Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency for the Sacramento River and Delta levees. But if the governor truly believes that protecting Californians against flooding is an emergency, he has had an odd way of showing it.
The governor's own administration identified more than a year ago the erosion problems on the levees he now calls an emergency. He waited through a whole construction season, and long after Hurricane Katrina showed the risk urban communities face when levees fail, before deciding to announce he would do the needed repairs.
Indeed, over the past year, instead of making flood protection a priority, the governor muted the voices of those raising the alarm. In September, he fired all the members of the State Reclamation Board, including the co-author of this article. Their misdeed? They had decided that the board ought to warn local governments when they seek to build new neighborhoods without adequate flood protection for residents.
"Don't ask, don't tell" is no way to approach flood control. As Katrina showed, urban places need urban levels of flood protection.
The State Reclamation Board already has some tools to keep urbanization out of areas without adequate flood control, and it should use them. Where they are not adequate, the Legislature and governor should give the state the power to require that flood protection be a standard part of the planning and infrastructure in any new community, just like roads, sewers and street lighting.
Legislation like Assemblywoman Lois Wolk's AB 802, which requires local communities to assess flood risk as part of the public-safety element in local general plans, is a good start. Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger, far from seeing a flood control emergency, didn't lift a finger to help recently when the bill, opposed by the building industry and every member of his party, narrowly squeaked through the Assembly. Another Wolk bill, AB 1899, requiring local governments to show how they would provide urban levels of flood protection before new areas are developed, would move California even closer to the level of public safety it needs.
To provide adequate protection for all communities, the federal government and California will have to invest far more in upgrading the existing flood control system, both to protect communities and the taxpayers. Because the courts have found the state liable for flood damages caused by the failure of levees under the state's jurisdiction, taxpayers will get the bill for neglecting flood control, as they did for the 1986 flooding that destroyed homes in Yuba County and cost the state $464 million.
But even after the devastation in New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, the Bush administration is not facing up to the federal government's responsibility to protect the public. President Bush's budget contains not a dime to repair and improve the deteriorating levees in the Delta, where levee failures would put at risk the drinking water for more than 20 million California residents. It contains only $164 million overall for California flood control; the state's estimate of the cost of restoring old levees and protecting urban areas is about $12 billion. In addition, many of the local flood control districts responsible for maintaining levees are deeply in the red and unable to do their job.
To meet these needs, California must put together a comprehensive funding system to deliver flood protection. The burden of improving levees should not fall on California taxpayers alone, as the governor proposes in his infrastructure plan. It should include the participation of all those who benefit from improving California's levee system -- the federal government, landowners, Delta water users, and cities -- and should be set up to help even smaller jurisdictions with fewer financial resources to build adequate flood protection now.
As Katrina showed, we cannot afford to wait.
