THE CALIFORNIA DELTA

A visual anthropology of California water politics

This is an ongoing gallery for my doctoral dissertation on the community politics of large-scale water transfers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In March 2025, I published an op-ed with The New York Times about the Delta’s relative obscurity for many Californians despite its incredible importance to the state water supply. For decades, the Delta has been a primary battleground in the theater of state water politics, as Delta locals and their advocates fight the continuing state initiatives that would construct new infrastructure in the Delta. It is often argued that this infrastructure would weaken and destroy local livelihoods, habitats, agriculture, and environments. This research project will document the Delta communities at the center of the ongoing conflicts over the Delta Conveyance Project, rooted in the regulatory goal of seeing the Delta “as a place.” I began this project with exploratory summer trips to the Delta in 2023-2025, with full-time residence established at the end of 2025, and continuing to the beginning of 2027.

Early reporting and research was supported by the Center for Contemporary Documentation
A night scene at the Lighthouse Bar and Grill in Isleton in 2023
A flock of birds over Brannan Island Rd in January 2026
Jeremy and his daughter, Xaliah, at a spot in Stockton where he used to fish when he was young, across from the Port of Stockton. Due to the proximity of the Port, it is not recommended to eat any fish caught around the area.
A banner resiting the "Delta Tunnels" Project at Korth's Pirates Lair Marina in Iselton. This sign references a former initiative from Jerry Brown's governorship (2011 to 2019) that proposed "twin tunnels" that would build two thirty-mile long tunnels from the northern reaches of the Delta to a pumping plant in the south Delta.
Pictures of the construction of the The C. W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant, taken some time between 1947 and 1951.
At the C. W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant in Byron, CA, one of the facilities six pumps is empitied for maintence. The plant takes water from the Delta and sends it into the Delta-Mendota Canal. Both the plant and the canal are key infrastructure for the federally operated Central Valley Project, which transfers water from the Delta to mostly agricultural destinations in California's dry San Joaquin Valley.
A crane drops rocks onto the banks of the Sacramento River as part of an infrastructure project to fortify crucial delta levees.
Workers plant tule along the Sacramento River riverbank as part of a levee fortification project. Over time, the tule would grow and form a natural barrier against rising water levels.
A worker at the Tracy Fish Collection Facility collects a small fish, which will be transported to a release point in Sherman Island.
The Mokelumne Aqueduct, a major canal that diverts water from the Mokelumne River and transfers it to 1.4 million residents in the East Bay, which is part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. This aqueduct is one of the many water infrastruture projects present and active in the Delta.
Morning mist rises off Whiskey Slough.
A rowboat suspended above a tributary of the San Joaquin River
Spencer Fern, the Delta Science Program Manager for Restore the Delta, tests park water for Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), toxic algae that grows in warm, tepid freshwater. Because of the weaker river flows in the urban delta, HABs are more prone to grow and cause concern for urban residents and animals.
A scarecrow hangs in farmland just outside of Stockton.
New volunteers for the River Delta Fire District are trained on water rescue. Because of the Delta's many waterways, water rescue is an important part of the fire department's public service in the Delta, where accidents on or near the water are regular occurances.
Transported via a boat to a larger barge, Dutra Group employees Sean Mannix, left, and Kurt Dillard, right, work on a project that fortifies existing riverbanks along the Sacramento River.
A local fisher on Lower Jones Road near Mildred Island.
Brett Baker is from a 6th generation Delta pear farm family and an attorney for the Central Delta Water Agency. He is also a UC Davis graduate in fish and conservation biology. The Bakers irrigate their farm with water from Steamboat Slough, a tributary of the Sacramento River and from groundwater under their land. The Baker family has had a contiguous water right for their pear farm since the 1860s.
A man walks through the barren Mormon Slough. There are proposals to re-water the long-abandoned slough to increase water flow n the urban Delta and South Stockton.
Remnants of the abandoned Herman and Helen’s Marina on 8 Mile Road outside of Stockton.
A boater looks at a Delta map of the area around Isleton.
Maria G. picks leaves from wild corn growing on the riverbanks of the Sacramento River. She said she was going to use the leaves to make Michoacána corundas, a regional tamale. A family member of hers had recently passed away and the tamales were to be served at his memorial celebration the next day.
Children play in an empty irrigation ditch. The Catholic diocese of Stockton has been teaching “migrant ministries” classes in the Delta’s rural farmland for nearly 20 years as a way to provide greater religious access to farmworker families who otherwise may have difficult time getting into the Delta.
People gather along the Tower Bridge in Sacramento for the 2024 4th of July fireworks show. According to the legal boundaries of the Delta, the Tower Bridge is northernmost boundary of the Delta.
Viktor Timonin, center, and his brother, Veniamin, work on their family's beekeeping business in Roberts Island. The family moved to the area from Kazakhstan nearly twenty years ago.
A group of people sit at an abandoned Marina off 8 Mile Road outside of Stockton.
The sun rises over a Whiskey Slough levee in Roberts Island.
A "ditch rider" adjusts the return flow to a Delta waterway. After farms irrigate, excess water is returned to their original sources
At a marina in Isleton, high tides have left a fish out of water
A gate blocks entry to a dock in Isleton. The Delta waterway is accessible to some, but not for everyone who lives in the surrounding area.
March 10, 2025 Op-ed in NYTimes