This story in Sunday’s bee is another in their Tempting Fate series about flooding issues in Sacramento, and focuses on the flood danger in the Pocket area of Sacramento, surrounded on three sides by the Sacramento River, which is slowly eroding the levee away.
Here is an excerpt, with the most notable quote in the first line:
Tempting fate: Thin margin of safety
Relentless river erodes Pocket-area defenses
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, February 5, 2006
"Along bend after lazy bend of the Sacramento River, engineers are trying to outwit or outmuscle the same force that carved the Grand Canyon.
"They are targeting erosion, the relentless buffeting of water against dirt that sculpts landscapes, drilling away equally at natural riverbanks and the levees that defend neighborhoods against flooding.
"It is an endless war, destined for skirmishes as long as people build levees and houses that rely on them.
"In Sacramento, few places illustrate both the stakes and the complexity of the war against erosion as well as the Pocket, a neighborhood cradled on three sides by the wide amble of the Sacramento River.
"This erosion hot spot has it all: misguided planning, badly placed levees, too little money and tens of thousands of people who need the levees and the money to be more than they are.
"Today, the most pressing problem is financial. Flood officials wanted to fix eight erosion spots in the Pocket and build two slurry walls this year, but Congress didn't appropriate enough to pay the agreed-on federal share of 75 percent.
"Since word came down last fall that Congress allocated only $10.7 million of the $36 million sought for flood control work this year in the Pocket and beyond, federal, state and local officials have been wracking their brains for ways to bolster Pocket defenses.
"They're exploring a temporary advance from the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, which wasn't slated to contribute anything, or a greater role for the state Department of Water Resources.
"We have to get it done. There is no option of failing here," said Anna Hegedus, who oversees flood-control project development for the Water Resources department. "We are all getting very creative."
"The urgency comes because the Pocket, its northwestern slice known as Greenhaven, and the Meadowview neighborhood just to the west have some of the worst flood control in Sacramento - less than what's needed to withstand a big storm with a 1 percent chance of striking any year."
