Canal

Canal

Noel Laflin

4-6-20

There are miles and miles of a concrete-lined water canal running from north Orange all the way to Newport Beach.  It’s about ten feet deep and just as many feet in width. It collects both runoff from rain events as well as excess yard watering. The section here runs directly behind our property.  I shot this about an hour ago when the rain took a break. It has never overflowed, but has come close in years past.

From our house, it’s about a quarter mile run to our neighborhood treatment reservoir/pond.  It’s what keeps it full, year-round.

Water in the pond sits for about a week, baptized and cleansed by sunlight, and then is released back into the canal to rush on to the Irvine Marsh and eventually Upper Newport Bay.

I am grateful to city/county planners of long ago for protecting us from flooding, as well as taking an old ditch and creating our pond.

I think that I speak to the ducks, geese, turtles, egrets, herons, fish, etc., for that last part too.