As the Rain Begins:  Is Anybody Listening?

With a healthy winter upon us, rain falling and rivers rising, concerns associated with flooding inundate our minds once again. The issue of flooding is hardly new to residents of the Sacramento Valley. For generations we have been fighting Mother Nature, constricting her rivers to well-defined channels through a series of levees, weirs, and bypasses. This flood control infrastructure has been an investment, built, re-built, and historically maintained to enable us to protect our homes and neighborhoods, our businesses and towns, and to reclaim vast amounts of the most fertile and productive farmland in the world.

However, lack of maintenance has left this system in a state of disrepair, exposing Sacramento Valley residents, their communities, and their investments to damage and destruction. Many are acutely aware of this problem, yet little is being done.  We all know of the financial hole that California has dug for itself, which has led to fewer and fewer resources dedicated to maintenance of the flood control system. A recent report by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers discloses 186 sites in need of repair, 25 of which are deemed critical, along the Sacramento River and its tributaries. The weirs and bypasses are clogged with sediment and vegetative growth, causing even greater strain on the levees. Choke points that were historically dredged have been ignored for decades, further reducing the carrying capacity of the system. The question is, can we afford not to make these investments?

First, the protection of lives and property is essential. Hundreds of millions of dollars of damage resulted from the 1986 and 1997 floods. Moreover, a recent state appellate court ruling, which involved the victims of the 1986 flood near the community of Linda, ruled that the state of California can be held financially liable for property damage resulting from flood damage stemming from a rupture in a river levee.

As such, from a safety or economic perspective, it is evident that putting off paying the bill until a disastrous flood event occurs cannot be viewed as an acceptable practice. If we are going to pay for it one way or another, doesn’t it seem wise to make up front investments in maintenance of the flood control infrastructure, thereby assuring the viability of the system? It certainly seems more prudent than paying an even larger price after the flooding occurs, a price which is likely to include lives, homes, and irreplaceable family heirlooms.

To begin to address this problem, we can push for the state to stop wasting money on ecosystem restoration projects within the flood control system that oftentimes serve to exacerbate the potential for flood damage. These projects are not only extremely expensive, but also serve to reduce the carrying capacity of the floodways, invite conflicts with future maintenance activities due to environmental regulations, and negatively impact the local economies.

Further, a dedicated fund must be established for the routine maintenance of our flood control system. Weirs, bypasses, and choke points within the levees must be routinely and systematically cleared on an annual basis to optimize the carrying capacity of these works for the conveyance of floodwaters.