While the loss of heritage trees and Parkway is tragic, the increased safety from flooding is a very good thing, but for the long term, leadership needs to consider the Auburn Dam to provide protection from the ongoing bank scouring that high water in the river causes, discussed in our 2006 report: (The American River Parkway: Protecting its Integrity & Providing Water for the River Running Through It A Report on the Auburn Dam Policy Environment)
Neighbors welcome levee work, lament loss of trees
By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, February 21, 2008
Work on one of the most vulnerable levees on the American River will start as soon as next week.
The long-awaited project is welcome, but it's a mixed blessing for those in the neighborhood who could not save several major trees that must be felled or moved in the process.
The Mayhew levee, as it is known, protects about 300 homes in the Butterfield-Riviera East neighborhood in Sacramento's Rosemont area. The 4,300-foot-long levee was built decades ago by the neighborhood's developer. It's never been federally certified.
The levee is not tall enough to contain a 100-year flood, which has a 1 percent chance of striking in any given year. Only the immediate neighborhood would flood in such a storm.
A bigger storm could overwhelm the neighborhood and flood more of Sacramento.
The $9.5 million project will raise the levee 3 feet and install a slurry wall up to 60 feet deep to prevent underseepage.
"Nowhere else in the American River system do we need to raise the levee that much," said Pete Ghelfi, director of engineering at the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.
The levee's deficiencies have been known for decades, and repairs were federally approved in 1999.
The design also requires the levee to be widened as much as 30 feet, narrowing the natural parkway enjoyed by residents and requiring thousands of trees and shrubs to be removed. Some trees may be transplanted to locations away from the levee. Among them are three heritage oaks more than 100 years old.
