Stemple Creek is a long, westward-flowing

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

in the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

counties of Sonoma and Marin, which feeds into the

Estero de San Antonio Estero de San Antonio is a stream in the northern California counties of Marin and Sonoma which empties into Bodega Bay. Course The Estero springs just north of the Marin-Sonoma county line (from a hill overlooking Bloomfield, California) and ...

. Its waters ultimately reach

Bodega Bay Bodega Bay () is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately across and is located approximately northwest of San Francisco and west of Santa Rosa, California, S ...

, part of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary on 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 ...

Course

Stemple Creek springs from low-lying coastal hills southwest of Cotati. It crosses under Stony Point Road and runs about southeast before turning westward. It passes south of Two Rock, California, then crosses into Marin County just west of

Training Center Petaluma Training Center Petaluma is a United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard training facility in the northern California counties of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma and Marin County, California, Marin. Formerly the installation was the United States ...

. The creek follows a sinuous course across northern West Marin, with bridges at Alexander Road, Twin Bridge Road, and State Route 1, to a confluence with the

just west of State Route 1.

Environmental factors

California's 1994 water quality report designated Stemple Creek as an "impaired" streamway as defined in section 303(d) of the Federal Water Resource Statutes, due to runoff from pasture land and feedlots. Pollutants found at hazardous level in the creek have included

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

, and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

Bridges

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s cross Stemple Creek at Route One, Pepper Road, Twin Bridge Road, Alexander Road, Tomales Road, Valley Ford Road, Mecham Road, and Pepper Road. The newest and longest of these, built in 1982, is the long

concrete slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings, consisting of a flat, horizontal surface made of cast concrete. Steel- reinforced slabs, typically between 100 and 500 mm thick, are most often used to construct floors and ...

structure at milepost 47.41 on State Route 1. The oldest, built in 1915, is the concrete

tee beam A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearing structure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a capital 'T'-shaped cross section. The top of the T-shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisti ...

bridge carrying Valley Ford Road, located from State Route 1.

References

{{reflist Rivers of Marin County, California Rivers of Sonoma County, California West Marin Rivers of Northern California

Course

Environmental factors

Bridges

See also

References