[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 1/18/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

January 18, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

CENTRAL VALLEY LEVEES:

Study: Plan for bigger floods - Sacramento Bee

 

Higher levees, higher insurance costs ahead for Central Valley - Central Valley Business Times

 

New San Joaquin Flood Maps Released; Families Must Pay Hundreds In Insurance - CBS Channel 13 (Sacramento)

 

Editorial: Levee report should serve as a wake up call - Woodland Daily Democrat

 

SAN CLEMENTE DAM STABILIZATION:

Deadline set to pick plan to stabilize San Clemente Dam; San Clemente Dam: Failure could cause mudslides, flooding - Monterey Herald

 

RESERVOIR SECURITY UPGRADE:

New Melones security to be beefed up - Sonora Union Democrat

 

Draft Assumptions & Estimates (A&E) Report Released -- DWR has released a draft of the A&E Report for the CA Water Plan

 

 

CENTRAL VALLEY LEVEES:

Study: Plan for bigger floods

Sacramento Bee – 1/18/08

By Matt Weiser, staff writer

 

A major new study of flood risk in California's Central Valley urges communities to use worst-case scenarios to build up their levees, rather than setting arbitrary targets based on flood probability.

 

Sacramento, known to have the worst flood risk of any major metropolitan area in the nation, is working to erect levees strong enough to withstand a 200-year flood, a catastrophic flood predicted to have a half-percent chance of striking in a given year.

 

The plans to fortify citywide levees by 2015 have ignited a levee war between local and federal officials because they call for restrictions that could result in a building moratorium in the city's fast-growing Natomas basin.

 

But instead of setting 200-year safety goals, the new study suggests even stronger flood-protection measures – guidelines that may invite even more controversy in the future.

 

Citing the Valley's "severe" flood risk, the report by a national panel of experts urges California to go further than the legislative steps taken last year to control floodplain development and improve levees.

 

One of those new laws pushes communities toward that 200-year flood protection, or about double what exists today in most of the Sacramento region.

 

The report released Thursday instead urges California communities to prepare for the "probable maximum flood," which defines a worst-case storm using historical weather records, storm behavior and runoff intensity.

 

This would result in protection that exceeds the 200-year threshold and may reach 500-year protection, said the panel's chairman, Gerald Galloway, a former brigadier general at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

 

"It will require higher levees," said Galloway, now a professor of engineering at the University of Maryland. "This is going to require a substantial investment in structural protection, and it's going to require wise use of the floodplain."

 

The study was commissioned in July by California's Department of Water Resources. The 13-member panel included engineering and environmental experts from the University of California and throughout the nation.

 

The study's authors praise California for strides it has taken to rein in flood risk, considered to be among the worst in the nation due to storm intensity, rapid urbanization and deteriorating levees.

 

The Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year approved six bills to move the state toward 200-year flood protection and to control risky floodplain development. In 2006, voters approved two bond measures that will raise $5 billion for flood-control projects.

 

"California is setting the tone for the rest of the nation in how to deal with the problem," said Galloway. "Our report says that's a giant step forward, but you need more steps. You haven't solved the problem."

 

DWR Director Lester Snow said he is pleased the report affirms the state's recent efforts. And, he said, the state is prepared to plan for greater protection risk suggested by the authors.

 

"They also recognize we need to engage the business community, developers and local governments to continue moving forward," he said. "We will do that."

 

One new state law forbids local government from approving new housing in floodplains after 2015, unless the area has – or is planning – 200-year flood protection. Another holds local government liable for damages if it "unreasonably" approves floodplain development, a standard criticized as vague.

 

The study team said that's not good enough.

 

Instead, they said, all the Valley's flood-threatened urban areas should have at least 200-year flood protection by 2020, regardless of development pressure.

 

The team recommended convening a scientific panel to decide how much protection each community needs. The outcome would be based on the so-called "probable maximum flood."

 

The report also recommends that future development should not occur in floodplains, and that existing rural lands in floodplains should be off-limits to development.

 

Local governments also must have proper land-use controls to enforce these requirements, and must share financial liability for any flood damages that do occur.

 

And, where feasible, new levees should be set back from the river to create more wildlife habitat and a wider river channel to reduce flood levels. Most levees were intentionally built close together to create narrow river channels to scour away sediment left by hydraulic gold mining, a strategy no longer needed.

 

The study recommends that anyone living behind even the strongest of levees should be required to purchase flood insurance. And long-term funding and oversight must exist to ensure levees are maintained in top condition.

 

Taken together, the recommendations would require a huge investment by state and local governments – several times more than the $5 billion already approved by voters.

 

"The tough decision is figuring out how to get people together to work on these issues," Galloway said. "You've got your hands full because there's such tremendous pressure for growth."

 

Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan, board member of the Delta Protection Commission, supported most of the report's conclusions. But he objects to a blanket ban on floodplain development and the notion that local communities should share liability for flood damages.

 

"I agree that the thoughtless proliferation of urbanized growth in floodplains is wrongheaded," he said. "But it doesn't mean that you can just say 'no' completely to everything, because we are a society and an economy that's based on growth and expansion." #

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/643936.html

 

 

Higher levees, higher insurance costs ahead for Central Valley

Central Valley Business Times – 1/18/08

 

Central Valley residents will drown and property losses will be in the tens of billions of dollars if there’s a catastrophic failure of the region’s aging levees, a report by a panel of engineering experts says.

 

The Central Valley is the next big disaster waiting to happen, says the report.

 

“In some areas of the Central Valley, communities would experience flood depths of twenty feet or more when the levees fail. A flood of such magnitude and depth not only poses a serious risk to public health and safety but it would cripple the state’s economy, and the consequences of such an event would have far-reaching and long-term effects on the nation as well,” says the report by the panel, which was chaired by Gerald Galloway of the University of Maryland.

 

The problem is not going to go away, Mr. Galloway says. “As a matter of fact, the increased pressure for growth in the Central Valley, urban development coupled with climate changes is going to make this situation in the future worse.”

 

Mr. Galloway says California at least is facing the issue frankly, with voters approving billions of dollars in repairs and upgrades to much of the roughly 1,600 miles of levees in the Central Valley.

 

Also coming with that frank approach to the problem are newly updated flood maps from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, detailing where experts think there could be flood damage in the event of levee failure. The new maps include vast tracts of homes and businesses that may be required to have flood insurance.

 

The report calls for state and local governments, with support of relevant federal programs, to develop and rapidly act on a comprehensive approach to flood risk reduction in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Basins.

 

It says these efforts need to be integrated with other basin water management activities and with land-use planning.

 

“It is this latter element — land-use planning that connects local land use decision-making with regional flood management — that is critical to reducing future flood risk in the Central Valley,” it says.

 

Mr. Galloway says if all goes well and there is no event that crumbles the levees, Central Valley residents will breathe easier by mid-century.

 

“We suggest by the year 2030 you should have this considerable higher level of protection from the levees in the Central Valley and in the meanwhile you ought to take the other steps – the nonstructural steps – to reduce the risk to the individual who lives behind the levees in the Central Valley,” Mr. Galloway says.

 

The report was commissioned by the California Department of Water Resources and submitted to DWR for review last October. It was made public this week.  #

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=7587\

 

 

New San Joaquin Flood Maps Released; Families Must Pay Hundreds In Insurance

CBS Channel 13 (Sacramento) – 1/17/08

 

Thousands of homes in Stockton will soon be considered to be in high-risk flood zones, requiring expensive flood insurance in the future.

 

The maps are still preliminary, some minor repairs are being made to levees first, before the maps are finalized in 2009.

 

County officials received new federal flood zone maps yesterday showing levees along both sides of Smith Canal will be discredited, putting homes on both sides of the canal into the flood zone.

 

This will affect a wide swath of central Stockton, from the Country Club and Monte Diablo neighborhoods all the way east of Pershing Avenue and across town toward the Stockton diverting canal.

 

Officials say if you are buying flood insurance now, you'll likely have a cheaper rate later as long as your policy is continuously renewed. #

http://cbs13.com/local/stockton.levee.risk.2.631699.html

 

 

Editorial: Levee report should serve as a wake up call

Woodland Daily Democrat – 1/17/08

 

At Issue: Army Corps gets tough in Natomas.

 

Our Opinion: Feds tough restrictions could halt building and require flood insurance.

 

For years people have issued warnings about the building in Natomas. For years, politicians and builders poo-pooed the dire predictions. For years the Army Corps of Engineers also supported the fantasy that all was right with building in a flood plain.

 

Then came Hurricane Katrina and everything changed.

 

The Army Corps has now gotten tough and politicians - under pressure from the building industry - are scrambling to change the rules and hope that they have left office before the next big flood comes pouring through weakened levees.

 

Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would place Sacramento's fast-growing Natomas in a flood hazard zone, essentially halting construction of homes, offices and stores until the levees are improved, based on the latest studies of the Army Corps. That announcement sets a long-awaited deadline for homeowners to buy flood insurance before rates rise.

 

Sacramento city officials - who have supported levee repair plans, but oppose restrictions on building - are now stunned. For years they've tried to have it both ways. Now they're stuck.

 

Now, Sacramento leaders will seek an act of Congress to stop the federal action. That may have been possible years ago, but not after Katrina. Katrina changed everything and Sacramento politicians had better wise up.

 

How can Yolo County also learn from this? Natomas is a major economic driver for Sacramento. North Natomas today accounts for 47 percent of the development in the city of Sacramento.

 

Yolo County isn't quite in that same boat, but actions to allow development along the banks of levees - as has been done in West Sacramento - and the inability of the city of Woodland to get area residents and landowners to provide for flood protection must now be re-examined.

 

Sacramento is considered the urban area most vulnerable to catastrophic flooding in the nation, according to the Army Corps. In 1998, after an eight-year building moratorium, the corps said the Natomas levees met its minimal 1-in-100 flood protection standard, or the ability to withstand a flood with a 1 percent chance of striking in any given year. Today, the corps said Natomas levees aren't strong enough to withstand even a 30-year storm, the type of event that has a 3 percent chance of happening any given year.

 

Remember, there are levees like those "protecting" Natomas also protecting portions of West Sacramento. How soon might they fail in the event of a major storm? Who will be responsible then if the necessary safeguards haven't been taken?  #

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/opinion/ci_7997882

 

 

SAN CLEMENTE DAM STABILIZATION:

Deadline set to pick plan to stabilize San Clemente Dam; San Clemente Dam: Failure could cause mudslides, flooding

Monterey Herald – 1/18/08

By Kevin Howe, staff writer

 

The fate of San Clemente Dam in the upper Carmel River should be decided by late June.

 

Completion of an environmental impact report on the dam has set the clock running for the state Department of Water Resources' Division of Safety of Dams to come up with a plan for how to stabilize the dam.

 

In 1992, the state Division of Dam Safety reported that the dam could give way in an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 on the Tularcitos Fault, which it straddles, or from a magnitude 7 quake on the San Andreas Fault.

 

Paula Landis, chief of the Department of Water Resources' San Joaquin District, certified the environmental report — prepared by Entrix Environmental Consultants for the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — effective Dec. 31.

 

Five alternatives to stabilizing the dam are up for consideration, said senior engineer Richard Olebe of the Dam Safety Division.

 

One alternative that probably won't be considered, he said, is to do nothing.

 

Other possibilities are shoring up the dam to strengthen it against a future earthquake; "notching," or cutting down the dam partway to relieve the pressure of accumulated water and silt behind it; tearing the dam down entirely and hauling off the sediment; and rerouting the Carmel River through San Clemente Creek by cutting away a spur of hillside that divides the two streams.

 

The latter alternative would allow the sediment to remain in place, Olebe said, and avoid the disruption of having truckloads of accumulated silt hauled through Carmel Valley to a disposal site.

 

A decision on which alternative will be selected must be made 180 days after the environmental report is certified, Olebe said, which is June 28. In fact, he said, the finding would have to be published 30 days before that date — May 29 — to allow time for public comment.

 

San Clemente Dam was built in 1921 to hold back 2,000 acre-feet of water. Now its reservoir is filled with sediment and holds less than 100 acre-feet of water.

 

The dam has been subject to overspilling during high flood seasons, according to state engineers, and water running over the top could erode rock on either side, causing the dam to break.

 

A 1997 analysis by state safety experts indicated a dam failure would send 100 to 150 acre-feet of water and a flood of mud downstream as far as Camp Stefani on the Carmel River, resulting in 1 to 6 feet of flooding.

 

In 2004, the dam was pierced with pipes to drain off water behind it, but they don't provide enough of an opening to prevent water from washing over it during floods.

 

The dam has been fitted with instruments to detect earthquakes that will issue an automatic warning to fire stations downstream so that residents along the river can be notified of flood danger.

 

The dam is owned by California American Water, which is in negotiations with the state Coastal Conservancy to take over the dam and the property behind it, and do the river rerouting, said Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie.

 

"We're very satisfied with the EIR," she said. "We're looking forward to starting the project — whatever it may be — and reaching a final solution to the dam."

 

The water company, she added, has not yet made a decision on how much land it would turn over to the conservancy if the rerouting option is selected.

 

Cal Am, she said, would contribute up to the cost of buttressing the dam — estimated at $50 million — toward the rerouting project, if that is the Department of Water Resources' decision.

 

Clive Sanders of the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy, and Frank Emerson of the Carmel River Steelhead Association, said their organizations are concerned that the solution chosen would help the steelhead trout run on the river to recover.

 

"We're adamant that simply buttressing the dam is a very poor solution for the community and the state," Emerson said, because it would leave "a destructive and constant impact on the steelhead trout without providing water storage or flood control."

 

San Clemente Dam was never a flood-control facility, he said, and buttressing it would "allow it to remain a nuisance without benefiting anyone."

 

In addition to committing money for the dam stabilization project, Emerson noted, Cal Am is also proposing to donate the land behind the dam, which abuts Los Padres National Forest and includes four miles of riverfront.

 

That land, he said, could become a state or county park and offer another point of access to the National Forest.  #

http://origin1.montereyherald.com/ci_8006634?nclick_check=1

 

 

RESERVOIR SECURITY UPGRADE:

New Melones security to be beefed up

Sonora Union Democrat – 1/17/08

By Hoyt Elkins, staff writer

 

Cameras, alarms, fencing, gates and warning signs will begin popping up at various locations around New Melones Reservoir soon as part of a Homeland Security project.

 

Tuesday, Calaveras County Sheriff Dennis Downum told the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors that what is called a "Buffer Zone Protection System" will be paid for with a $189,000 federal grant.

 

Equipment from the Vulnerability Reduction Planning Grant will be deployed on both the Calaveras and Tuolumne county sides of the reservoir.

 

Thermal imaging cameras with motion-activated monitors, a hand-held thermal imaging system, and other federally-approved equipment is included in the package.

 

Sonny Fong, security chief for the California Department of Water Resources, said electronic surveillance is an important part of the statewide effort to prevent terrorist attacks on the state's water system, but it is integrated into a much wider web of security measures.

 

New Melones is one of 1,200 dams regulated by the Department of Water Resources, delivering about 500 billion gallons of water a year. Fong said the sheer size of the state's water-delivery system makes it an unlikely target, since it would take truckloads of contaminants to poison it.

 

"The solution to pollution is dilution," Fong said.

 

"Cyber security measures are in place, and we coordinate closely with local law enforcement agencies," he continued. "Our alert system is more comprehensive that the Homeland Security model, because we have to incorporate public access into our planning."

 

In fact, Fong said, well-regulated public access to facilities like New Melones provides an additional level of security.

 

"Fishermen, boaters, tourists, campers and others provide eyes and ears," he said. "We are trying to educate the public to report suspicious activities. One of the best tools we have in fighting terrorism is an effective neighborhood watch."

 

Downum said the county received word that the equipment grant had been approved after the 2007-08 county budget was approved, so supervisors had to accept the grant and transfer the money into the Office of Emergency Services budget.  #

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=25517

 

 

Draft Assumptions & Estimates (A&E) Report Released -- DWR has released a draft of the A&E Report for the CA Water Plan. The purpose of the A&E Report is to describe significant data and data sources that the Department of Water Resources plans to use to prepare the California Water Plan Update 2009. DWR would like your comments by June 30, 2008 and will use them to improve the data and information that go into Update 2009. (01/17/2008)
Draft Report  (link to  http://www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/cwpu2009/ae/index.cfm)

 

The announcement is also available on the Water Plan home page:  http://www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/index.cfm

DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California.