Without levee work now, Yuba City will be at mercy of weather
Flores: As supervisor, father, business owner, property owner, it makes sense to fund repairs
Clearly, anyone willing to come out in the heat of summer to fight for resources to prevent flooding already understands what is at stake, so I’m going to address my remarks to the governor and those in Sacramento who control the budget process.
As a county supervisor who represents a community that would be devastated by the failure of a Feather River levee, I want to say we cannot afford patience. The risk posed to Yuba City is the greatest risk to an urban area in the entire Central Valley.
As a father, I want to say it is unnecessary for our families to face the further threat of evacuation or drowning or financial ruin. As many as 75,000 lives are at stake. But we know what is wrong with the segment of levee at Yuba City and we know how to fix it – this year before the rainy season.
As a business owner, I want to say our economy cannot afford to wait through another winter of high water and possibly more erratic water releases from Oroville Dam. The evacuation caused devastating losses for many small businesses and another winter of uncertainty will not help these businesses recover. The failure of a levee would threaten property valued at $5.6 billion and close many businesses forever.
As a property owner, I want to say we taxed ourselves to raise the local match for funding to armor the levees north and south of Yuba City. This winter, however, the Feather River high water confirmed what some had feared. Substantial seepage, boils and even a sinkhole developed on the land side of the levee at Yuba City, which had been armored by the Army Corps of Engineers after the 1997 flooding. As someone who lives along the Feather River, I want to say there are both legal and moral considerations at stake. The state of California and the interests that benefit from the California Water Project should ensure the adequacy of the plumbing system that delivers water from Oroville Dam to Los Angeles. Adequate annual funding for levee repairs is an investment in that plumbing system, and have the added benefit of protecting life and property and reducing the state of California’s liability if one of these levees fails.
Assemblyman Gallagher and Senator Nielsen asked for an annual appropriation of funding for damaged levees and substandard levees to be included in the budget. It was not. As a member of a broad community gathered here to rally for levee funding, we are here to say this money is needed today, so plans can be completed and contracts signed for construction work to begin by August, or there will be no levee repairs this winter and Yuba City will be at the mercy of the weather and dam operations this winter.