Amid Oroville Emergency, Legislature Moves to Make Flood-Control Fixes
Published in the March 8 – March 21, 2017 issue of Gilroy Life
By Alexi Koseff – Sacramento Bee
The Anderson Reservoir dam spillway in February 2016. Photo by Marty Cheek
As heavy winter storms continue to hammer California, the legislature is launching a review of dam and levee safety and bracing for major investments necessary to shore up flood control throughout the state.
Amid the ongoing crisis at Oroville Dam, lawmakers have taken only tentative steps so far. The first oversight hearing to review what happened in Oroville is scheduled for next week, and the Senate leader is proposing a one-time funding source for flood protection efforts.
Broader solutions for California’s aging flood-control facilities will likely not emerge for months, until at least the current emergency passes. But long-standing disagreements over how best to resolve the compounding water problems facing the state are already resurfacing, pointing to the challenges ahead for a deal when tax revenue is tight and budget commitments vast.
An initial plan to provide $500 million in competitive grants to local and regional agencies for flood protection is forthcoming from Senate President Pro-Tem Kevin de León. The money would be added to the plan for a $3 billion parks and drought recovery bond that de León, D-Los Angeles, is seeking to place on the June 2018 ballot.
The total includes $300 million for water and flood districts in the Central Valley to repair flood-control systems or build new ones. Another $100 million would go primarily to bolster Delta levees, with the remaining $100 million aimed at projects to prevent damage from storm water and mudslides.
“There is a larger issue we can no longer ignore,” de León said in a statement. “Climate change is here, and it’s real. It is impacting our communities. It is costing our state billions in damage and severely affecting peoples’ lives. California needs to build greater resiliency into its water and flood systems.”
Republicans for years have been pushing for new dams they say would have counteracted the devastation of California’s recent drought. Lawmakers now say the surging waters that cannot be contained by existing facilities prove yet again why more storage is needed. Those pushing for more surface water storage, which includes some Central Valley Democrats who represent farmers frustrated by waning irrigation deliveries that have fallowed their fields, are likely to encounter resistance. Many Democrats traditionally oppose new reservoirs because of the cost and environmental impact.
Even commitment to restoring the state’s existing flood protections – a vast network of dams, weirs, bypasses, pumping plants, channels and levees jointly managed by the federal government, California and local districts — may wither when the bill comes due. Another major deal to fix roads and highways has been repeatedly delayed over how to pay for it.
Repairs to the badly damaged spillway at Oroville Dam are estimated at more than $100 million — and there are 33 more storage facilities in the State Water Project alone. The regional flood-management system in the Central Valley consists of nearly 1,600 miles of levees.