Temescal Creek (Riverside County)
Temescal Wash ( orange shown) in the river system of the Santa Ana River
The Temescal Wash ( unofficially Temescal Creek ) is a river in Riverside County in California. It originates from the Lake Elsinore and leads in a north-westerly direction through several valleys and canyons up to Corona, where it flows into the Santa Ana River. With 2200 km ² large catchment area of Temescal Wash is its most important tributary.
Geography
About the Temescal Wash water is conveyed from the 1900 km ² large catchment area of the San Jacinto River in the Santa Ana River and about him in the Pacific Ocean hydrologically considered. Here, the flow from the Lake Elsinore rises at an altitude of 379 m and runs over a length of 32 km to Corona, where it flows at 153 m in the Santa Ana River.
The river flows in the rain shadow of the Santa Ana Mountains through dry area, which is why he just temporarily on its whole route is water.
Watercourse
Today, the Temescal Wash begins as Elsinore Channel Spillway at Lake Elsinore and is used at high water on the discharge of the lake. He continues through the town of Lake Elsinore, then head northwest through the Warm Springs Valley. There it flows together with Wasson Canyon Wash and passes through a treatment plant. From its confluence with Arroyo Del Toro the Temescal Wash is a natural watercourse. He now performs the Walker Canyon and meets at the level of Alber Hill on Rice Canyon Wash. After that it crosses Interstate 15 merges with Horsetheif Canyon Creek and then into the Lee Lake. This is formed by damming the Temescal washs means of a embankment. Thereafter, Indian Canyon Creek empties into the Temescal Wash. Here the river in the northwest of the Santa Ana Mountains is bergrenzt. In another of the Temescal Canyon Wash goes downhill. Here the stream turns into a semi-circle around the mountain range and leads north from Lee Lake, where he enters the Temescal Valley. After this happened the Canyon Wash the Estelle Mountain Canyon and a natural river bed before he with some streams, namely Mayhew Canyon Wash, Dawson Canyon Wash, Cold Water Canyon Creek, Brown Canyon Wash, Olsen Canyon Wash, Cajalco Canyon Wash, Bedford Canyon Wash and Joseph Canyon Wash, coincides, before it enters the Temescal Canyon. North of El Cerrito meets the creek for the second time in a reservoir and exits this as a channel again. He runs through the northern part of Corona, flows along with Main Street Canyon Wash and Oak Avenue drain and subsequently hits the Prado Flood Control Basin, which is caused by the Prado Dam, which impounds the Santa Ana River. In this swamp area of Temescal Wash finally empties into the Santa Ana River. At high tide, the estuary becomes its own lake, so the confluence of the two rivers is no longer recognizable as such.
History
Before 1886 the Temescal Wash resulted in significantly more water than today. In May of the same year, the South Riverside Land and Water Company was founded, which bought lands in the surrounding countryside, a settlement called South Riverside founded and also the rights to Temescal Wash, its tributaries and Lee Lake secured. Dams and pipelines were built to channel water to South Riverside. From 1889 to the newly created Temescal Water Company supplied the settlement. She earned all areas with waters in the Temescal Valley and began to build by drilling wells Arte assurance; the first water was brought up from nearly 100 m depth. When the water level began to fell, pumping stations had to meet the demand for water. Later, the water ran both the Temescal Wash itself as well as from Coldwater Canyon Creek only through pipelines. Source areas were drained, and so became dry and desolate the Temescal Valley with time. Farms and orchards had to be abandoned.