Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 28, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People
Petaluma mops up; Rain-swollen Petaluma River invades a dozen homes, businesses - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
RP flood woes: Who is to blame?; Residents say city has done nothing about recurring problem; officials say it's up to property owner - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
VISIT TO
Levee lessons from Katrina; Sutter officials go on fact-finding mission to New Orleans - Marysville Appeal Democrat
End foreseen to longtime dispute over Truckee River water - Associated Press
Petaluma mops up; Rain-swollen Petaluma River invades a dozen homes, businesses
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 1/27/08
By Clark Mason, staff writer
Richard Hitchcock bought flood insurance last month just before Christmas, and just in time for the water that invaded his
Hitchcock and his wife, Lavonne, spent Saturday mopping up, clearing the dirt and mud deposited by the 1½ feet of water that rushed into their house off
"That was our one consolation," Hitchcock said of the flood insurance, which will help cover the damage from the overflow of the
The Hitchcocks' house was one of about a dozen homes and businesses that were flooded along
The rising waters also closed Highway 101 for nine hours at the Sonoma-Marin line when flood-prone San Antonio Creek rose. The freeway link between
Some rural roads in low-lying areas of
Rain is in the forecast today, but no significant flooding is anticipated.
"We're not expecting rainfall anywhere near, especially in the
During the 24-hour period that ended at 4 p.m. Saturday,
Showers were expected to continue off and on into Monday before a dry break. Forecasters were calling for chilly and unsettled weather into the week, with fast-moving storm fronts and little threat of flooding.
That's good news for Hitchcock and his neighbors, who have been flooded twice in as many years.
On Friday, the rising waters didn't get as high inside Hitchcock's two-bedroom home as they did during a New Year's storm two years ago. The nearby Petaluma Village Outlet mall also was not affected this time, compared with the 60 stores that experienced flooding in 2006.
While the parking lot at the mall was flooded Saturday morning and delayed the opening of the mall, by 1 p.m. shoppers were streaming in and no stores were closed.
However, at least one business on nearby
Caroline Vieira said a lot of her inventory was soaked. "It's very disheartening," she said.
Vieira said she bought the building three years ago. "I knew some flooding would occur but not to this extent," she said.
Millions of dollars have been spent on flood control to ease flooding in a former perennial trouble spot --
Hitchcock believes the remedial work that alleviated the Payran flooding has made it worse in his upstream neighborhood.
As the waters came in to their house, the Hitchcocks grabbed their two dogs -- a Labrador and
They weren't the only Petaluma-area residents who ended up spending the night somewhere else.
At the Leisure Lake Mobile Home park at the intersection of Rainsville and
About a dozen residents went to a motel and several others were taken in by family members, according to local Red Cross officials.
The shelter at
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080127/NEWS/801270417/1033/NEWS01
RP flood woes: Who is to blame?; Residents say city has done nothing about recurring problem; officials say it's up to property owner
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 1/28/08
By Nathan Halverson, staff writer
The path home for Crystal Brown was anything but easy after heavy rains last week again flooded the low-lying mobile home park where she lives in
She had to slip off her high heels and wade through knee-high murky water across a distance equal to more than two football fields to get through the flooded streets.
"It was scary," she said Sunday. "When water rises, you never know what is in it. It was full of debris."
For the residents of Rancho Verde Mobile Home Park, the flooding that occurred Friday has become all too common. The streets flooded earlier this month, and in 2006 heavy flooding left many residents with thousands of dollars in damages to their homes and vehicles.
Many of the park's increasingly vocal residents say city officials have done nothing about recurring flooding, and are even making the problem worse.
"We're getting treated like second-class citizens, like we live on the other side of the tracks" said Vickie Swing, a resident who teaches music at St. Francis Solano School in
The mobile home park is on Rohnert Park Expressway west of Highway 101. Because of its low elevation and proximity to flood-prone Hinebaugh Creek, residents can not get flood insurance, Swing said.
The city contends the flooding is not its problem, but rather is the responsibility of the park's owner. Unlike most neighborhood streets, which are public, the park's streets belong to the property's owner, said Rohnert Park City Manager Steve Donley.
The city sat down with the park's management and offered ideas about how to reduce flooding, but the owners have been unresponsive, Donley said.
"They have completely disregarded the information we've provided them," he said. "In terms of doing publicly-funded improvements on private property, we are fairly limited . . . Public money doesn't go to improve private property."
The park's management declined to comment, and its owners, Florida-based Sunset Strip Corp. and California-based Indian Springs, could not be reached Sunday.
The park's management is blaming the city for making the flooding worse, according to both Rancho Verde residents and city officials.
Over the weekend, the property's management distributed pictures of a city-operated pump draining water from nearby business park storm drains and dumping it into the flooded creek that runs behind Rancho Verde.
"When they do the pumping, it gets worse," said Swing, who was given copies of the photos. "Them dumping in that extra water left no room for our storm drains to work."
City officials deny the pumps contribute to the flooding.
"Adding three cubic feet of water per second from the pumps is not going to increase the flooding when Hinebaugh Creek is already running at 800 to 1,000 cubic feet per second," Rohnert Park Mayor Jake Mackenzie said. "It is the proverbial drop in the bucket."
Mackenzie visited the park on Saturday to view the damage, and plans to meet today with Donley, city engineers and the Sonoma County Water Agency to address the problem.
"There is a long history of flooding at Ranch Verde," Mackenzie said.
Donley accused the park's management of spreading misinformation.
"I guess I can't compete with the propaganda machine," he said. "But it sounds like we need to improve the information flow to residents in order to compete against the misinformation being put out."
The park's owners sued the city in August for $34.4 million after the city blocked the owners from converting the mobile-home park into individual lots that could be sold off to mobile-home owners. #
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080128/NEWS/801280409/1033/NEWS01
VISIT TO
Levee lessons from Katrina; Sutter officials go on fact-finding mission to New Orleans
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 1/27/08
By Robert LaHue, staff writer
When it comes to flood protection, it's anything but easy in The Big Easy.
The destruction in
With hundreds of miles of levees protecting Mid-Valley homes and businesses, local officials say a Katrina-style event could easily occur here, particularly with the similarities between the levee systems of
Last month, Sutter County Supervisors Dan Silva and Larry Montna, along with Public Works Director Doug Gault and Deputy Director of Public Works-Water Resources Dan Peterson, traveled to
They presented their findings during last week's Board of Supervisors meeting, explaining lessons learned during the four-day trip to the
"It's what the (Army Corps of Engineers) would like to see," Silva said of regional flood planning. "It's what (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) would like to see. It's what the state of
The trip included tours of new levee projects in the
That is being done locally with the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency, Silva said.
Many of the issues that
During the Jan. 4 storm, Peterson said, the pumping station that sends rainwater from Gilsizer Slough and
A similar failure happened in
"That's the type of thing we're worried about," Peterson said.
They also used the presentation to say that residents who don't have flood insurance should get it.
Peterson noted that homes in
"This could have been us," he said. #
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/new_59560___article.html/orleans_flood.html
End foreseen to longtime dispute over
Associated Press – 1/27/08
By Martin Griffith, staff writer
RENO, Nev. – Federal officials said they foresee an end to a longstanding dispute over the Truckee River's waters with the release of a document that finds no significant adverse environmental impacts from a proposed agreement between various parties.
The final environmental study by the U.S. Department of Interior and California Department of Water Resources concludes the Truckee River Operating Agreement would provide a major boost to the river's water quality and fishery.
The operating agreement negotiated by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 1990 is designed to end decades of conflict over the
Betsy Rieke,
“I'm 100 percent sure the agreement will be signed this year,” she said. “The completion of the final EIS (environmental impact statement) has provided enormous momentum.
“It's historic. We think for mile of river it's one of the most litigated rivers in the West. Users have fought over
The Truckee flows more than 100 miles from the
Kenneth Parr, deputy area manager for the reclamation bureau, said several hurdles remain before the agreement can be signed.
He said his agency must complete a water storage contract for the
Implementation wouldn't begin until two court decrees concerning the
“We would like to begin implementation of the operating agreement in a couple of years,” Parr said. “I think we've gotten through the biggest hoops and that's getting the final EIS and EIR (environmental impact report) out.”
Lori Williams, general manager of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, said the operating agreement could be delayed further by legal challenges. Her agency provides water to the
“There could be lawsuits that could take us out several years,” Williams told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Under the agreement, the amount of drought water storage for the
The agreement also would improve conditions for the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout and endangered cui-ui, and enable a permanent allocation of water between
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
No comments:
Post a Comment