A recommendation by the Governor’s Floodplain Task Force (FTF) to allow the State Reclamation Board to become a sponsor of ecosystem restoration projects has met strong opposition. The proposal drew opposition from representatives of the Family Water Alliance (FWA) and the San Joaquin River Task Force at a meeting of a FTF committee in Stockton December 2, 2002.

The FTF’s recommendation provides that both the Reclamation Board and the State Department of Water Resources could become sponsors of restoration projects "as long as the projects advance the mission of public safety and flood damage reduction."

Tom Ellis, a farmer in Colusa and Yolo Counties, showed the audience photographic evidence illustrating how ecosystem restoration creates hazards in the floodways.

Tom Evans, FWA representative, told the group that the new authority would "hobble both agencies with contradictory missions. Ecosystem restoration is not compatible with flood safety, no matter how many times you hear that it is," he said. "Members of the Reclamation Board would be placed in a quandary. If the Board serves as an administration that aggressively seeks restoration, they would feel compelled to satisfy that objective," he added.

"When they are confronted with a choice between flood safety and restoration, there is too much risk; they would tip the scale in favor of restoration."

Evans cited two examples of how state concessions to extreme environmental interests already have tipped the scale. "The Reclamation Board has failed in a key part of its mission to maintain the integrity of the existing flood control system and designated floodways."

"They have failed over the past 30 years to maintain the carrying capacity of the floodways. These channels are excessively clogged with silt, snags and vegetation –all in the interest of ecosystem restoration. We hear repeated assurances that flood safety is the Reclamation Board’s first priority and that it will not approve a project that increases flood hazard," Evans added. "But look at the record. A National Wildlife Refuge was allowed to be established in the Sutter Bypass downstream from Meridian."

"During the flood of 1997 it is speculated that the backflow, possibly caused by refuge vegetation, resulted in an upstream water level that was a foot or more higher than below the refuge. Many people in that area believe the backflow caused the levee failure and the Meridian flood." He said that, even without the proposed new authority, the Reclamation Board will have the power to require ecosystem restoration in flood control projects. "Under provisions of the Comprehensive Study, the Board would be charged with making sure that guiding principles for new projects are met," he said.

"Guiding Principle No. 9 says that all new projects must integrate CALFED ecosystem restoration program goals. Imagine the pressure this will put on a local project sponsor, such as a reclamation district. They will be required to incorporate and maintain expensive restoration components in any new project."

Family Water Alliance has and continues to urge the Floodplain Task Force not make this recommendation to the Governor. There must be at least one state agency that has flood safety as its sole purpose.