Flood of money

Levee District 1 will get an early round of state bond money to fix the weakest spot in its levees, ending any uncertainty over project funding to fix Star Bend.

The State Department of Water Resources issued a decision memo Friday that allocated $16.33 million in Proposition 1E and Proposition 84 money for the district's Star Bend setback levee project.

"You've got your money now, you're ready to go," Jeff Twitchell, engineer for LD 1, told the district's board Monday.

Fixing Star Bend by building a setback levee farther from the river would reduce the risk of a failure at one of the district's biggest trouble spots. The district's levees protect Yuba City and parts of Sutter County in the Yuba City Basin.

The money will allow the district to move ahead with land acquisition, one of the tasks still remaining before construction. The district still has to go out for bids, and get permits from various agencies.

Twitchell said work could start in April 2009. The district would like to start construction even sooner, but will probably have to put off most of the work until next spring to avoid working on the levee during flood season.

The levee district started work on an environmental study for the setback project in 2005. At the time, it may have been a bit of a gamble for the maintenance district to take on the much bigger job of building a levee.

"We're a maintenance district — we were kind of putting our neck out there," said district Director Mike Vinsonhaler.

But it appeared the gamble would pay off when state officials put the district's setback levee on a list of projects for early funding from the Proposition 1E levee bond. Friday's decision memo said the department will send an agreement to the district authorizing the funding.

"We started a long time ago, and it's a good thing we did, or else we wouldn't have had the funds," said Vinsonhaler.

Star Bend has been as a trouble spot since the Sutter County grand jury report following the 1955 flood. The report called for the bend to be straightened.

Flooding in 1997 brought the bend to the brink of failure. Aggressive flood fighting and thousands of sandbags held the levee together.

Sutter County and Yuba City also are providing funding for the levee project.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey at 749-4711 or jdickey@appealdemocrat.com.