In this story from today’s Contra Costa Times the wonderful capabilities of technology to help address levee safety problems is shown.
Here is an excerpt.
Levees lure high-tech proposals
ALAMEDA: Firms suggest replacing outdated way of checking water delivery system with sensors, sonar, radar
By Mike Taugher
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Sensors used on underwater robots and single-seat submarines could help California address the deteriorating stability of its levees and water delivery system.
By using a combination of aboveground and underwater sensing devices, and feeding that information into sophisticated computers, a deep sea robotics and submarine company in Alameda says it can produce an "MRI" for the Delta that would allow experts to better target repairs.
Other companies, including one that has used its technology to look for ancient tombs in Egypt, are coming forward too, said Dave Mraz, supervising engineer in the state Department of Water Resources levees section.
Though there is no formal process yet to solicit new levee assessment work, companies are responding to growing concern about the levees and pitching improvements to the outdated approach now used to evaluate them.
Despite the fact that the berms are vital to conveying water to 23 million Californians, everything about the Delta's 1,100-mile levee system is low-tech. Inspections amount to a guy driving around in a pickup looking for erosion and repairs often amount to piling more rocks on them.
"Reclamation districts send their folks out in their cars and they look over the side and see if they see anything new and different. That's been the method for hundreds of years," Mraz said.
"We don't even know what all the problems are. This is one of the things that new technology can give us," Mraz said.
The proposal from DOER Marine, with its array of sensors and high-end software, comes at a time when the state is preparing to spend more on levees. As part of a $37.2 billion public works bond package to be put before voters in November, lawmakers included $3 billion in levee assessment and repair and another $1 billion in flood control and related projects.
"Billions of dollars are about to be spent to fix the Delta," said Grant Davis, executive director of the Bay Institute, an environmental research group. "You (now) have technology available that can provide a high level of certainty about the condition of the levees, the ones you should fix and, just as importantly, the ones you shouldn't."
