Levees protecting most of the city of Sacramento and 15 other areas of the Central Valley
were declared today to have failed federal maintenance criteria. As a
result, they are no longer eligible for federal rebuilding funds in the
event of a levee breach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the declaration today. It did so after concluding that a new state plan to improve Central Valley levees does not provide enough detail to ensure maintenance problems -- such as erosion and intrusion by structures -- will be fixed.
The affected levee systems include 40 miles of levees wrapping most of the city of Sacramento on the American and Sacramento rivers. This system of levees, known on flood-control maps as "Maintenance Area 9," includes the south bank of the American River from about Bradshaw Road downstream to the confluence with the Sacramento River, then downstream from there nearly to Courtland.
The problems in this system of levees, according to the Army Corps, include many encroachment problems. The poster-child for this problem is Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood, where many homes and swimming pools are built against the base of the levee, leaving no room for a 15-foot-wide maintenance corridor required by the Corps.
This is a longstanding problem, and it would be difficult and expensive to fix.
"We understand this costs money, and money is a fiscal challenge for local governments," said Col. William Leady, commander of the Sacramento district of the Army Corps. " Levee safety standards need to be as uncompromising as floodwaters are. That's the rationale behind why we're kinda being hardlined."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/23/4752564/sacramento-levees-failure-of-federal.html
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the declaration today. It did so after concluding that a new state plan to improve Central Valley levees does not provide enough detail to ensure maintenance problems -- such as erosion and intrusion by structures -- will be fixed.
The affected levee systems include 40 miles of levees wrapping most of the city of Sacramento on the American and Sacramento rivers. This system of levees, known on flood-control maps as "Maintenance Area 9," includes the south bank of the American River from about Bradshaw Road downstream to the confluence with the Sacramento River, then downstream from there nearly to Courtland.
The problems in this system of levees, according to the Army Corps, include many encroachment problems. The poster-child for this problem is Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood, where many homes and swimming pools are built against the base of the levee, leaving no room for a 15-foot-wide maintenance corridor required by the Corps.
This is a longstanding problem, and it would be difficult and expensive to fix.
"We understand this costs money, and money is a fiscal challenge for local governments," said Col. William Leady, commander of the Sacramento district of the Army Corps. " Levee safety standards need to be as uncompromising as floodwaters are. That's the rationale behind why we're kinda being hardlined."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/23/4752564/sacramento-levees-failure-of-federal.html
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