Bracing for the biggest storms Flood agency looks at toughening the rules for urban protection

Sacramento Bee - February 12, 2005
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg

Bracing for the biggest storms
Flood agency looks at toughening the rules for urban protection.
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg -- Bee Staff Writer
Monday, February 13, 2006
Story appeared in Metro section, Page B1
A new state Reclamation Board is being asked to formally proclaim what its predecessors had been informally edging toward: 100-year flood protection just isn’t good enough for Central Valley cities.
Some board members say urban areas should have at least twice that: levees and waterways robust enough to protect against a 200-year storm, a deluge with a half-percent chance of raining down any year.
They want the board, which is a key gatekeeper for state and federal funds, to withhold backing of projects in any urban area that doesn’t have a solid plan for reaching the 200-year standard.
Woodland and other cities around the Sacramento region could be affected by the change. Today, Woodland is still seeking ways to achieve 100-year protection after voters rejected the strategy described as the most cost-effective.
And although Sacramento does have a plan to protect itself, eventually, from a 200-year storm, some on the Reclamation Board suggest that may be only a starting point.
“It’s a good target to shoot for,” said board President Ben Carter. “When we reach that, we may decide that’s not adequate and we may need to have more for some areas.”
The idea is one piece of a draft strategic plan to be discussed Thursday in a board workshop, and it could face several revisions before a formal public hearing, Carter stressed.
It would require urban areas to show they have an “implementable plan” to reach 200-year protection within 20 years if they want the Reclamation Board’s help on any levee work.
The board, Carter said, would want to know, “do they have a project, a timeline and sufficient funding to improve their flood control system to that level? Is it feasible, is it doable?”
While 20 years may sound like a long time, it’s fairly realistic given federal funding patterns, said board member Butch Hodgkins, a former Sacramento flood official who drafted the proposed strategic plan.
The measure would apply broadly, because federal rules require a state “partner” on flood work, and the Reclamation Board is that partner.
“In the Central Valley, if you want to get federal money, you’re going to have to work with the Reclamation Board,” Hodgkins said. And pretty much everyone wants federal money, which can supply 65 percent of the cost of a flood control project.
Past boards have urged 200-year protection for the Sacramento area, largely as part of lobbying for an Auburn dam, said Hodgkins, and had insisted some recent projects set a 200-year target.
The standard hadn’t been applied uniformly though, said Jeffrey Mount, a member of the prior Reclamation Board, which was ousted in September when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed seven new members.
Some speculated that the shift was prompted by those unhappy with the old board’s efforts to become involved in development issues behind levees. This measure falls short of such strong involvement, but represents progress, Mount said.
“It is likely to be a first positive step toward dealing with the fact that we here in California have pathetically low levels of flood protection for our urban areas,” he said.
Mount is among many experts who say federal floodplain regulations, which lift building rules and soften insurance standards for any area with 100-year protection, are too lenient for all but the most sparsely settled land.
If enacted, the Reclamation Board policy would raise the prospect that some areas considering 100-year protection would be told to come to the board instead with a stouter plan, said board Vice President Cheryl Bly-Chester.
“We’d be kind of putting the urban planners on notice,” she said.
Many urban areas in the Sacramento region have no firm plan or target date for getting that much protection. Among them are Marysville, Yuba City and Woodland. Sacramento has a plan to get there by 2021, but must fight each year in Congress for funding.
Along with the 200-year guideline, Hodgkins is suggesting the Reclamation Board take a tougher stance on encroachments that could interfere with levee maintenance, publicly disclose suspected “uncertainties” in levee performance, work toward establishing an assessment district for flood control, and collaborate with other agencies on the best ways to dovetail environmental and flood protection needs.
All are part of the preliminary draft strategic plan, to be discussed in a series of workshops that begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the Department of Water Resources joint operations center at 3310 El Camino Blvd. in Sacramento.
The morning’s first workshop is scheduled to focus on the River Islands development in Lathrop, with the strategic plan to follow.
ABOUT THE WRITER:
The Bee’s Carrie Peyton Dahlberg can be reached at (916) 321-1086 or cpeytondahlberg@sacbee.com

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