Itch Scratched: The Spreading Grounds

 

From the day I first rode through it I have been bothered by a curiosity about the San Antonio Spreading Grounds. The curiosity has been assuaged, little by little, as I have explored and searched around for information about the area - its history, hydrology, geology. It was immediately clear that a lot of human activity had taken place there, but I was always moderately surprised, that the water control features had, apparently, never been mapped. That itch was finally scratched when if found the publication, Bioswales for Stormwater Remediation and Infiltration: Assessing Regulatory Climate and Quantifying Filtration Capacity of a Claremont Bioswale, a Pomona College Senior Seminar from Spring 2016. Contained within that paper was the above map originally included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin No. 578, Spreading Water for Storage Underground, by A. T. Mitchelson and D. C. Muckel, 1937. Those features shown on the map still remain and, though the stream is now contained by a concrete channel, water is still "allowed" to flow through the spreading ditches into the basins during years of heavy rainfall. You may have seen photos of them here at the blog taken over the past year or longer, though it is looking less and less likely that it will happen this year.