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Delta Levees Lack of funding imperils aging system $1 billion proposal finds little political support (part 2 of 2)

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 01/10/05

DELTA LEVEES
Lack of funding imperils aging system $1 billion proposal finds little political support
Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Monday, January 10, 2005

Sacramento -- Shoring up the 1,100 miles of deteriorating levees that protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is easy -- it just takes money and political commitment.

There's little sign of either.

"The current course we're on is not sustainable," said Curt Schmutte, the state Department of Water Resources' chief of levees for the northern part of the delta. "We need a reliable, long-term, stable funding source for the delta. The cost of doing nothing far exceeds the cost of being proactive."

Although two-thirds of all Californians depend on the delta's levees to keep salt water out of the freshwater that flows through the meeting point of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, neither the state nor the federal government has contributed nearly enough money to buttress the levees.

"Everyone recognizes something has to be done in the delta, but it's refracted through their own prism," said Sen. Mike Machado, a Democrat from Linden (San Joaquin County) whose district includes much of the delta. "Each interested party backs what serves its own needs."

The California Bay-Delta Authority, which is responsible for most decisions affecting the delta, says $1 billion in repair and improvements should already be under way.

In an October 2003 report, the Army Corps of Engineers identified 185 eroded sites along just the Sacramento River from Colusa in the north to the delta. The price tag to fix those potential trouble spots is at least $180 million, according to Col. Ronald Light, the new commander of the corps' Sacramento office.

But the only state money being spent on levee maintenance is the remainder of $70 million from a state bond measure, which will run out next year. There is a promise of $90 million in federal money, which won't be available until October at the earliest and couldn't be spent before spring 2006.

Residents, many of whom farm two-thirds of the delta's 738,000 acres, want their land protected but can't foot the bill themselves.

Levels of maintenance -- and levee construction standards -- vary throughout the region. Some 700 miles of delta levees are privately owned, cared for by approximately 60 reclamation districts that assess landowners for upkeep and improvements. There are no construction requirements controlling the height or width of private levees.

Downturns in the agricultural economy have shrunk the size of assessments, but even reclamation district revenues collected in robust economic times are not enough to cover upkeep, let alone systemwide improvements.

"The conditions of the levees are only as good as the funding sources allow them to be," said Harry Stewart, chief operating officer of Dutra Dredging Co., which closed the Jones Tract breach this summer and 14 more levee breaks during the past 20 years. "They require an extensive amount of maintenance and ultimately will require an extensive amount of upgrade, and that gets down to funding."

"The local economy has not and will not be able to afford that,'' Stewart said.

Even if the state decides to issue another bond, Machado said, it couldn't be put on the ballot until 2006.

The Bay-Delta Authority is scaling back its 10-year financing plan, which is premised on higher annual infusions of state cash.

Southern California water agencies, which depend on the delta for water, say that they won't invest in levee maintenance without a more comprehensive plan for the delta's future than the authority has created.

"We're not facing an imminent crisis in the delta,'' said Tim Quinn, vice president of State Water project issues for the Metropolitan Water District. "We have plenty of time to be deliberative."

Marci Coglianese -- mayor of Rio Vista, member of the Delta Protection Commission and a delta resident for nearly 40 years -- says more Californians need to understand how critical the levee system is and invest against the far higher costs of failure.

"We haven't succeeded in building a constituency beyond the immediately impacted delta area for the levees, not in a gut way that makes you passionate and drives policy-making," Coglianese said.

Recently, Coglianese took members of the Bay Delta Advisory Commission to Brannan Andrus Island -- one of the key western islands in the delta whose levees prevent encroachment of salt water from Suisun Bay.

"We parked on the levee, walked down and looked up. Then we did a little show-and-tell for them about what happened in 1972," Coglianese said.

Brannan Andrus flooded in 1972, inundating Rio Vista and the small town of Isleton. Evacuated from her home, Coglianese lived in a gymnasium for a month. Highway 12 was closed for nearly a year.

"After we told them that, they had an 'a-ha' moment. We need more people to have those same kind of 'a-ha' moments and understand how important and how fragile this all is."

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HOW LEVEES CAN BE STRENGTHENED
1. Levee improvements can vary, but typically they're reinforced using chunks of rock, or rip-rap."

2. The levee's crown can be heightened.

3. The landward side can be expanded with more dirt.

4. One method used after the 1986 floods was the placement of 3-footwide cement walls into the levee. This helps stop rotten tree roots and gopher holes from weakening the levee.

E-mail Greg Lucas at glucas@sfchronicle.com.

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