An article published this week by CalMatters highlights the funding crisis facing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where over 1,000 miles of aging levees are in dire need of repair and maintenance.
If these levees were to fail, they would potentially flood thousands of acres of farmland, threatening critical water supply pumps that serve much of California, and endangering half a million people in Delta communities. The article points to a recent close call at Victoria Island, a warning sign that other levee breaches could follow.
According to the Delta Stewardship Council, without necessary upgrades to the levees over the next 25 years, “more than $10 billion in agricultural, residential, commercial, and infrastructure assets and nearly $2 billion in annual economic activity would be exposed to flooding.”
The article also calls attention to a troubling trend—despite these escalating risks, the state is cutting vital programs designed to protect Delta communities such as a key levee maintenance fund from the Department of Water Resources’ Flood Maintenance Assistance program. As levee engineer Chris Neudeck aptly states, “How long does a politician hold memory of a disaster? Many say it’s six months, others say nine months… If we don’t have a flood event every year, we’re screwed.”
In response to the state’s decision to scale back essential levee repair funding while continuing to invest in the Delta Tunnel project—which threatens both Delta communities and ecosystems. Artie Valencia, Restore the Delta’s Flood and Land Restoration Program Manager, released the following statement:
“Ms. Nemeth raises concerns about extreme climate conditions attributed to climate change potentially harming and disrupting supply from the State Water Project, yet DWR has failed to complete a full assessment of climate change impacts on the Delta Conveyance Project, suggesting an inconsistent approach to evaluating climate-related risks. Though DWR does not assume responsibility over levee upgrades, they fail to account for levee failure risks that may occur due to sediment build up at intake sites during extreme rain events, sea level rise, subsidence and seismic risk on vulnerable Delta levees that are not up to 200 year federal level of protection and often face erosion and maintenance issues. The Freshwater Pathways (FWP) system is a more cost-effective alternative to the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), and seeks to address some of these critical issues. The DCP is estimated to cost $20.1 billion before the updated benefit cost analysis and financial plan Ms. Nemeth alluded to on April 3, while the FWP, focusing on Delta islands surrounded by levees, would cost $400 million for the project itself, with an additional $12.5 billion for upgrading 1,100 miles of Delta levees. Even with the levee upgrades included, the total cost of the FWP at $12.9 billion is significantly less than the tunnel. Furthermore, the FWP directly addresses the vulnerability of Delta levees by proposing upgrades to meet the 200-year federal standard, and in turn will also solve for sea level rise, subsidence, and seismic risk.”
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