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Flood Management Tour shows participants real world solutions to California’s flood issues

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2009 at 7:48 am

The Water Education Foundation’s Rebecca Scott recaps the happenings on the recent Flood Management Tour:

Every conversation lately has revolved around the words “drought” and “conservation,” so the idea of large amounts of uncontrollable water may be far from the mind, but the reality of the fragile levee system and the menacing threat of floods in the Sacramento Valley is an ever-present critical issue that needs to be addressed now rather than later. The reality is oh so clear when you are driving on a levee looking down at the home of a family in Yuba County that lost their family member in the 1997 Feather River levee break.

The Foundation’s Flood Management Tour was May 7-8, and it focused on looking at the flood management system in the Sacramento Valley and the Delta. When organizing this tour, I had several people ask why in the world we were having a tour about floods in the middle of a drought. The answer could be shocking to some. It’s time to remove your head from the clouds: We live in a state where 90 percent of natural disasters are flood related, and Sacramento and the Delta have the highest risk of flooding in the country. We are dealing with the Delta’s 1,100 miles of levees; subsidence, where land behind some of these levees is more than 20 feet below sea level; sea level rise; climate change and earthquake risk. If you see a levee just as a nice place to ride your bike on a warm day, you should have been on this tour because the projects and funding that are involved in keeping the levees structurally sound – and you from swimming – is unbelievable. I never knew that repairing a mile of levee could cost millions of dollars. Here is a recap of the sites we visited and just a few things we learned on this eye-opening tour.

Everyone met at Embassy Suites in Sacramento to depart for the tour. As I met each person and they filed on the bus, I had one person, who will remain nameless, comment on the impossible time schedule prepared for the day. If you have ever been on a Water Education Foundation Tour, you know that they are jam packed full of speakers and sites. I had one person say it would be a miracle if we made it back to the hotel on time, so we made a bet, and I have to be honest…I thought I would probably lose. With this being a new tour, you never know what you will run into.

The first stop on the tour was the State-Federal Flood Operations Center. We left Embassy Suites on our way to the Joint Operations Center, and Gary Hester, the Flood Management Planning Portfolio Manager at the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) provided an overview of the Central Valley Flood Management Planning Program and explained the purpose of the program, which is to develop a sustainable, integrated flood management plan for areas protected by facilities of the State-Federal flood protection system in the Central Valley. This program is one of several the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is implementing within FloodSAFE California.

From the exterior, the Joint Operations Center blends in with the business parks and strip malls along El Camino Avenue. It is a gray box at the end of the parking lot with no sign out front declaring its importance. Bill Croyle, Chief of Flood Operations Branch at DWR, guided us through the process to tour the center. He divided us up into the blue group and the red group, no political affiliation, and away we went.

To the left of the building, there was an interactive exhibit for the participants. Three stations were set up: the flood emergency response trailer, the rescue speed boat and the sandbag flood fight method examples, such as sack topping and sack rings to control boils. Talk about information at your fingertips; the experts were at each station ready for questions, including members of the California Conservation Corps (CCC).

We then headed inside to view the “mother of all maps.” It is a map the size of a mammoth dining room table that shows the Bear, Feather River and Sacramento River watersheds with all of the dams, weirs and bypasses marked clearly. Small trees dot the landscape, and it looked like a giant science project.

The last stop in the building was the National Weather Service and River Forecast Center, where Rob Hartman, the Hydrologist-in-Charge at the National Weather Service, and Gary Bardini, Chief of Hydrology and the Flood Operations Office at DWR explained the operations of the California-Nevada River Forecast Center (CNRFC) and the National Weather Service (NWS). CNRFC is a field office of the NWS, which is an agency of the National Oceanic Atmospheric and Administration (NOAA) under the United States Department of Commerce. The NWS Hydrologic Services Program provides river and flood forecasts and warnings as well as provides basic hydrologic forecast information, including flash flood guidance and support to Local Flood Warning Systems, traditional flood forecasts, snowmelt forecasts and seasonal water supply. This was definitely a fun and engaging way to start the tour.

The next stop on the tour was Folsom Dam. As we headed to Folsom Point, Jay Punia, the Executive Officer of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and our resource speaker for the day, explained the role of the Board and the state and federal roles. He began his presentation with a personal anecdote for all the engineers on the bus. He had encouraged his daughter to be a civil engineer but when she compared the Chevy cars the engineers drive to the fancier cars attorneys drive, it wasn’t much of a decision. Back to the Board: it works with various agencies of the federal, State and local governments to establish, plan, construct, operate and maintain flood control works.

When we arrived at Folsom Point, we looked out at a breathtaking view of the lake and a representative from the Bureau of Reclamation and David McDaniel, Senior Project Manager from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, met us there to talk about the various Folsom Dam improvements and the auxiliary spillway project currently under construction. This new spillway will provide flood control before and during extreme storm events. The auxiliary spillway will consist of a control structure with six submerged tainter gates; 1,100 approach channel; 3,000 foot spillway chute and still basin, which helps slow down the water released from the dam before it reaches the American River, at a cost of approximately $926 million. The estimated completion date is 2015. Raising Folsom Dam and ecosystem restoration are projects under consideration for the future.

The auxiliary spillway, or Joint Federal Project, represents an unprecedented partnership among Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. David McDaniel continued with us across the new Folsom Lake Crossing bridge which opened Saturday, March 28, and links East Natoma Street with Folsom-Auburn Road to provide a convenient connection to Placer and El Dorado counties.

We then took 65N toward Marysville to view the Bear River setback levee and the Feather River setback levee construction project. Rod Mayer, Assistant Deputy Director for FloodSAFE at DWR spoke about the risk associated with floodplain development and recent state legislation to improve flood risk management as well as recommendations of the National Committee on levee safety.

DWR started the FloodSAFE California program to improve public safety through integrated flood management. The four different facets of the program include improving emergency response, improving flood management system, improving operation and maintenance and informing and assisting public. DWR will work with state, federal and local agencies to implement the program. The hour-long bus ride was filled with talk of initial risk, zoning, building codes, outreach, evacuation plan, insurance and levee details. As we passed the site of the 1986 levee break, John Nicoletti, the Director at Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority, talked about the ’86 flood and the devastating impacts on the area.

We turned onto Feather River Boulevard and turned left on a road marked with a sign that said “No Entry. Private Road.” Paul Brunner, Executive Director of Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority, was waiting there for us. He took us up high on a levee road for a tour of the Bear River setback levee and the Feather River setback levee active construction activity and discussed the benefits from setback levees. The bus inched along on a levee that was practically its same width, so no levee could be seen. You just peered straight down at the land on either side. He also pointed out the site of the 1997 Feather River levee break, which resulted in the flooding of large areas of RD 784 and killed 3 people, and we saw the home of a family that lost a family member during that flood. For photos of the 1997 flood check out the sacbee site at http://www.sacbee.com/1218/gallery/1310922.html. These photos give you a better understanding of the devastation caused by a levee break.

The Feather River setback levee will be the largest setback levee ever built in California, and it is designed for both the environment and flood control. Its purpose is to provide 200-year flood protection for the area that is urbanizing. The Feather River setback levee will stretch from the Bear River setback levee to 3.8 miles south and improvements will include cutoff walls, stability berms, relief wells and monitoring wells. Both levee improvement projects take extensive planning and funds, but it is the amount of fill that really shocked me. For the Bear River setback levee it is 1 million cubic yards, which would fill 50,000 commercial dump trucks stretching end-to-end from Sacramento to Portland, and for the Feather River setback levee, it would fill a football field almost one-half mile deep. That’s a lot of dirt!

We had a delicious lunch at Yuba County Water Agency, where Curt Aikens, General Manager, gave a brief history of Yuba County flood control. He touched on the Forecast-Coordinated Operations of Lake Oroville and New Bullards Bar Reservoir, which will coordinate flood operations of Lake Oroville and New Bullards Bar Reservoir, and using improved inflow forecasts, will guide early reservoir releases during major flood events to reduce peak flood flows resulting in additional levels of protection downstream. We took the delicious cookies to go and headed on to the next stop of the day: Tisdale Weir.

As we headed to the Sutter Bypass and Tisdale Weir, Jeff Twitchell, Principal Engineer at Wood Rogers, Inc., took us for a detour to view the Star Bend Project, and he talked about Levee District One, the first levee district formed in the state, relief wells and the Sutter Butte Basin. We turned left onto Star Bend Road and drove straight up a levee to view the site where the Star Bend setback levee would be built. Bill Hampton, General Manager of Levee District 1, jumped on the bus to say hello. The sharp bend in the current levee about 10 miles south of Yuba City causes a dam effect up river from the bend, and there are through- and under-seepage and stability concerns putting 25,000 people in Levee District One area at risk to potential flooding. If there was a break in the levee part of Yuba City would be flooded by back water. This new, nearly one-mile levee would replace the sharp bend at Star bend and address geomorphology and erosion concerns.

Continuing on to the weir, Eric McGrath, Senior Engineer, System Integrity Section of DWR, explained the operation and maintenance of Sutter Bypass and Tisdale Weir. Tisdale Weir and Bypass are crucial to the security of the Colusa and Sutter Basins. It provides relief of major flood flows in the main stem of the Sacramento River eastward into the Sutter Bypass. Tisdale Weir sends water into the Tisdale Bypass in Sutter County. We drove out along Reclamation Road through farmland, made our way to Garmire Road, and then headed up onto the new Garmire Road bridge located at the mouth of the Tisdale Bypass. The new bridge passes debris that formerly lodged on the old structure and caused serious flooding concerns. Our bus barely made the sharp turn into Tisdale Weir, but the bus driver, Kathy, is one of the best in the business. Lewis Bair, General Manager of Reclamation District 108, and Max Sakato, General Manager of Reclamation District 1500, were there waiting for us. They explained the impacts that the operation and maintenance of Tisdale Weir has on their reclamation districts and talked briefly about the history and maintenance responsibilities of the two districts.

On our way to the next stop, Fremont Weir, we drove through the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Knight’s Landing and picked up Mike Hardesty on the side of the road at the one and only visible restaurant on the main street. That is the great thing about our tours…you never know who we will pick up alongside the road. The drive to the Fremont Weir is a bunch of slight twists and turns on roads with names like Road 16, Road 116B and Road 116A. You pass a couple of peacocks, and you’re there but I had to make this drive several times before the tour to remember how to get there.

After we maneuvered our way back to an area with a gravel parking lot, we arrived at the weir but it is like playing the game “Where’s the weir?”. From a distance, the Fremont weir looks a grassy knoll. The weir is an 80-year-old structure known for built-up sediment and vegetative growth that diverts river water into the Yolo Bypass. When the water level in the Sacramento River reaches a high level, the water flows over the Fremont Weir into the Yolo Bypass. When silt and vegetation build up in a bypass, the flood-control channel becomes shallower and hydraulically less efficient and has less water-carrying capacity. As a result, more water flows down the main part of the river, putting more pressure on the levees downstream, which in turn increases the chance of a levee break.

At the weir, Mike Hardesty, General Manager of Reclamation District 2068, talked about Reclamation District 2068 and the importance of well functioning bypasses to the overall operation of the Sacramento River Flood Control Project. John Cain, Director of Restoration Programs at the Natural Heritage Institute, gave an overview of the habitat restoration projects proposed as flood projects by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). Some of the BDCP plans include utilizing the Fremont Weir and Yolo Bypass for floodplain inundation and adding a possible notch in the weir. The January 12, 2009 draft of the BDCP proposes to add a notch to the Fremont Weir and flood the Yolo Bypass more frequently and for longer periods later in the agricultural season.

On our way back to the hotel, Fran Borcalli, FloodSAFE Yolo Program Manager, discussed the flood risks associated with Cache Creek Settling Basin, which is a critical feature of the State Plan of Flood Control, and the flood risk reduction alternatives. Currently, there is heightened concern regarding control of mercury laden sediment discharged from the Cache Creek watershed. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has requested that the Settling Basin outlet weir be raised much earlier than originally planned because of the concern regarding the discharge of mercury into the Yolo Bypass and the Delta.

We made it back to the hotel on time, and I made sure to hold the doubter accountable for the bet. I guess you could say the Foundation performs miracles…actually I think it was Kathy the bus driver that should receive the credit.

The dinner speaker at the Embassy Suites hotel was George Basye. He is Counsel in Downey Brand’s Natural Resources Department and he is a historical flood expert and author of the book Battling the River – A History of Reclamation District 108. He gave a fascinating presentation on the history of flood management in the Sacramento Valley and the Delta. The map that he presented proudly was created in 1895 by Manson and Grunsky, and it showed the flood management system as it is today and was envisioned by these two men way back in 1865. The poster almost didn’t make it as it was left on the bus by me. Luckily, my husband rushed to the bus driver’s house to get it to the hotel just in time for George’s presentation.

The next morning our breakfast speaker was Joe Countryman, Principal Engineer for MBK Engineers. He gave a presentation on the comparison of the very different Sacramento and San Joaquin flood management systems and some of the flood photos he brought were shocking. We then headed out to view a few Natomas levee improvement projects. Peter Buck, Environmental Resources Manager at Sacramento Area Flood Control Association (SAFCA) and John Bassett, Design Engineer at SAFCA, took us to the Sand Cove project along Garden Highway. We took a stroll from the bus to the river, through the brush and gathered on the furthest point possible to view a project where they rebuilt the river bank. This site is about 1.5 miles upstream from the confluence of the American River and was a cooperative project among SAFCA, the City of Sacramento Parks Department, US Army Corps of Engineers and Reclamation District 1000. Their handouts clearly showed the many phases of construction that were unapparent from viewing the project camouflaged with vegetation. The project’s purpose was to improve a severely eroded 700 foot bank. There were many design elements at play in this self-sustaining, almost self-mitigating project. In 2005, they installed a small riprap bench along the toe of the bank to slow down the impact from waves in the summer, rebuild the slope with soil instead of riprap, plant about 200 pistachio trees to provide Instream Woody Material (IWM) to enhance aquatic habitat.

We then continued on to view the Sacramento Weir, where Keith Swanson, Chief of the Flood Maintenance Office at DWR, talked about the history and operation of the weir. We almost drove right over it, but Kathy was able to swing a 20-point turn so we could park the bus right at the south end of weir and view the 48 steel gates held in place by timber locks that are operated manually by DWR when the rain is pouring. The water merges with the American River down the mile-long Sacramento Bypass in West Sacramento before flowing into the Yolo Bypass. When the weir is in operation it is protecting Sacramento, but it is also putting stress along the West Sacramento levees, which is why it is controversial as to when to open the weir. Open it in time to prevent flooding but not too early so that the levees around Sacramento are stressed to the point of breaching. Part of the Sacramento River actually runs backward several hundred yards to the lowest point into the Sacramento Weir and then through the mile-long Sacramento Bypass into the Yolo Bypass. Another issue with the weir is sedimentation buildup, DWR has made a proposal to remove approximately 38,600 cubic yards of accumulated sediment from the Sacramento Weir approach to restore its flow capacity.

The next stop of the day was the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. Many people probably zoom over the bypass on 80 without even realizing the several important roles of the bypass. The Yolo Bypass is a natural flood basin that receives water from the Sacramento River, Feather River, Cache Creek, Putah Creek, Sutter Bypass, Colusa Basin and the Willow Slough Bypass. The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is a model of a public-private restoration project. The non-profit Yolo Basin Foundation helped begin the Wildlife Area, which was dedicated by President Clinton in 1997 and is owned and operated by Fish and Game. The Yolo Bypass consists of a diverse mix of agriculture and wetland habitats in the North Delta and is the location of the Department of Fish and Game’s 16,000-acre Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, which utilizes agriculture to help provide wildlife habitat for thousands of animals in a way that is compatible with the flood control function of the Bypass. Dave Feliz, the Wildlife Area Manager, took us for the tour and discussed the many important roles including agriculture during the summer and fall and wetland during the flood season which supports a waterfowl population.

We then headed to the Yolo Basin Foundation for lunch, where Dave, Ann Brice, Assistant Executive Director, and Robin Kulakow, Executive Director of the Yolo Basin Foundation, gave a presentation filled with pictures of the Foundation’s environmental education programs. The Yolo Basin Foundation believes that a key Habitat Conservation Measure as currently described in the BDCP will have adverse impacts on the wildlife area. The proposed measure is to “modify the Fremont Weir and the Yolo Bypass to provide for a higher frequency and duration of inundation” to create an operable gate to sustain flood flows into the Bypass for 30-45 days between December 1 and May 15 to create flood plain habitat for Chinook salmon and Sacramento splittail. This would eliminate the current agricultural activities, curb all public use when the Fremont Weir is spilling and prevent the wetland management practices.

In the afternoon, we met Mike Dietl, Project Manager from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at Sacramento’s Miller Park. He talked about the goal of the Sacramento River Bank Protection Project (SRBPP) and the Sacramento River Flood Control Project, which is to manage flood risk by protecting existing levees and flood control facilities within the Sacramento River and major tributaries against erosion. Over time, the banks and levees of rivers in the Sacramento River watershed have been eroding. This results in increased flood risk to areas protected by these levees. The Corps is responsible for the SRBPP in conjunction with its non-Federal partner, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board. He showed us a couple of the bank protection projects there. The train went by and we waved to a group of young children probably on a field trip for the day as we headed back to the bus to continue our big kid field trip.

We continued on to Garcia Bend Park where Mike and Gregg Ellis, Environmental Planner at ICF Jones & Stokes Associates, talked about Pocket Area erosion and construction sites. The bank protection project we saw there also served as a recreational area. A family with their umbrella and towels were out enjoying the sun as we stood with our group of 50 people talking on a microphone above them. They had no idea of all the time and money that went into creating their “beach.”

The sun was hot and it was time for some relaxing in the shade with a taste of local wines. We headed to the Old Sugar Mill. The Sugar Mill’s beautiful historic brick buildings stand as a reminder of what the building once was and as a promise of what it would like to become. The structure has a balance of history and modernity. The main building is beautifully restored, and five wineries have tasting rooms within. It is framed with the additional buildings of the old mill adorned with broken windows that give it a type of Delta charm, but also paint the picture for plans of Phase 2 of the renovation to include additional wineries, a Delta visitor center, a café, a bistro and art galleries. The future is very unclear due to restrictions on development in the Delta, and a person not knowing the history and plans of the Mill could question the state of this grand building. It appears to be right in the middle, awaiting an answer, which is very similar to the state of the Delta. We had just enough time to have a few tastes of wine before the presentations on the back patio began.

Linda Fiack, Executive Director at the Delta Protection Commission talked about land use in the primary zone and encroaching urbanization in the secondary zone. The mission of the Delta Protection Commission is to adaptively protect, maintain, and where possible, enhance and restore the overall quality of the Delta environment consistent with the Delta Protection Act and the Land Use and Resource Management Plan for the Primary Zone. Recognizing the threats to the Primary Zone of the Delta from potential urban and suburban encroachment and the need to protect the area for agriculture, wildlife habitat, and recreation uses, the California Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law on September 23, 1992, the Delta Protection Act. The Act directs the Delta Protection Commission to prepare a comprehensive resource management plan for land uses within the Primary Zone of the Delta.

Gilbert Cosio, Principal at MBK Engineers, followed with a presentation on the Delta Levees Maintenance Subventions Program. Authorized in the California Water Code, the Delta Levees Maintenance Subventions Program provides financial assistance to local levee maintaining agencies for the maintenance and rehabilitation of both project and non-project levees in the Delta. The program is under the authority of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and is managed by DWR. As stated in the Water Code, the program’s goal is to preserve the Delta as much as it exists at the present time, but there were concerns voiced that these improvements are not enough to protect the Delta islands from a 100-year flood event. As we headed to Giusti’s, the last stop of the day, John Cain spoke about the habitat conservation plan at the Fremont Weir. With the BDCP strategy, the weir would be modified to improve passage for fish and allow more frequent inundation of the Yolo Bypass floodplain and Cache Slough. An operable gate would be incorporated into the weir such that inundation of the bypass could occur in winter and spring on a more frequent basis at lower flow stages of the Sacramento River than under existing conditions.

At Giusti’s, they had the deck all set up for our group to sit and relax and listen to Steve Mello, a regular there and the President of Reclamation District 563. Steve arrived in his work clothes, covered in dirt. He had been working 12 hours, and he simply stated that he is a farmer and that’s how farmers look. He talked about his reclamation district and shared his thoughts about the levee maintenance in reclamation districts. Mello is a second-generation farmer who grows corn, wheat, alfalfa, safflower and pears. Of the 26 miles of levees in the agricultural district, half are project levees and half are private. He told the participants honestly how he felt about the current flood management system. He said land subsidence is a major concern because it increases water pressure on the levees. With development north of the Delta, land is removed that usually functions as flood control. The Sacramento Valley originally acted as a flood retention basin, allowing water to percolate gradually into the Delta, but with urbanization and everything paved, the water rushes on down to the Delta. Maintaining poorly constructed levees and following regulations to protect levee wildlife habitat with limited resources is a challenge he noted.

The tour began where physically planning for flood management begins and then traveled to projects framed by stories of the history of floods and flood control. Many viewpoints were expressed, and it was refreshing to hear many say how they see it. One thing that made this tour unique – and that makes every tour unique – were the participants. There were so many knowledgeable people, managers from reclamation districts, water districts, staff from legislative offices and many others, who were just being introduced to flood issues. One of the great things about the tour is learning from the people you sit next to on the bus, eat dinner with and spend two days together.

This isn’t a conference; it is an experience that teaches you. You get to see these actual projects that you read and talk about and meet people that you have emailed or read about. Isn’t that part of living: experiencing it rather than just hearing about it? Experience California’s water for yourself and come on one of our water tours! To learn more about the water tours visit the Water Education Foundation website at www.watereducation.org/tours.