It is 79 nautical miles (146 km) northeast of San Francisco, and is centered in the California Central Valley, one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.

The Port of Sacramento is also set up to handle heavy machinery such as wind turbines, steel, generators and transformers.

With one 120-ton mobile harbor crane, the port specializes in bulk, break-bulk, agriculture, and construction cargo (no containerization shipments).

For rail, the port has both Union Pacific (UP) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroads lines for North America shipping.

The port is part of the California Green Trade Corridor project, as ships move cargo much greener than trucks and trains.

Green Trade Corridor Marine Highway (ports of Oakland-Stockton-West Sacramento) can improve goods movement through Northern California.

Sacramento has high hopes for its port to increase its cargo traffic and economic output with these advancements.

One of these species is the Delta smelt which has its main spawning grounds in and around the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel.

In other words, there may not be enough fresh water to make sure the salinity levels are maintained under the maximum amounts as well as serve all the other needs of the ecosystem and the people in the area.

The dredging does allow shipping to continue through the channel, which does confer some environmental benefit by eliminating 24,585 trips by trucks along the Interstate 80 corridor.