Huge task for nascent flood agency

Levees in sketchy condition, construction costs that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, and a remap of parts of Sutter County into the flood zone are some of the flood-protection issues the county and Yuba City are facing.

On Wednesday, the Sutter-Butte Flood Control Agency will meet for the first time to start sorting those issues out.

The first meetings will be geared toward housekeeping items, including the choice of an interim executive director. The board is expected to approve Bill Edgar, a former director of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, to head the Sutter-Butte agency. Sutter County and Yuba City have chipped in a million dollars in seed money.

But the organizational duties are just a prelude to the real heavy lifting.

It will be the agency’s job to rebuild levees that are being drilled, surveyed and profiled to find any weak spots, and fix them up to meet tougher federal standards to protect against at least a 100-year storm, and keep making them stronger.

“The indications are it will be a very large job, and take many years, is my guess,” said Sutter County Administrator Larry Combs. “But the agency will address that.”

Sutter County was the lead entity in putting the Sutter-Butte joint powers agreement together.

The agency will have to keep pace with federal government standards for levee construction, and get the area off the federal flood maps that will show large portions of Sutter County in a special flood hazard insurance zone.

It’s a big job with plenty of territory to cover. The agency’s reach will extend past the Sutter County line into Butte County to better compete for funds from Proposition 1E after state officials have repeatedly said they want a regional approach to flood protection.

“The state wants this to be more on a regional basis than a localized basis,” said Yuba City City Councilman John Miller, an agency board member.

State Department of Water Resources studies are already under way to figure out where the trouble spots are, and indications so far are not very encouraging. Even with $55 million spent to bolster Feather River levees in the last 10 years or so, levees protecting the Yuba City Basin probably won’t meet federal design standards for protection against even a 100-year storm, or one with a 1 percent chance of occurring in a given year.

Sutter County Supervisor Dan Silva said figures he has heard for the Yuba City Basin range from a 50-year to an 80-year level of flood protection. The years refer to the expected probability of a flood-producing storm. A 100-year storm is less frequent than a 50-year storm, on average, though major floods have hit Yuba-Sutter in 1986 and again in 1997.

Silva noted that levee standards have been a moving target to achieve. Natomas, for example, was once thought to have a 100-year level. That figure was knocked down by the Federal Emergency Management Agency because of tougher levee construction requirements.

Miller cautioned that the levees should not be viewed as substandard. But levees built today would be built differently than in the 1890s when farmers started putting up embankments to protect their land.

“Probably, we have some of the best levees in the system,” said Miller.

When results of core-drilling studies by the Department of Water Resources are issued early next year, agency officials will have better insight into how well the Yuba City Basin levees are built.

Then the agency will have to come up with a repair plan and a price tag. The exact costs are unknown, but some early ballpark estimates pegged the figure at $375 million.

In the Natomas Basin, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency recently voted to approve a $400 million levee repair package.

Combs said the Yuba City Basin could see a levee repair figure that high or even higher.

Fixing the levees and coming up with a repair program will be two challenges. But the passage of some sort of taxing measure will be yet another hurdle - perhaps the biggest.

Two sales tax initiatives to repair levees in the 1990s narrowly failed even after a huge storm in 1997 threatened to inundate the county, prompting a mass evacuation.

“It’s going to be the mission of the (flood control agency) to prove that it’s a real asset,” said Silva about a benefit assessment.

An appointed advisory group, the Citizens Advisory Committee for Flood Control Funding in Sutter County, has said an assessment of property owners based on benefit is the most promising money-raising option, along with recently-approved Yuba City impact fees.

Unlike a sales tax, which requires a two-thirds majority, a benefit assessment needs just over 50 percent approval to pass.

Some are questioning whether a benefit assessment will fly in some areas, and whether there is anything even broken to fix. In Live Oak, where it would rarely flood, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studies, city officials are already skeptical.

“We want to participate, but we are really concerned what the cost is,” said Live Oak City Manager Tom Lando.

Lando noted that more studies are needed on a flood-protection system for Live Oak before any money is spent. One question that remains is whether a ring levee around the city would be better than a main levee.

Miller said that if the flood protection is not benefiting Live Oak, the assessment might cost little or nothing. Studies will have to be done by the agency to determine what areas would be helped the most by better levees.

“The (agency) is going to have to get info out to people so they can vote on it in an informed manner,” said Miller.

With a growing area that has 80,000 to 90,000 people living behind the Yuba City Basin levees, plus homes and businesses, for Yuba City and Sutter County officials, fixing levees is the top goal.

“This is the highest priority that we have in Yuba City,” said Miller.

Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey can be reached at 749-4711. You may e-mail him at jdickey@appealdemocrat.com