Hurricane Katrina has brought the attention of the rest of the country and the state to what ACWA has been trumpeting in its water policy document about the need for increased attention to flood control and levee stability. No Time to Waste: A Blueprint for California Water, released in May, outlines 12 recommendations to secure California’s water future. Those specific to flood control and levees follow.

• “…new trends and realities, including a backlog of maintenance on levees, bypasses and channels and a recent court ruling expanding the state’s liability for flood damage, are creating an urgent need to re-examine and clarify the state’s role in flood control.”

• “…ACWA strongly recommends that the Governor appoint a Blue Ribbon Commission to evaluate the Delta’s long-term vulnerability and recommend actions by December 2006 to reduce risks to the state’s water supply, agricultural resources and the environment. Our elected leaders and policy makers must begin addressing these risks now before a major disruption takes place and we have little choice but to act on an emergency basis.”

• “ACWA recommends that state and federal agencies complete environmental reviews now under way, vigorously defend against litigation challenging the actions and implement the Delta Improvements Package in a timely way.”
  
  
• “ACWA recommends the Legislature and state agencies take measures to accomplish the following actions:

• Improve emergency response programs, including improvements in monitoring and data collection from streams and flood-prone areas.
  
  
  1. Update floodplain maps and provide better education on flood risks to the public and agencies responsible for land use decisions.
     
  2. Support a constitutional amendment to exempt local flood control projects from inverse condemnation liability and to exempt local flood control districts from the Proposition 218 two-thirds voting requirement.
     
  3. Continue to promote multi-objective planning in flood control projects at the state and local levels, consistent with legislation adopted in 2000 (AB 1147 – Honda).
     
  4. Provide state funding subventions to match local flood control funding under the existing cost-sharing formula.”
  
  
• "ACWA also calls on state and federal leaders to support agreements such as the landmark accord on American River flood control and water supply improvements, a balanced package of projects developed by local leaders and stakeholders and authorized by Congress in 2003. The package, which includes elements such as levee improvements and modifications to Folsom Dam, now must receive adequate funding appropriations to proceed."

September 2005