Levee project gains; hurdle remains

Prospects for the completion this year of a Feather River setback levee to protect Plumas Lake and other areas of Yuba County got a boost Friday from a state levee agency.

The Central Valley Flood Protection Board voted 5-2 to modify a previous permit issued for levee construction.

Board members debated whether to give a go-ahead for work to begin even before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approves the levee, but were assured the Corps would have its say in the levee design.

"This is a very difficult decision for us," board President Ben Carter said.

Friday's action may allow the Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority to start levee work next month, despite a last-minute federal environmental impact study proposed by the Army Corps in February.

While the board's action cleared one obstacle, another hurdle remains — $30 million from Plumas Lake developers.

The money from builders would be combined with $23 million that Yuba County is borrowing to provide the local match needed for state Proposition 1E funds to build the setback levee. Yuba County supervisors are to discuss the developer funding Tuesday.

Even if construction starts next month as hoped, some of the job will have to wait until the federal environmental study is completed by October.

It'll be a nail-biter, but if all goes perfectly, TRLIA officials hope that they can finish the 5.7-mile setback levee just in time for the next flood season — keeping their pledge to provide better protection by 2008.

"We could actually go from 18-year protection to 200-year protection by starting now, as opposed to waiting until August," said Scott Shapiro, TRLIA's general counsel.

Otherwise, some Yuba County residents, including those in more than 3,000 homes in Plumas Lake, may have to spend another flood season behind a levee that is only strong enough to ward off a relatively minor storm with a roughly one-in-20 chance of occurring in any given year.

Levees are supposed to be built to protect against a much more powerful, and less likely, storm with a 1-in-100 annual chance of occurring. Otherwise, an area is considered a special hazard flood insurance zone.

Though a federal environ- mental study is needed before the setback levee project can be finished, Three Rivers Executive Director Paul Brunner said a 2008 completion was ambitious but doable.

"If we have dry winters, get going, there's still a chance we could be complete," said Brunner.

County officials hope the levee project is finished in time to beat the federal government's remapping of large areas into special flood hazard insurance zones.

Completion of the setback levee is the last phase of a $191 million effort to shore up shaky Yuba County levees and rebuild them to meet federal standards — a necessary step to avoid high risk flood insurance requirements.

The project has garnered scrutiny because of its early funding scheme — building homes behind risky levees in Plumas Lake, a deep flood zone, and charging developers to raise the money for levee repairs.

One critic, Tom Foley, of Yuba City, continued to speak out against the project five years later.

"And this is where we end up today," Foley told the board. "TRLIA has led you into this, and you guys did not, as a board, do your jobs."

State levee bonds will provide the rest of the funding and allow a more expensive setback levee to be built.

The setback design will build a levee one-half mile back from the Feather River, giving the river more room during high water and lowering the water level.

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