Stockton Standing Up -

You CAN make a difference	Please support us. Click here to donate.

Before the next flood.

Published in the Stockton Record on 09/29/05

Before the next flood

Published Thursday, Sep 29, 2005

"We're going to have to go in and spend the money and protect ourselves. Or people are going to die."

If Ron Baldwin's words didn't grab your attention earlier this year, they should now.

Baldwin is in charge of San Joaquin County's Office of Emergency Services. His duties include reviewing flood scenarios and developing plans to react to flooding.

In June 2004, after a levee break on Jones Tract 10 miles west of Stockton, Baldwin uttered those ominous words in an interview that was part of "Flood Threat," a three-part Record series coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the Jones Tract levee break.

Baldwin also said: "It may take a major levee failure before something is done, just because there is so much at stake in writing more restrictive requirements."

Enter Hurricane Katrina.

Images of broken levees and raging floodwaters have repainted the it-could-happen-here picture.

If Katrina hadn't devastated New Orleans -- demonstrating again the catastrophic effects of levee breaks -- would politicians be looking so seriously at the patchwork system of levees in the San Joaquin Delta and elsewhere?

Neglect of the Delta's levee system has been coupled with massive, almost unfettered population growth in flood-prone areas. A Record investigation showed 30,000 new homes in flood-prone areas have been built or approved since the last major floods, in 1997.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an interview with The Record last week that he would consider supporting a voter-approved bond to help repair the levee system.

However, his decision Tuesday to fire all six current members of the state Reclamation Board hardly was encouraging. The flood-control agency oversees 1,600 miles of levees and was just beginning to more aggressively review plans for building in flood-prone areas.

His pledge of support for a bond seems more like convenient timing and a bit of desperation -- going against his steadfast opposition to such borrowing.

The $1 billion for levee repairs likely would be part of a bond topping $10 billion, including money for roads and other infrastructure.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, proposed such a bond this year. It didn't get much support.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, have called upon the federal government to fix the Delta's levees. The chances of that happening are zero.

State and local officials aren't going to regain the lost years and missed opportunities. The upgrades also won't be made if there's a drawn-out paralysis-by-analysis.

The Legislature, state water agency, local water boards, local government and -- yes -- developers and farmers must get together to find ways to pay for long-term Delta levee repairs.

They must do so with expediency. It should not have taken a disaster such as Katrina to convince them of that.

Use your browser BACK button to return, or click on a link below.