As we see in this article from today’s Bee, the cost of levee strengthening, while a necessary intermediate step in flood protection, is slowly rising to the level of long-term flood protection; around $300 million just for Natomas, with frustrated speculation that another $700 million might someday be needed.
Here is an excerpt.
$4.6 million allocated for levee study
Consultants will assess flood risk in Natomas.
By Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff WriterPublished 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 21, 2006
Sacramento flood-control officials on Thursday agreed to spend $4.6 million studying how to upgrade weak levees in fast-growing Natomas.
The action by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency comes in response to a February report that showed Natomas levees may not meet the 100-year flood standards, despite $57 million worth of improvements in the 1990s.
Those upgrades cleared the way for housing development in Natomas, ending a seven-year building moratorium. The area's population has nearly tripled to 67,000 since then.
But the study released in February, based on new soil tests, found that levee seepage is a bigger problem in Natomas than previously known. Soil is so porous in some areas that floodwaters could even undermine seepage walls installed in some levees in the 1990s.
The new findings mean the federal government could designate Natomas as a floodplain, which could again halt development.
SAFCA wants to avoid that, so it is moving swiftly to devise improvements.
The $4.6 million work plan includes contracts with 12 consultants. The biggest single contract is with the engineering firm Kleinfelder Inc., for $2.8 million, to conduct additional soil borings to learn more about what Natomas levees are made of.
Most of the remaining contracts are for design, permits and land acquisition planning for levee projects along virtually all the waterways ringing Natomas, including the Natomas Cross Canal, Sacramento River and American River. SAFCA hopes to start construction in 2007.
