stormwater to Drinking Water
