[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 8/15/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

August 15, 2007

 

1.  Top Item

 

S.J. seeking levee reprieve; However, some homeowners may have to buy costly flood insurance

Stockton Record – 8/15/07

By Greg Kane, staff writer

 

STOCKTON - Levees protecting Weston Ranch, Boggs Tract and portions of north Stockton should receive an extra two years to prove they can remain outside the 100-year flood plain, San Joaquin County and Stockton policymakers decided Tuesday.

 

Those along Smith Canal running through central Stockton are not likely to receive such an extension, however. That means thousands of homes from the Calaveras River to the Stockton Deep Water Channel protected by the canal's levees likely will be placed in the 100-year flood plain next year, forcing homeowners to buy flood insurance, officials said.

 

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously agreed to sign documents assuring that four county levee stretches meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 100-year flood protection standards. But one supervisor reiterated concerns that FEMA's tight deadlines are forcing decisions to be made faster than they should.

 

"I think we're being held hostage here," Supervisor Steve Gutierrez said.

 

Local reclamation districts, cities and, in one case, the state are also required to sign the agreements by next Wednesday before they can be approved, officials said. The Stockton City Council also signed agreements for levees in its jurisdiction on Tuesday.

 

The Smith Canal levees were not included because the reclamation districts responsible for their maintenance declined to sign the agreements, county and city officials said. Reclamation Districts 1614 and 828 have indicated they do not have the resources to make necessary improvements, said Roger Churchwell, the county's senior flood management engineer.

 

FEMA earlier this year offered to "provisionally accredit" levees that otherwise would have been decertified during the agency's ongoing revision of area flood maps. The provisional status gives a two-year extension for local agencies to prove the levees meet federal flood protection standards.

 

The agreements adopted Tuesday include levees along Shima Tract near Interstate 5, a portion of Fourteen Mile Slough south of Benjamin Holt Drive and a stretch northeast of Boggs Tract. Also included is the levee running along the San Joaquin River between Weston Ranch and Lathrop managed by Reclamation District 17. It is a stretch the state Department of Water Resources has already indicated it would not support.

 

Department of Water Resources Director Leslie Harder informed local officials in a letter last month that the state does not believe the levees meet 100-year flood standards, citing underseepage concerns. The state's reluctance to lend its support hurts the district's chances of receiving an extension, although county Public Works officials were confident Tuesday it would be granted.

 

Without the extension, Weston Ranch residents next year also likely would be forced to purchase flood insurance, which typically costs $400 a year for every $100,000 worth of coverage. That is a cost that homeowners like Ishman Graham never expected to pay after buying homes in the area.

 

Graham, 27, moved into a home on Lloyd Thayer Circle in Weston Ranch seven years ago with his family. He remembers his real estate agent's assurances that the home was not in a federally recognized flood plain, even as neighbors reported water bubbling through their back lawns during heavy rains.

 

Graham said Wednesday that levees are a constant worry among people in the neighborhood. What makes matters worse is that residents often feel uninformed about the latest flood control developments.

 

"Nobody's really sure what to do about it," he said.

 

Once FEMA decides which levees will receive provisional accreditation, the agency will release preliminary maps showing the county's revised 100-year flood plain. After that, a series of hearings and public workshops will be held over the course of at least a year before a final map is released, likely in spring 2009.

 

Once the final map is completed, homeowners with federally backed mortgages living in areas protected by decertified levees will be forced to purchase flood insurance. FEMA also provides insurance. #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070815/A_NEWS/708150321/-1/A_NEWS

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