Reclamation Board Needs To Be Reclaimed

The Reclamation Board is the state agency assigned with the task of operating and maintaining the flood control system that Sacramento Valley residents depend on for their safety. The Reclamation Board’s mission statement includes the following: "To control flooding along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributaries . . . To cooperate with various agencies of the federal, State and local governments in establishing, planning, constructing, operating, and maintaining flood control works." Unfortunately, in the opinion of the Family Water Alliance, the current members of the Reclamation Board have been derelict in fulfilling these duties.

The most recent example of this abandonment from its prescribed role involves a Sacramento River Partners restoration project located in Glenn County. Objections to the project as designed were raised by Levee District 3 (the local maintaining agency), Western Canal Water District, Reclamation District 2106, as well as some individual landowners that farm near the proposed restoration project. The opponents to the submitted proposal included a request for a financial plan to be included to assure sufficient funds were available to maintain the property from a flood control perspective, in perpetuity. The Staff Report drafted by the Reclamation Board concurred with this request and recommended to the Board that such a condition be included in any permit granted.

Local representatives testified to the Reclamation Board that the restoration projects in the Butte Basin had contributed to the flooding problems considerably. They expressed their concern in regard to the cumulative flooding impacts associated with the vast amount of restoration that had occurred that was not properly maintained. Sacramento River Partners acknowledged that the property would be turned over to a state or federal agency within a three-year period after the restoration was completed. As such, it was clear that without a perpetual fund in place, that maintenance of this property could not be guaranteed. Staff again concurred in its recommendation to the Board.

Family Water Alliance (FWA) also attended this meeting to speak in support of a condition requiring a perpetual maintenance fund for such restoration projects. Further, FWA pointed out that this dispute had also circumvented the SRCAF process to which the Reclamation Board was a signatory, requesting that the parties attempt to resolve these issues through a process that the Reclamation Board had pledged to support. It was also pointed out that the Sacramento River Partners, an organization that had participated extensively in the SRCAF process, had failed to inform the SRCAF of the concerns expressed by the local agencies or individual landowners. Moreover, the SRCAF executive director, Burt Bundy, is a member of the Reclamation Board, and Pete Rabbon, the Reclamation Board Manager, is a member of the SRCAF Board.

Despite the objections of the local agencies, concerns expressed by neighboring farmers, the staff recommendation, the usurpation of the SRCAF process, and the flooding problems that presently exist in the Butte Basin, the Reclamation Board voted in favor of the proposal without the requirement of a perpetual maintenance fund. In its deliberations, the Board completely ignored the subject of its allegiance to the SRCAF process, indicating the negligible influence of the SRCAF.

In this instance, the members of the Reclamation Board missed a golden opportunity to do the right thing, thus putting those living and farming near the Sacramento River in even greater danger of experiencing catastrophic flooding. This was basically a comedy of errors. The problem is, this was not a harmless error and the consequences are not at all funny. People failed to act responsibly in tending to their duties, and the stakes are high. The SRCAF process failed, the Reclamation Board failed, and the communities in and around the Sacramento River are the ones that are likely to pay the price.

It is time for the Reclamation Board to be held accountable. New appointments to this Board are mandatory, individuals are desperately needed who will make the well being of the residents of the Sacramento Valley their first, last, and only priority. We have numerous state and federal agencies focused on environmental concerns. Nowhere in the Reclamation Board’s mission statement will you find the words ecosystem restoration. The role of the Reclamation Board must be limited solely to flood control. #