The dream of the Delta Science Center started back in 1996, when several local residents and groups came together in Oakley, California with the idea of building a science center. Over the years many events have happened to make that dream a reality. In the early part of the 2000s, East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) passed a bond using the Delta Science Center model.

With property purchased along the shoreline at the end of Big Break Road, the Delta Science Center at Big Break began development. Now in near completion the Delta Science Center plans to fully open at the end of 2011. Along with the Delta Science Center at Big Break building is the outdoor Delta Discovery Experience.


The Big Break Regional Shoreline offers an opportunity for students to get close up to the shoreline for sampling and testing purposes. The Delta Discovery Experience offers a pier area, amphitheater that can seat 150 people, picnic area and a piece of art with the replica of the Delta that embedded in the outside walkway.

The location of the Delta Science Center at Big Break is unique in many ways. It is a 40-acre parcel at the edge of Oakley, California. It is a quiet sanctuary in the middle of one of the fastest growing areas of California, surrounded by dense housing developments and heavy industry. It has been largely left alone since it ceased to be used for agriculture, and it is a prime candidate for restoration. It also is one of the few places where there is access to the wild edge of the Delta in this region. It sits at the edge of Big Break lagoon, a flooded asparagus farm with a lush edge and an example of what nature does when left on its own.

 

Big Break is near the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and sits astride a major and minor watershed. The two major rivers flow by on their paths from the Sierras to the sea, and the smaller Marsh Creek watershed is visible as it flows from the top of Mount Diablo into Big Break.  The site is located at the crossroads of water incursion and water diversion. 

Salt water reaches ever farther up the Delta as water is deverted to the great farms in the Central Valley and further south.  Here fresh water is drawn to be used by local communities and wastewater is treated by the Ironhouse Sanitary District.

 

This site has different meanings to those who see it:  developers see an opportunity for affordable housing to serve those priced out of the areas closer to San Francisco and San Jose; ecologists see a potential restored wetland; fishermen see a rich shoreline with a history of world-class bass fishing; neighboring city governments see an opportunity to vitalize the community and their tax base; residential neighbors see a quiet open space threatened by new uses; local children see a favorite playground in danger of becoming off-limits; park officials and educators see a unique opportunity to combine recreation, restoration, and education. 

The site is also in the geographic midst of a huge scientific effort which was launched to better understand the Bay-Delta system and how to "fix" it.  Big Break is naturally positioned for research efforts and for interpreting these efforts to the public.

 

The Delta Science Center site is located at the upper end of the San Francisco Estuary at the confluence of the southward-flowing Sacramento and northward-flowing San Joaquin rivers. The two rivers mingle with the smaller Sierra Nevada and Coast Range rivers in a maze of channels and sloughs extending for 700 miles.  The Delta includes 57 islands, 1,100 miles of levees, and hundreds of thousands of acres of marshes, mudflats, and farmland.  The estuary collects almost one of every two drops of rain or snow that fall on the State of California, and holds about 5 million acre-feet of water at mean tide.  The estuary provides drinking water to 20 million Californians and irrigates 4.5 million acres of farmland.  It supports the world's sixth largest economy and hosts one of the rishest diversities of life on earth.  Each year, two-thirds of the state's salmon pass through the Delta, as do nearly half of the waterfowl and shorebirds migrating along the Pacific Flyway.

Picture of the new building that is presently being constructed at the Big Break

Regional Shoreline by East Bay Parks and Recreation Department where the

Delta Science Center will house our future office.