[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 6/20/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

June 20, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People -

 

Natomas waiver sought

City officials expected to ask U.S. regulators not to halt building even though levee work isn't done. -

Sacramento Bee

 

Editorial: Deter river drunkfests

Pass alcohol ban on lower American River

Sacramento Bee

 

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Natomas waiver sought

City officials expected to ask U.S. regulators not to halt building even though levee work isn't done.

Sacramento Bee – 6/20/07

By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer

 

The city of Sacramento plans to ask federal flood regulators to allow building to continue in North Natomas with no restrictions while its levees are brought up to minimum protection standards.

 

Sutter and Sacramento counties also plan to join with the city in asking that the Federal Emergency Management Agency not stop building or impose elevation requirements in the Natomas basin. The item is on the Sacramento City Council agenda for Thursday.

 

Since the Natomas levees lack 100-year flood protection, FEMA has the power to designate North Natomas a flood hazard area. Doing so would require that any new homes be elevated above projected flood depths -- which in parts of Natomas could top 20 feet.

 

Alternatively, the agency could impose restrictions on new development that would allow building only in infill areas and require new structures to be elevated 3 feet.

The local building industry has strongly opposed any restrictions at all. City and county officials argue that they should be given a reprieve because they are making rapid progress fixing the levees.

 

But environmental groups that have called for a building moratorium say the city is trying to flout federal rules.

 

"What they're asking for is totally illegal," said Jim Pachl, a lawyer for Friends of the Swainson's Hawk.

 

Pachl said he plans to seek the help of national environmental groups that might be concerned about the precedent of the federal government allowing building to continue in the Natomas floodplain before the levees are fixed.

 

The city's staff is recommending that the City Council seek FEMA approval for an A99 zone, which would require homeowners to carry flood insurance but would not constrain construction.

 

"In my mind, we're moving so aggressively on upgrading the level of protection that by the time there would be any significant new building, I think we'd be back to or beyond the 100-year level of flood protection," said Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, a board member of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.

 

SAFCA plans to start work this summer on the first phase of its $414 million plan to upgrade the Natomas levees to a 200-year level of flood protection. Local funds are coming from a portion of the $326 million property tax for flood protection that city residents approved in April.

 

SAFCA is also banking on the idea that the state budget will include money for Sacramento and that additional money will be forthcoming in future years, said Dave Brent, engineering manager for the city's Department of Utilities. Brent said the request to FEMA to avoid building restrictions assumes the state money will materialize.

 

"We're submitting the application with some assumptions, and FEMA is aware of that," he said.

 

Ronald Stork, an analyst with Friends of the River, said the city is asking FEMA to bend the law, which requires that a flood protection project be 100 percent authorized and 50 percent complete in order to qualify for an A99 zone.

 

Federal rules also specify that the A99 designation can be used only in situations in which the flood improvements are being financed with federal money. The budget for the Natomas levee improvements is expected to come almost entirely from state and local sources.

 

"You have to have a federal project, and the Natomas basin isn't federal," Stork said. "It has to be 50 percent constructed, and they haven't even broken ground on it.

"In a nutshell, they're asking FEMA to bend the rules that have been established by Congress."

 

Pachl said other cities around the country will be watching.

 

"If the city gets away with this, FEMA will have to give A99 designations to all the other flood-prone areas of the country," he said.

In arguing for an A99 designation, local officials are asking FEMA to take a long view of the North Natomas levees, which previously were part of a major federal improvement project.

 

Kathy Schaefer, a FEMA civil engineer, said she has told city and county leaders they should submit an application and make their case.

The federal agency announced in January that it would designate Natomas a "special flood hazard area." The announcement came after studies revealed that the previously certified levees remained vulnerable to underseepage and did not provide protection against a 100-year storm, which has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.#

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/231954.html

 

Editorial: Deter river drunkfests

Pass alcohol ban on lower American River

Sacramento Bee – 6/20/07

 

Sacramento has a big river-rafting problem. The family friendly atmosphere and environmental values are being lost to drunken behavior and serious littering of bottles and plastic containers.

 

Faced with a similar situation, officials in Boise, Idaho, enacted an alcohol ban in May 2005. Since then, rafting on the Boise River has been voted by residents as the city's "Best Family Recreational Destination" and the city has seen fewer alcohol violation citations, each carrying a fine of up to $300 or six months in jail. Police get fewer calls for fights and public nudity.

 

Sacramento County officials and state legislators want to do the same for the lower American River, though an alcohol ban here would be limited to three summer holiday periods -- Memorial Day, July Fourth and Labor Day. The Board of Supervisors passed such a ban last summer for the American River shore from the Hazel Avenue bridge to the Watt Avenue bridge, but the river itself remained a floating drunkfest. The state has jurisdiction over the waters.

 

That missing piece has been remedied with Assembly Bill 951, by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, extending the county's alcohol ban to the river itself. The bill has passed the Senate and returns to the Assembly for a vote.

 

The Save the American River Association, which supports the ban, notes that its volunteers have "witnessed disgusting and dangerous behavior" by many rafters, including people too drunk to stand, let alone walk or drive, and people defecating and urinating in and near the river.

 

AB 951 calls for penalties hefty enough to make a difference: a fine of up to $100 for a first violation, up to $200 for a second violation and up to $500 for subsequent violations.

 

Legislators should get this bill to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in time to have the ban in effect for the July Fourth holiday weekend. If the Boise experience is any guide, it should go a long way to deter excessive drunkenness, fights with oars, public nudity and littering that mar the public experience of the American River.#

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/231193.html

 

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