BILL NUMBER: SB 276 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 10, 2007
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 6, 2007
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 20, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 19, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Senators Steinberg and Cox
FEBRUARY 15, 2007
An act to amend Sections 12670.14 and 12670.16 of the Water Code,
relating to water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 276, Steinberg. Flood control projects.
Existing law adopts and authorizes, at an estimated cost to the
state of the sum that may be appropriated by the Legislature for
state participation upon the recommendation and advice of the
Department of Water Resources or the Reclamation Board, the federally
authorized project for flood control along the American and
Sacramento Rivers, as modified, and the Folsom Dam modification
project, as modified by a prescribed report prepared by the
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.
This bill would, for the purposes of those authorizations,
describe the project for flood control along the American and
Sacramento Rivers as further modified to include a specified 200-year
level of flood protection. The bill would describe the Folsom Dam
modification project as further modified by a specified report
adopted by Congress. The bill would specify the extent of state and
local participation in specified flood control projects administered
by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Sacramento was founded over 150 years ago in a flood plain at
the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Commercially
dependent on river transport, the city suffered from flood disasters
because of inadequate flood protection. Construction of the present
day levee system and Folsom Dam have spared modern Sacramento from
catastrophic flooding. However, the record floods of 1986 and 1997
exposed significant deficiencies in this flood control system, making
the state capital region the most at-risk urban area in the country.
(b) Since 1986, the State of California has participated in a
cost-sharing partnership with the federal government and the
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency that has produced substantial
investments in improved flood protection for the people and property
occupying the historic flood plain, including the State Capitol and
more than 1,300 other government-owned buildings and infrastructure.
(c) Although the state capital region is now better protected than
at any time in its history, intensive development of the flood plain
has significantly increased the potential consequences of an
uncontrolled flood and heightened the state's interest in continuing
to invest in a defined cost-shared program to provide the region with
an adequate level of flood protection. Without state funding,
federal and local flood control investments will not be secured, the
risk of flooding will remain unacceptably high, and the region's
economic development and environmental health will be imperiled.
(d) The Congress and the President of the United States have
recognized the national importance of improving the state capital's
flood protection system by authorizing projects in the Defense
Appropriations Act of 1993, the Water Resources Development Act of
1996, the Water Resources Development Act of 1999, and the Energy and
Water Development Appropriations Act of 2004.
(e) In 2000, in response to the Legislature's expressed desire to
develop a long-term policy to guide the state's participation in
future flood management projects, Assembly Bill 1147 was passed by
the Legislature, signed by Governor Gray Davis, and enacted as
Chapter 1071 of the Statutes of 2000.
(f) The legislation added Section 12670.14 to the Water Code. This
section authorized flood control projects for the protection of
specific areas within the Sacramento region against a catastrophic
flood event, including the project for flood control along the
American and Sacramento Rivers, the project for flood control in the
Natomas and North Sacramento area, and the project to modify Folsom
Dam.
(g) The legislation also added Section 12585.7 to the Water Code.
Section 12585.7 changed the formula for the sharing of the nonfederal
capital costs of all projects authorized by the Legislature on or
after January 1, 2002, two years after the effective date of the
legislation.
(h) The project for flood control along the American and
Sacramento Rivers, including improvements to the Natomas levees, and
the project to modify Folsom Dam were authorized by both the state
and federal governments prior to January 1, 2002. Subsequently, in
order to address changing engineering standards and conditions, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers recommended, and Congress
approved, postauthorization changes to these projects.
(i) In April 2007, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency
secured the support of property owners in the Sacramento region for
the imposition of a special benefit assessment to fund the local
share of the cost of the levee improvement projects along the
American and Sacramento Rivers, including the Natomas area, and the
project to modify Folsom Dam to provide the Sacramento region with at
least a 200-year level of flood protection based on current
estimates of the runoff likely to be produced by such a flood event.
(j) This act modifies existing state authorizations for these
projects to ensure that the historic federal-state-local cost-sharing
partnership which has sustained these projects is continued and
project construction moves forward as quickly as possible. The
constructed projects will increase the ability of the existing flood
control system to protect heavily urbanized areas within the City of
Sacramento and the Counties of Sacramento and Sutter against very
rare floods.
(k) As evidenced by the environmental impact reports certified in
connection with these projects, including the hydrology and
hydraulics impact analysis set forth in the environmental impact
report prepared by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency with
regard to local funding mechanisms for comprehensive flood control
improvements for the Sacramento area dated February 2007, the
increase in flood protection associated with improving the American
and Sacramento River levees and modifying Folsom Dam will be
accomplished without altering or otherwise impairing the design flows
and water surface elevations prescribed as part of the Sacramento
River Flood Control Project. Accordingly, these improvements will not
result in significant adverse hydraulic impacts to the lands
protected by the Sacramento River Flood Control Project. Thus, it is
not necessary or appropriate to require these projects to include
hydraulic mitigation.
(l) The projects authorized in Section 12670.14 of the Water Code
will increase the ability of the existing flood control system in the
lower Sacramento Valley to protect heavily urbanized areas within
the City of Sacramento and the Counties of Sacramento and Sutter
against very rare floods without altering the design flows and water
surface elevations prescribed as part of the Sacramento River Flood
Control Project or impairing the capacity of other segments of the
Sacramento River Flood Control Project to contain these design flows
and to maintain water surface elevations. Accordingly, the projects
authorized in that section will not result in significant adverse
hydraulic impacts to the lands protected by the Sacramento River
Flood Control Project and neither the Reclamation Board nor any other
state agency shall require the authorized projects to include
hydraulic mitigation for these protected lands.
SEC. 2. Section 12670.14 of the Water Code is amended to read:
12670.14. The following projects in areas within the City of
Sacramento and the Counties of Sacramento and Sutter are adopted and
authorized at an estimated cost to the state of the sum that may be
appropriated by the Legislature for state participation upon the
recommendation and advice of the department or the Reclamation Board:
(a) The project for flood control in the Natomas and North
Sacramento areas adopted and authorized by Congress in Section 9159
of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 1993 (Public Law
102-396) substantially in accordance with the recommendations of the
Chief of Engineers in the report entitled "American River Watershed
Investigation" dated July 1, 1992.
(b) The project for flood control along the American and
Sacramento Rivers adopted and authorized by Congress in Section 101
(a)(1) of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996 substantially
in accordance with the recommendations of the Chief of Engineers in
the report entitled "American River Watershed Project, California"
dated June 27, 1996, as modified by Congress in Section 366 of the
Water Resources Development Act of 1999, and as further modified to
include the project features necessary to provide a 200-year level of
flood protection along the American and Sacramento Rivers and within
the Natomas Basin as described in the final engineer's report dated
April 19, 2007, adopted by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.
(c) The project to modify Folsom Dam adopted and authorized by
Congress in Section 101(a)(6) of the Water Resources Development Act
of 1999, as described in the United States Army Corps of Engineers
Supplemental Information Report for the American River Watershed
Project, California, dated March 1996, as modified by the report
entitled "Folsom Dam Modification Report, New Outlets Plan," dated
March 1998, prepared by the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, and
as further modified by the Post-Authorization Change Report,
American River Watershed Project (Folsom Dam Modification and Folsom
Dam Raise Projects), dated March 2007, adopted by Congress in Section
3023 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007.
(d) (1) The project for flood control, environmental restoration,
and recreation along south Sacramento County streams adopted and
authorized by Congress in Section 101(a)(7) of the Water Resources
Development Act of 1999 as described in the report of the Chief of
Engineers entitled "South Sacramento County Streams, California"
dated October 6, 1998.
(2) Notwithstanding Section 12657, at the discretion of the
Reclamation Board, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency may
provide, for the project described in paragraph (1), the assurances
of local cooperation satisfactory to the Secretary of the Army, in
accordance with Section 12657, in lieu of assurances by the
Reclamation Board.
SEC. 3. Section 12670.16 of the Water Code is amended to read:
12670.16. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency's share of the nonfederal
capital costs of the projects for flood control authorized in Section
12670.14 shall be calculated in accordance with Section 12585.5, and
the agency shall be reimbursed pursuant to Section 12585.5 for any
costs of project features that the agency advances on behalf of the
department or Reclamation Board if either of the following
requirements is met:
(1) The advances are made in response to a federal request for
payment of the nonfederal share of the cost of the project.
(2) If the advances are made for project features that have not
yet been authorized by Congress, the Reclamation Board has received a
written determination by the federal government that the project
features will likely be authorized by Congress and, if so authorized,
the advances will be eligible for credit toward the nonfederal share
of the cost of these features.
(b) Prior to any reimbursement pursuant to subdivision (a), the
agency shall execute an agreement with the department under which it
agrees to indemnify and hold the state harmless from damages due to
the construction, operation, or maintenance of those projects and
agrees to operate, maintain, repair, replace, and rehabilitate those
projects, or provide the agreement of its appropriate member agency
to do so.