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Systems manage flood threat Cosumnes River Preserve

Published in the Stockton Record on 05/31/05

Systems manage flood threat
Cosumnes River Preserve

Published Tuesday, May 31, 2005

The problem: Crude agricultural levees along the Cosumnes River frequently failed, flooding farms and a single home near on an 1,800-acre tract near Thornton. The question in the mid-1990s was whether it was better to regularly fix the levee or let the area return to its former status as a springtime flood plain.

The solution: Break the levee to let the Cosumnes River flow into the nearby fields. This lets the river flow more normally, restores riverside forests and the plants and animals that live there, and adds fertile silt to the remaining farm fields. Most importantly, it provides flood protection downstream. In a deal with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, nearly $1 million intended for levee repairs was instead used to waterproof pumps and other equipment for these farm fields. This lets the farmers continue farming, although they did switch to rice and tomatoes.

Challenges: Convincing initially skeptical farmers. The California Farm Bureau Federation traditionally opposes these sorts of solutions because they take some farmland out of production. Also, in this case, a nearby homeowner needed a levee built around his property so it would not flood with the surrounding area. Repeating this experiment could be tricky where more homes are threatened and land acquisition costs have soared in recent years.

Yolo Bypass

The problem: Floods from the American, Feather and Sacramento rivers devastated Sacramento repeatedly in the late 1800s. Water drained only slowly from the city and from the Yolo Basin just to the west.

The solution: Congress in 1917 approved the Sacramento River Flood Control Project to create an enormous bypass with four times the capacity of the Sacramento River to allow water to drain away from the city. Much of the initial work was done from 1917 to 1924, but work on the basic project continued until 1960. The 40-mile-long, 10-mile-wide bypass is kept permanently as open space. State and federal agencies bought easements from property owners that require the land be kept open to allow the passage of floodwater and give authorities the power to come onto the land and clear obstructions. Motorists on Interstates 80 and 5 cross the bypass on causeways. The bypass also serves as a vast wildlife habitat area, with private hunting clubs and public preserves in addition to the farms.

Challenges: A channel completed in 1963 to get ships to the Port of Sacramento ate up some of the space that used to be in the floodway, thus reducing the capacity of the bypass. And floods in 1986 and 1997 filled it to capacity. The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency responded to these floods by strengthening and raising levees and is also seeking to increase the height of Folsom Dam on the American River to reduce the volume of water that could hit the bypass. Paradise Cut near the proposed development River Islands at Lathrop is a similar but smaller bypass for the San Joaquin River. The developer is offering to widen the bypass to compensate for silt deposits that have reduced its capacity to carry water in a flood. Critics say this might not be enough to hold the waters during the next deluge, because River Islands will be built right next to Paradise Cut on Stewart Tract, and thus Stewart Tract will no longer be available to flood and serve as a release valve as it did in 1997.

American River Parkway

The problem: Periodic floods devastated land along the American River starting in the late 1800s. Also, as Sacramento suburbs sprawled over the landscape after World War II, residents began to demand more space for hiking, boating and picnicking.

The solution: Although the American River Parkway now provides both flood control and recreation, it wasn‘t planned that way. The levees that mark the present boundary of much of the parkway were built for flood control, starting on the south shore in 1932 and the north side in 1955. But only the lower 13 miles of river have levees. Sacramento County voters in 1972 approved a bond measure to pay for construction of the parkway, solidifying the area‘s popularity with residents. Now the parkway extends 23 miles from Folsom Dam to its confluence with the Sacramento River and includes 5,000 acres of parkland.

Challenges: The flood of 1986 showed that even the wide American River channel could be overwhelmed. The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency was formed in 1989 and has since made improvements to the levees. Now local, state and federal agencies cooperate to manage the river for recreation, wildlife habitat and flood control. A $500 million project is now under way to raise the height of Folsom Dam and to improve the efficiency of the Dam‘s outlets.

Napa River Flood Protection Project

The problem: The city of Napa flooded 27 times from 1862 to 1997, with the worst flood in 1986. Floods caused about $561 million in damage from 1961 to 1997. The river channel through the city formed by levees and concrete walls was ugly and too narrow to hold floodwaters. Governments, environmentalists and developers were at odds, fighting in court over land planning. Voters twice rejected bond measures to pay for flood improvements, thus losing out on matching funds from the federal government.

The solution: Business leaders, the Army Corps of Engineers and environmentalists joined together in 1996 to sell to the public an expensive but beautiful plan to buy up land, widen the river channel and create a parkway. In 1998, voters gave the plan the two-thirds supermajority required to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund a project that was then estimated to cost $170 million. Work is now about half done, and the southern half of the parkway will open to the public this year.

Challenges: Creating the plan required various factions to bury old animosities and cooperate. The community rejected initial plans proposed by the Army Corps as too ugly and lacking in sufficient recreation area. Once the bond passed, real estate prices rose, because residents and investors felt more optimism about Napa‘s future. That pushed up the cost of buying up vineyards, fields and homes to make way for the flood channel. Also, the project‘s price tag has now risen to about $250 million. Repeating this project in Stockton would present similar problems

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