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Flood Footnotes

Houseboats crashing into bridges, Bay waters fresh as a lake, collapsing levees, spilling rivers, puny sandbags piled against superhuman forces - these are the images of the flood of 1997. Yet the Delta fared "remarkably well," according to the Department of Water Resources' Curt Schmutte, and so did Sacramento. In 1986, the city narrowly escaped flooding and some big Delta islands went under the high water but levee strengthening, innovative flood control and river bank restoration since then all paid off when the waters rose again in 1997.

Despite talk in the press of reviving big-ticket flood control projects like Auburn Dam, new planning and funding for flood fighting seems to be centering on less ecologically-destructive measures. One major area into which CALFED may pump money, for example, is the construction of setback levees, which recreate floodplains. Such a project is now being investigated for the south fork of the Mokelumne River. This project would run for about 10 miles and be placed about 1,000 feet back from the riverbed.

"There's now a lot of talk about doing setbacks and bypass channels along the San Joaquin River as well," says Schmutte. "It's obvious that the levee system in San Joaquin is stressed to a much greater degree than the Sacramento River, where we had breaks but didn't exceed the capacity of the system."

Off-stream water storage (i.e. dams) is not off the table, but its cost-effectiveness and impacts on fish migration remain in question. Apart from CALFED's long-term commitment to investing in levee system integrity, $25 million in new dollars for flood management are also coming from passage of Prop 204 and AB360 in 1996. Schmutte says this winter's floods highlighted a "number of weaknesses in the Delta system, such as upper Roberts Island, which will now become priorities for spending the new money."

Contact: Curt Schmutte (916)227-7561

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