Canals-As-Levees Issue / National Committee on Levee Safety

ACWA has joined forces with the National Water Resources Association (NWRA) and the Family Farm Alliance (FFA) to raise concerns with a draft legislative framework crafted by the National Committee on Levee Safety (NCLS).

The concerns stem from the committee's proposed legislative approach to apply future urban levee safety standards to rural water delivery systems, including canals and ditches.

The NCLS was created by Congress in 2007 to develop recommendations for a national levee safety program and a strategic plan for implementation of the program. The legislation, known as the National Levee Safety Program Act of 2007, was passed in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina and was intended to address embankments that provide protection from seasonal high water and other weather events.

The three associations do not believe the provisions of the program should apply to water delivery facilities operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation or local entities responsible for managing and operating them. 

In California, the Bureau has about 600 miles of canals under its purview. About 67 miles of these are considered to be within urban areas. That distinction is set by having a nearby population of 100 or greater and at least $1 million in property liability.  Throughout the West, Reclamation has about 8,000 miles of canals with about 1,100 miles of them considered to be near urban areas.

Recent Events

In October 2010, ACWA joined NWRA and the FFA in letter to the NCLS expressing concern with the direction it was heading. “We do not believe the legislation should apply to facilities operated by the Bureau of Reclamation,” the organizations wrote. “The proposed bill requirements would be duplicative of existing federal law, and would increase federal and non-federal costs without a corresponding increase in public safety or assurances of financial support.”

More recently, the organizations have sent a joint letter to the chairs and ranking members of House and Senate water committees requesting that they affirm that irrigation canals should be exempt from any future levee safety standards.

The Jan. 25, 2011 letter outlines concerns with assertions by the National Committee on Levee Safety (NCLS) that future levee safety standards should apply to water delivery facilities owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation.

“It is our request that your committee confirm, either through an oversight hearing or other means, that Reclamation water delivery canals and ditches be exempted from any future effort to authorize a National Levee Safety Program, as recommended by the NCLS,” the letter states. “While we understand there may be differences of opinion on this approach, we do not believe the Congress ever intended to include water delivery structures such as canals in the definition of levees included in the draft legislation.”

Resources

Background on the NCLS and its draft legislative framework are available here.