Cargill Salt Ponds

depending on the spectrum filters and conversions used by the satellite camera and processing, that red may be from something else, too, like a chemical or mineral that reflects certain invisible light.

there are also high tension power lines running through the southern half of the pools.

These are the old salt ponds in the SF bay.
Look at this link

http://www.moore.org/grantees/grant_summaries_content.asp?Grantee=saltponds

Definitely salt ponds or fish farm.

The wouldn't be Cranberry bogs. Cranberries grow in MA, WA, WS... they need lots of sand too. The weather in SoCal would not work. Besides, bogs need much more drainage set up in a grid pattern all over a bog, and these do not have it.

These are bogs:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.924611,-70.672839&spn=0.006663,0.008240&t=k&hl=en

... SF Bay area isn't SoCal ...

those are salt beds, though.

THESE ARE THE SEWER RECLAMATION PONDS DUE SOUTH OF SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND I BELIEVE

Another photo with explanatory text: http://tinyurl.com/6jsep
Most, if not all salt evaporation ponds, are owned by Cargill. The pond almost dead center in this photograph can be readily matched in the Cranberry bog photo by shape: rough triangle with a curved 'handle' to the left. As salinity increases, biota in the ponds changes as discussed here:
http://www.cargillsalt.com/sfbay/EV_colors.html
Cargill has a major processing facility in Newark, I believe.

"A striking feature of salt swamps is the red colour caused by algae and bacteria multiplying in their stagnant water. The salt produced there is red, whereas quarried salt is grey and usually contains gypsum which gives it less flavour because of reduced solubility. The Madaba Map , dating from about 550 A.D. shows two ships sailing on the Dead Sea , one loaded with reddish salt from the old solar ponds and the other with grey salt from the quarry at Mt. Sodom."

http://www.salt.org.il/prod.html

When you drive by it on the Dumbarton, it smells like rotting eggs, and sometimes you can see chunks of salt blow across the road

It's red because of brine shrimp concentrations (from salt making), not bacteria. Same reason Pink Flamingos are pink, they eat brine shrimp.

Thanks for the info! As soon as I submitted the map, I thought, wait a minute, cranberries wouldn't grow in SALT WATER! D'oh!

why are they sometimes died blue??

They aren't dyed... read here about the colors:
http://www.cargill.com/sf_bay/saltpond_ecosystem.htm

Was just down by Mount Sodom today and there are large sections of redish salt crystals dried by the side of the road. It was not a harvest area, just sections that had flooded and dried. Most of the harvest areas are white salt crystals.

No idea why it was red, it just was.

I just think it is a great picture.