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91-483: The Superior Court of California for and in the County of Santa Clara is the state trial court in and for Santa Clara County, California . The Santa Clara Superior Court serves the public by providing equal justice for all in a fair, accessible, effective, efficient, and courteous manner; resolving disputes under the law; applying the law consistently, impartially, and independently; instilling public trust and confidence in

182-454: A 1,200,000 acres (490,000 ha) area encompassing much of eastern Santa Clara County as well as portions of southern Alameda County, western Merced and Stanislaus Counties , and northern San Benito County . Acquisitions to date include the 1,756-acre (711 ha) Rancho Cañada de Pala , straddling the Alameda Creek and Coyote Creek watersheds for California tiger salamander habitat;

273-474: A conservation easement on the 3,259-acre Blue Oak Ranch Reserve , which abuts the north side of Joseph D. Grant County Park ; a conservation easement on the 28,359-acre San Felipe Ranch, connecting Joseph D. Grant County Park with Henry W. Coe State Park ; the 2,899-acre South Valley Ranch which protects a tule elk herd in the San Antonio Valley, and other properties. As of 1980, Santa Clara County had

364-823: A few miles of Santa Clara). The San Andreas Fault runs along the Santa Cruz Mountains in the south and west of the county. Both tule elk ( Cervus canadensis nannodes ) and pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) were historically native to Santa Clara County. In June 1776, Lieutenant Commander Don José Joaquín Moraga led a group of soldiers and colonists from the Presidio of Monterey to establish Mission San Francisco de Asis and encountered both tule elk and pronghorn, and clearly distinguished these two species from deer. The deer in California being California mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ). Regarding elk, Moraga wrote: "In

455-627: A fifth herd of tule elk was documented by local naturalist Roger Castillo, likely having split from the Coyote Ridge herd and established itself in Silver Creek Valley around the closed Ranch Golf Club. The elk herds in eastern Santa Clara County are blocked from dispersal to the west by U.S. Highway 101, with environmentalists advocating re-purposing the Metcalf Road bridge at the Coyote Gap into

546-459: A long-term change in precipitation and was a symptom of the natural variability, although the record-high temperature that accompanied the recent drought may have been amplified due to human-induced global warming . This was confirmed by a 2015 scientific study which estimated that global warming "accounted for 8–27% of the observed drought anomaly in 2012–2014. Although natural variability dominates, anthropogenic warming has substantially increased

637-566: A majority in the county was Ronald Reagan in 1984. While Republicans remained competitive at the state and local level throughout the 1990s, there are currently no elected Republicans representing the county above the local level. According to the California Secretary of State , as of February 10, 2019, Santa Clara County has 895,965 registered voters. Of those, 405,470 (45.3%) are registered Democrats , 151,213 (16.9%) are registered Republicans , and 308,769 (35.4%) have declined to state

728-702: A number of other officials to county-wide positions, including the Santa Clara County District Attorney, the Santa Clara County Sheriff, and a large number of criminal and civil judges that serve in courts throughout the county. Historically, Santa Clara County was a Republican stronghold in presidential elections. From 1872 through 1984 , the only Democrats to carry Santa Clara County were Franklin Roosevelt , Lyndon Johnson , and Hubert Humphrey . However, 1988 would begin to mark

819-444: A political party. As of November 2012, all of the cities, towns, and unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County have more registered Democrats than Republicans. In 2008 , Barack Obama carried every city and town in the county, as well as the unincorporated areas. Following the passage of Proposition 8 , Santa Clara County joined San Francisco and Los Angeles in a lawsuit , becoming, along with San Francisco and Los Angeles,

910-568: A significant shift in the county's political leanings, starting with Michael Dukakis ' narrow win and culminating in Bill Clinton 's substantial 20-point victory in 1992 . Since then, the Democratic presidential candidate has won Santa Clara County by large margins, and it also remains solidly blue in congressional elections, as all politicians representing the county at the state and federal level are known to be Democrats. The last Republican to win

1001-681: A single building. The doctrine of corporate personhood in US law is commonly traced to the 1886 decision of the United States Supreme Court in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad , which started in this court. The Court serves the Incorporated Cities, Towns & Census Designated Places of Santa Clara County. (Incorporated Cities and or Towns are marked with an asterisk (*).) The following judicial officers serve on

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1092-637: A wildlife overcrossing. This would enable elk to recolonize rural southwestern Santa Clara County, as well as Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties. In 1990, the California Department of Fish and Game 's Henry Coletto translocated excess pronghorn from Modoc County to six locations in California, including 51 animals to the San Felipe Ranch in Santa Clara County, where the swift-footed ungulates had not lived for generations. The animals left

1183-494: Is James R. Williams, J.D. The County Executive is responsible for the administration of the county and appoints almost all other officers and department heads. The county is one among three counties in California (with Napa and Madera) to establish a separate department, the Santa Clara County Department of Corrections, to deal with corrections pursuant to California Government Code §23013. The county operates

1274-539: Is a public library system serving the communities and cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, and all unincorporated areas of the county. Other cities run their own library systems. The county's main airport is Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport (SJC). It is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry and as of 2019 has five international routes (two to Canada, one to England, one to Japan, seven to Mexico, and one to China) but

1365-512: Is an economic center for high technology , and had the third-highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the world as of 2015 behind Zürich and Oslo , according to the Brookings Institution . Located on the southern coast of San Francisco Bay , the urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County contains most of the county's population. More recently, extensive droughts in California , further complicated by drainage of

1456-423: Is forecast, water is allowed to be stored above the legal flood control limit, rather than being wasted downstream. This program is known as "Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations". In addition, capital improvements such as the $ 900 million spillway project at Folsom Dam will allow greater flexibility in water releases, making it safer to maintain a high reservoir level during the wet season. California has one of

1547-434: Is generally defined as "a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time (usually a season or more), resulting in a water shortage." A lack of rainfall (or snowfall) or precipitation in meager quantities, higher than average temperatures and dry air masses in the atmosphere commonly underlie drought conditions; these natural factors are further complicated by increases in populations and water demands. Since

1638-687: Is intrinsic to the natural climate of California. Across the Californian region, paleoclimate records dating back more than 1,000 years show more significant dry periods compared to the latest century. Ancient data reveals two mega-droughts that endured for well over a century, one lasting 220 years and one for 140 years. The 20th century was fraught with numerous droughts, yet this era could be considered relatively "wet" compared against an expansive 3,500 year history. In recent times, droughts lasting five to 10 years have raised concern, but are not anomalous. Rather, decade long droughts are an ordinary feature of

1729-644: Is limited to approximately 71 percent of capacity in the winter in order to control rain flooding. Levees along Northern California rivers, such as the Sacramento and American rivers, are quite generously sized in order to pass large volumes of floodwater. In the San Joaquin River basin ( San Joaquin Valley ) and other areas of the state where snowpack is the primary source of river flow, river channels are sized mainly to control snowmelt floods, which do not produce

1820-637: Is part of the larger San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area . Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Northern California . The county seat and largest city with a population of 971,233 is San Jose , the 13th-most populous city in the nation, California's third-most populous city , and the most populous city in Northern California . Home to Silicon Valley , Santa Clara County

1911-482: Is rain floods in the November–April wet season. Oceanic " atmospheric river " or Pineapple Express storms can generate massive precipitation in a short period (often up to 50 percent of the total annual rainfall in just a few storms). This requires a certain safety margin to be maintained in reservoirs, which are often not allowed to capacity until late April or May. Shasta Lake , California's largest reservoir,

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2002-482: Is responsible for regulating the flow. Water in California can be expensive. This leads to awareness of water management challenges. In some instances, water tables underground have dropped from 100 to 400–600 feet deep, basically shutting off most private well owners from their own water sources. Water is managed by government consent, which assumes ownership and management of all free flowing rivers, lakes, and bodies of water in its jurisdictions. In many cases in

2093-1058: Is served by Caltrain commuter rail from Gilroy through San Jose and Silicon Valley north to San Francisco Airport and San Francisco . The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority operates the VTA light rail system, which primarily serves San Jose, with one line continuing as far north as Mountain View . Santa Clara and San Jose are also served by the Altamont Corridor Express commuter rail line which provides services to Stockton , and Amtrak which provides service to Sacramento and Oakland . The Amtrak Coast Starlight train between Seattle and Los Angeles also stops in San Jose. BART currently services Milpitas and North San Jose , with plans to extend to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara . Droughts in California Drought

2184-478: Is to become the future of the earth. While variability in climate patterns are a natural occurrence, AR6 concluded that human influences have increased the chance of compound extreme weather events, specifically "increases in the frequency of concurrent heatwaves and droughts on the global scale" with high confidence. According to the NOAA Drought Task Force report of 2014, the drought is not part of

2275-591: The Arctic oscillation and North Atlantic oscillation which removed storms from the U.S. in the winter of 2011–2012. Meeting EPA water quality standards currently requires allowing billions of gallons per day to flow into the ocean. On March 20, 2023, Trinity Lake was losing 1 billion gallons per day to Flow Augmentation. This happened during historic drought, while Trinity was at only 50% of historical average, and all other major California lakes were at least 91% of historical average. The Trinity River Restoration Program

2366-494: The De Anza Expedition on March 23, 1776: " In Gilroy Valley (Santa Clara Valley) Moraga 's larder was replenished by three elks which the men killed without leaving the road." General John Bidwell , of the 1841 Bartleson-Bidwell Party wrote: "In some of the fertile valleys, such as Napa and Santa Clara, there were elk literally by the thousand." In 1978, California Department of Fish and Game warden Henry Coletto urged

2457-541: The Pacific Ocean (and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991) most likely caused unusual persistent heavy rains. 2007–2009 saw three years of drought conditions, the 12th worst drought period in the state's history, and the first drought for which a statewide proclamation of emergency was issued. The drought of 2007–2009 also saw greatly reduced water diversions from the state water project. The summer of 2007 saw some of

2548-478: The San Bernardino National Forest . Nestle's continued bottling in the forest after its permit to do so was expired by decades. In doing so, Nestle depleted Strawberry Creek . Another bottled water company, Crystal Geyser , was found to be illegally transporting and dumping arsenic-laded wastewater from its bottling facilities. Orange County is working toward water independence by building

2639-715: The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge to add genetic diversity to the San Antonio Valley Ecological Reserve herd in San Antonio Valley in extreme eastern Santa Clara County. As of 2017 there were four herds in the Coyote Ridge area, often visible from U. S. Highway 101, according to Craige Edgerton, recently retired executive director of the Silicon Valley Land Conservancy and local naturalist Michael Hundt. In 2019,

2730-670: The Santa Clara County Health System of medical centers and clinics. In the United States House of Representatives , Santa Clara County is split among four congressional districts: In the California State Senate , the county is split among four legislative districts: In the California State Assembly , the county is split among six legislative districts: Voters in the county also elect

2821-550: The Southern Pacific Railroad within county boundaries. The result was the U.S. Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad , 118 U.S. 394 (1886), in which the court extended due-process rights to artificial legal entities . In the early 20th century, the area was promoted as the "Valley of the Heart's Delight" due to its natural beauty, including a significant number of orchards . The region

Santa Clara County Superior Court - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-535: The U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 1,291.08 square miles (3,343.9 km ). Counties which border with Santa Clara County are, clockwise, Alameda County , San Joaquin (within a few hundred feet at Mount Boardman ), Stanislaus , Merced , San Benito , Santa Cruz , and San Mateo County . Santa Clara County formerly shared borders with Contra Costa , San Francisco , Mariposa , Monterey , and Tuolumne counties until 1853, 1856, 1874, and 1854 respectively (Monterey County currently comes within

3003-436: The 21st century. In 2015, California experienced its lowest snowpack in at least 500 years; the 2012–15 period was the driest in at least 1200 years. However, the winter of 2016–17 was the wettest ever recorded in Northern California, surpassing the previous record set in 1982–83. In February 2017, Shasta, Oroville and Folsom Lakes were simultaneously dumping water into the ocean for flood control . Lake Oroville flowed over

3094-538: The Anderson reservoir within the county for seismic repairs, have strained the county's water security . As of 2020, it has a median household income of $ 130,890, the third-highest household income of any county in the nation behind Loudoun County, Virginia and Falls Church, Virginia , and the highest of any county in the Western United States . Santa Clara County is named for Mission Santa Clara , which

3185-886: The California water supply is attained from numerous sources, fulfilled by varied and intricate weather patterns, there is no one cause of drought. California is not only the most populous state and largest agricultural producer in the United States, it is also the most biodiverse; as such, drought in California can have a far reaching economic and environmental impacts. There are five major technical categories of drought: (1) Meteorological, (2) Agricultural, (3) Hydrological, (4) Socioeconomic, and (5) Ecological. A meteorological drought may be short lived without causing disturbance; but when longer lasting may enter other categories according to its impacts. In addition to technical categories, Governor Gavin Newsom and his administration introduced in 2023

3276-640: The Old Courthouse, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the St. James Square National Historic District in 1979. A modern courthouse was completed in 1964, replacing an older Hall of Records which had been built adjacent to the county courthouse. The Hall of Justice, located a few blocks to the north, was completed in 1991. The Family Justice Center was completed in 2016, consolidating court operations from six different facilities in

3367-893: The San Felipe Ranch for the Isabel and San Antonio Valleys, as well as an area near Lake Del Valle in Alameda County may now be extirpated by poaching, highway vehicle collisions, and insufficient numbers to defend pronghorn fawns against coyote predation. As of 2012, the Isabel Valley Ranch herd had dwindled to 3 animals, and the Lake del Valle herd to 13. Currently, iNaturalist.org has zero observer records of pronghorn in Santa Clara County. The Nature Conservancy "Mount Hamilton Project" has acquired or put under conservation easement 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of land towards its 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) goal for habitat conservation within

3458-619: The Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County, as of June 2019: Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County , officially the County of Santa Clara , is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California , with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census . Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area , which

3549-419: The US, water has been used for commercial purposes, such as Nestle 's 72 brands of bottled water. It is managed by governmental authorities selling its water rights. Some local and state governments have resorted to selling water rights for income even when it harms the local community and environment (e.g. taking water away from California and bottling and shipping it to water-rich parts of the United States and

3640-752: The airport's busiest routes are all to cities in the western United States. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is also often used for commercial services by residents of Santa Clara County. Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ), a former U.S. Naval Air Station , is used by the Air National Guard , NASA , Lockheed Martin , Google , and by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department as an air operations base. There are also smaller general aviation airports in Palo Alto (PAO) , San Jose (Reid-Hillview) (RHV) , and San Martin(E16) Santa Clara County

3731-481: The applicability of the entropy minimax method of statistical analysis of multivariate data to the problem of determining the conditional probability of drought one or two years into the future, with the area of special interest being California. Christensen et al. (1980) demonstrated an information-theoretic model predicted the probability that precipitation will be below or above average with modest but statistically significant skill one, two and even three years into

Santa Clara County Superior Court - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-401: The average family size was 3.41. In the county, the age distribution was 24.7% under 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.80 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 101.90 males. The median income for a household in the county was $ 74,335, and for a family

3913-544: The capacity of the pumps. This is further complicated by environmental rules which restrict pumping during certain months of the year, to protect migrating fish. In water year 2015, 9,400,000 acre-feet (11.6 km ) of water flowed through the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, but only 1,900,000 acre-feet (2.3 km ) were recovered into water distribution systems. Most of California's major reservoirs serve important flood control functions. Due to

4004-488: The climate of California. Furthermore, global La Niña meteorological events are generally associated with drier and hotter conditions and further exacerbation of droughts in California and the Southwestern and to some extent Southeastern United States . Meteorological scientists have observed that La Niñas have become more frequent over time. Increasingly dramatic fluctuations in California weather have been observed in

4095-414: The concept of a political drought, where state public policy actions would need to continue even after short-term drought conditions may have ameliorated. Precipitation in California occurs mostly from November to May, with the vast majority of rain and snowfall across the state occurring during the winter months. This delicate balance means that a dry rainy season can have lasting consequences. Drought

4186-498: The country, despite extreme land prices. The surge in metro GDP is highly correlated with home prices, which for average single-family homes passed $ 1 million ($ 1,017,528) in August 2013. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median value of homes in Santa Clara County was $ 1,253,400, an increase of 11.9% from the prior year, and ranking fourth in the US for highest median home value. School districts include: Santa Clara County Library

4277-479: The court. San Jose was chosen as the initial site for the state's capitol in 1849, which it held until 1851, when legislators voted to move to Vallejo . After Santa Clara County was formed on April 25, 1851, a contest was held to select a design for a new building worthy of being a state capitol in 1860. The winning entry, designed by Levi Goodrich , was constructed from 1866 to 1868 at a cost of US$ 173,737.96 (equivalent to $ 3,980,000 in 2023). The courthouse

4368-528: The decrease of surface and groundwater, the California Water Science Center is a part of a team trying to restore and maintain water flow in these at risk areas. With reduction of water flow and increased windy or dry weather, wildfire risks increase; lightning strikes or accidental human mistake can lead to huge wildfires due to the drier-than-normal climate. Adaptation is the process of adjusting to circumstances, which means not trying to stop

4459-517: The department to choose the Mount Hamilton area as one of California's relocation sites under a new statewide effort to restore tule elk. While other ranchers refused, tech pioneers Bill Hewlett and David Packard allowed Coletto and state biologists to translocate the initial 32 tule elk from the Owens Valley in the eastern Sierra onto the 28,000-acre (11,000 ha) San Felipe Ranch , which

4550-582: The driest year in state history to date. According to the Los Angeles Times , "Drought in the 1970s spurred efforts at urban conservation and the state's Drought Emergency Water Bank came out of drought in the 1980s.". Additionally as drought prediction was essentially random and in response to recent severe drought years, in 1977 the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Water Research and Technology contracted Entropy Limited for an exploratory study of

4641-485: The drought – approximately 102 million, including 62 million in 2016 alone. By the end of 2016, 30% of California had emerged from the drought, mainly in the northern half of the state, while 40% of the state remained in the extreme or exceptional drought levels. Heavy rains in January 2017 were expected to have a significant benefit to the state's northern water reserves, despite widespread power outages and erosional damage in

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4732-442: The drought, but trying to preserve the water given the drought conditions. This is the most used option, because stopping a drought is difficult given that it is a meteorological process. Adapting to the problem using innovation and problem solving is often the cheaper and more useful way to go because trying to change the natural processes of the earth could have unforeseen consequences . A precipitation shortage leaves less water in

4823-722: The drought. In the spring of 2015, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration named the probability of the presence of El Niño conditions until the end of 2015 at 80%. Historically, El Niño conditions were present during sixteen winters between 1951 and 2015. Six of those had below-average rainfall, five had average rainfall, and five had above-average rainfall. However, as of May 2015, drought conditions had worsened and above average ocean temperatures had not resulted in large storms. The drought led to Governor Jerry Brown's instituting mandatory 25 percent water restrictions in June 2015. Many millions of California trees died from

4914-404: The elk horns as four varas [11 feet (3.4 m)] across... "These animals [elk] are called ciervos in order to differentiate them from the ordinary Spanish variety of deer, here called venados , which also exist in abundance and of large size in the vicinity." Regarding pronghorn, Moraga reported: "In the said plains of San Bernardino (Santa Clara Valley)…there is another species of deer about

5005-672: The emergency spillway for the first time in 48 years, after the main spillway was damaged resulting in the temporary evacuation of 200,000 people. The combined inflow to Shasta, Oroville and Folsom Lakes on February 9 was 764,445 acre-feet (0.942929 km ). Two days later, the combined flood control release was 370,260 acre-feet (0.45671 km ). This water would have been worth $ 370M at Los Angeles County municipal rates. Throughout recent recorded history, California has experienced periodic droughts , such as 1841, 1864, 1895, 1924, 1928–1935, 1947–1950, 1959–1961, 1976–1977, 1986–1992, 2007–2009, and 2011–2017 , and 2020–2022. Since 1841,

5096-936: The families jointly own, in the hills east of Morgan Hill . From the three original 1978–1981 translocations (totaling 65 animals) to the Mount Hamilton region of the Diablo Range , there are multiple herds in different locations including the Isabel Valley, San Antonio Valley , Livermore area, San Felipe Ranch, Metcalf Canyon, Coyote Ridge , Anderson Lake , and surrounding areas such as the Sunol and Cottonwood Creek (near San Luis Reservoir in western Merced County, California ) herds. As of 2012 , an estimated 400 tule elk roam 1,875 square kilometres (724 sq mi) in northeastern Santa Clara County and southeastern Alameda County . In March 2014 CDFW translocated nine bull elk from

5187-428: The first governmental entities in the world to sue for same-sex marriage. The following table includes the number of incidents reported in 2009 and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense. Law Enforcement in Santa Clara County is handled by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and local police departments. The county's economy is heavily services-based. Technology, both hardware and software, dominates

5278-473: The following dry years have had significantly below-average precipitation. The drought was sufficiently severe that a settler's account of the time claimed that the Sonoma area was "entirely unsuitable for agriculture". This drought was preceded by the torrential floods of 1861–1862 . This drought encouraged farmers to start using irrigation more regularly. Because of the fluctuation in California weather,

5369-476: The future. It was this pioneering work that discovered the influence of El Nino El Nino-Southern Oscillation on US weather forecasting. California endured one of its longest droughts ever, observed from late 1986 through late 1992. Drought worsened in 1988 as much of the United States also suffered from severe drought . In California, the six-year drought ended in late 1992 as a significant El Niño event in

5460-521: The great plain called San Bernardino (the Santa Clara Valley which stretches from south San Jose to Gilroy ), while the expedition was strung out at length, we descried in the distance a herd of large animals that looked like cattle, but we could not imagine where they belonged or from whence they had come...with horns similar in shape to those of the deer, but so large that they measured sixteen palms from tip to tip." Upon measurement, Morago reported

5551-411: The heavy precipitation, which flooded multiple rivers and filled most of the state's major reservoirs, Governor Brown declared an official end to the drought on April 7. The runoff from rainfall used to support many aspects of California infrastructure, such as agriculture and municipal use, will be severely diminished during the drought. While groundwater diminishes at a much lower rate than runoff,

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5642-566: The highest number of Superfund Sites of any county in the United States, accounting for 25 polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. As of 2019 , Santa Clara County has 23 active Superfund Sites, still more than any other county in the United States. The vast majority of these Superfund sites were caused by firms associated with the high tech sector in Silicon Valley . Census demographics data released in 2019 show Asian Americans have had

5733-607: The huge peaks typical of rain floods, but are longer in duration and have a much higher total volume. As a result, reservoirs in this region have very strict restrictions on the amount of water that can be released. An example of a reservoir operated for snow floods is Pine Flat Lake near Fresno, which is restricted to about 53 percent capacity well into spring in order to capture summer snowmelt. However, Pine Flat and other San Joaquin reservoirs are frequently ineffectual in controlling rain floods, because they cannot release water fast enough between winter storms. Certain parts of

5824-498: The lack of runoff will lead to increased groundwater pumping to meet the needs of the water demand. If groundwater is being pumped at a rate higher than it can be replenished by precipitation then groundwater levels will begin to fall and the quality of water will also decrease. With that said the relationship between surface water and groundwater contribute to the hydrologic system, and groundwater helps maintain surface water flows during extended dry periods. With both sources diminishing,

5915-430: The late 1940s and 1950s. The U.S. Navy had a large presence in the area and began giving large contracts to Silicon Valley electronics companies. The term " Silicon Valley " was coined in 1971. The trend accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, and agriculture has since been nearly eliminated from the northern part of the county. Santa Clara County is the headquarters for about 6500 high-technology companies, including many of

6006-461: The limited capacity of river channels and dam spillways, reservoirs cannot be quickly drained before major storms. This limits how much of a reservoir's capacity can be used for long-term storage. Reservoirs in California are designed to control either rain floods, snowmelt floods or both. In the coastal and southern parts of the state, and much of the Sacramento River system, the primary threat

6097-437: The metro area reached $ 176.7 billion in 2011, or $ 94,587 per capita, roughly on par with Qatar in both total GDP and per capita (nominal). GDP grew a strong 7.7% in 2011, and in contrast with most of California, GDP and per capita GDP (nominal) is well above 2007 (financial crisis) levels. Despite relative wealth vis a vis other regions nationally, a large underclass exists whose income is roughly equivalent to that elsewhere in

6188-420: The most variable climates of any U.S. state, and often experiences very wet years followed by extremely dry ones. The state's reservoirs have insufficient capacity to balance the water supply between wet and dry years. El Niño and La Niña have often been associated with wet and dry cycles in California, respectively (the 1982–83 El Niño event , one of the strongest in history, brought record precipitation to

6279-460: The need for consistent water availability was crucial for farmers. This drought occurred during the historical Dust Bowl period that characterized much of the plains region of the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The Central Valley Project was started in the 1930s in response to drought. The 1950s drought contributed to the creation of the State Water Project . 1977 had been

6370-476: The official US census) calculates a religious diversity score of 0.876 for Santa Clara County, where 1 represents complete diversity (each religious group of equal size) and 0 a total lack of diversity. Only four counties in the US have higher diversity scores than Santa Clara County. Santa Clara County has five elected supervisors , elected within their districts. The board appoints the County Executive, who

6461-446: The overall likelihood of extreme California droughts." A study published in 2016 found that the net effect of climate change has made agricultural droughts less likely, with the authors also stating that "Our results indicate that the current severe impacts of drought on California’s agricultural sector, its forests, and other plant ecosystems have not been substantially caused by long-term climate change." Drought phases are integral to

6552-594: The plurality of Santa Clara's population since 2014. As of 2013, Santa Clara County has the highest median household income of any county in California at $ 84,741. The 2010 United States census reported that Santa Clara County had a population of 1,781,642. The racial makeup of Santa Clara County was 836,616 (47.0%) White, 46,428 (2.6%) African American, 12,960 (0.7%) Native American, 7,060 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 570,524 (32.0%) Asian, 220,806 (12.4%) from other races, and 87,248 (4.9%) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 479,210 persons (26.9% of

6643-410: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 565,863 households, 34.9% had children under 18 living with them, 54.9% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were not families. About 21.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.9% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.92, and

6734-496: The population). Demographic profile As of the census of 2000, 1,682,585 people, 565,863 households, and 395,538 families were residing in the county. The population density was 503/km (1,300/sq mi). The 579,329 housing units had an average density of 173/km (450/sq mi). The ethnic makeup of the county was 53.8% White, 2.8% African American, 0.7% Native American, 25.6% Asian, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 12.1% from other races, and 4.7% from two or more races. About 24.0% of

6825-450: The quality and availability of water will decrease. People can become ill from lack of water. Excessive ground water pumping and aquifer depletion will lead to land sinking and permanent loss of groundwater storage. Decreasing groundwater levels lead to exposing of underground water storage areas, this will cause lack of soil structure strength and possible sinking if the land above is heavy enough. This has already begun in certain parts of

6916-468: The service sector by value, but like any other county, Santa Clara has its share of retail and office support workers. The San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara metropolitan region, comprising Santa Clara County and San Benito County, was ranked as the highest performing metropolitan area in the US in 2012, ahead of Austin, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina , according to the Milken Institute . The GDP of

7007-496: The size of three-year-old sheep. They are similar in appearance to the deer, except they have short horns and also short legs like the sheep. They live in the plains where they go in herds of 100, 200, or more. They run all together over the plains so fast that they seem to fly…These animals are called berrendos and there are many of them also in the southern Missions wherever the country is level." Herbert Eugene Bolton also wrote of elk reports from another Spanish expedition, from

7098-591: The small size of the reservoir, it is difficult to balance the need for winter flood-control space with the need to store water for the summer. This often results in a failure to fill the lake due to a lower than expected spring snowmelt. Water managers and hydrology experts have criticized the outdated, overly conservative operation criteria at Folsom Dam, citing improved weather forecasting and snowpack measurement technology. Progress in forecasting methods has allowed more efficient or "smart" operation at certain California reservoirs, such as Lake Mendocino . If dry weather

7189-464: The state during the most recent drought. In coastal communities, excessive water pumping can lead to sea water intrusion , which means sea water will begin to flow into the underground water storage areas that were vacated by excess pumping. This can cause decreased water quality and lead to an expensive desalination effort to clean the water before distribution. Water flows through wildlife refuges and national parks can decrease or stop all together due to

7280-469: The state's innate climate. Based on scientific evidence, dry spells as severe as the mega-droughts detected from the distant past are likely to recur, even in absence of anthropogenic climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC, their Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on the effects of climate change revealed a number of scientifically supported claims on what

7371-495: The state's water infrastructure systems, leading to debates on how to best make use of this limited resource. Very few large-scale water projects have been built since 1979, despite the population doubling since that year. Because much of California's water network relies on a system of pumps to move water from north to south, large volumes of water are often lost to the Pacific Ocean during winter storms when river flow exceeds

7462-423: The state), but recent climate data show mixed evidence for such a relationship due in part to the growing impact of human-induced global warming. The very wet 2010–2011 season occurred during a strong La Niña phase, while the 2014–16 El Niño event , which surpassed 1982–83 in intensity, did not bring an appreciable increase of precipitation to the state. The 2012–15 North American drought was caused by conditions of

7553-437: The state, especially in the central Sierra Nevada, are prone to both rain and snow floods. Reservoirs such as Lake Oroville and Folsom Lake must respond to a wider range of runoff conditions. Lake Oroville is typically limited to 79–89 percent of capacity during the winter and Folsom Lake to 33–60 percent. These values are often adjusted up and down based on the amount of rain and snow forecast. At Folsom Lake, due to

7644-590: The wake of the deluge. Among the casualties of the rain was 1,000 year-old Pioneer Cabin Tree in Calaveras Big Trees State Park , which toppled on January 8, 2017. The winter of 2016–17 turned out to be the wettest on record in Northern California, surpassing the previous record set in 1982–83. Floodwaters caused severe damage to Oroville Dam in early February, prompting the temporary evacuation of nearly 200,000 people north of Sacramento. In response to

7735-629: The world for profit). This has led many to criticize treating water as a commodity. Despite Nestle's claims of acting according to the law, however, in 2017 California authorities found that the company extracted 58 million gallons, far surpassing the 2.3 million gallons per year it had rights to claim. Lately, locals have been fighting back against the "stealing" of precious resources by opposing and not allowing huge water draw down facilities to be set up. For example, officials at California's State Water Resources Control Board have made moves to prevent Nestlé from draining millions of gallons of water from

7826-514: The world's largest such companies, including AMD , Nvidia , Cisco Systems , and Intel , computer and consumer electronics companies Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard, and internet companies eBay , Google , and Yahoo! . Most of what is considered to be Silicon Valley is within the county, although some adjoining tech regions in San Mateo (e.g., Facebook ), Alameda , and Santa Cruz counties are also considered part of Silicon Valley. According to

7917-594: The worst wildfires in Southern California history . 2011-2017 was the longest drought in California beginning December 2011 and ending March 2017. The period between late 2011 and 2014 was the driest in California history since record-keeping began. In May 2015, a state resident poll conducted by Field Poll found that two out of three respondents agreed that it should be mandated for water agencies to reduce water consumption by 25%. The 2015 prediction of El Niño to bring rains to California raised hopes of ending

8008-510: Was $ 81,717. Males had a median income of $ 56,240 versus $ 40,574 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 32,795. About 4.9% of families and 7.5% of the population were below the poverty line , including 8.4% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. Santa Clara County is among the most religiously diverse counties in the US. A 2020 census by the Public Religion Research Institute (unconnected to

8099-552: Was also memorably referred to as the "sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley" in Jack London's 1903 Call of the Wild . The first major technology company to be based in the area was Hewlett-Packard , founded in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939. IBM selected San Jose as its West Coast headquarters in 1943. Varian Associates , Fairchild Semiconductor , and other early innovators were in the county by

8190-553: Was destroyed by fire in May 1931. Reconstruction work began in December 1931 and completed in August 1932; a dedication ceremony for the reconstructed courthouse was held on September 17. As originally completed in 1868, the courthouse was topped by a copper-covered dome; the copper sheathing melted in the intense heat from the 1931 fire and the dome was removed during reconstruction. After the disastrous 1931 fire and rebuilding, it survives today as

8281-472: Was established in 1777, and was in turn named for Saint Clare of Assisi . Santa Clara County was one of the original counties of California , formed in 1850 at the time of statehood. The original inhabitants included the Ohlone , residing on Coyote Creek and Calaveras Creek . Part of the county's territory was given to Alameda County in 1853. In 1882, Santa Clara County tried to levy taxes upon property of

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