Santa Maria River on the

Central Coast of California The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populat ...

, is formed at the confluence of the

Sisquoc River The Sisquoc River is a westward flowing river in northeastern Santa Barbara County, California. It is a tributary of the Santa Maria River, which is formed when the Sisquoc River meets the Cuyama River at the Santa Barbara County and San Luis Ob ...

and

Cuyama River The Cuyama River (Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Kuyam'', meaning "Clam") is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 15, 2011 river in southern San Luis Obispo County, ...

, just east of the city of Santa Maria, and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed March 15, 2011 to its delta at the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

Santa Maria River estuary at Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve

The entire river defines the border between northern

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...

and southern

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra fou ...

, up to the Sisquoc River, with a major bridge on

Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drum ...

passing over it. The Santa Maria River Fault is a tectonic fault that roughly corresponds with the course of the river. There are no

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s or

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

s on the Santa Maria River itself, although

Twitchell Reservoir Twitchell Reservoir is a reservoir (water), reservoir in southern San Luis Obispo County, California, San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County in California. The reservoir has a capacity of a ...

is formed by a dam on the tributary Cuyama River. Twitchell Dam was built by the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...

and provides

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

control and

groundwater recharge Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in ...

of the

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

. The Sisquoc River is also free-flowing, and a

National Wild and Scenic Rivers System The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free- ...

. During much of the year, the Santa Maria River has very little water, but it can swell greatly during winter storms. The section adjacent to the city of Santa Maria has experienced encampments of unhoused people.

References

Rivers of Southern California Rivers of Santa Barbara County, California Rivers of San Luis Obispo County, California Santa Maria, California {{California-river-stub

See also

References