BILL NUMBER: SB 144 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Pan
JANUARY 27, 2015
An act to amend Section 12670.14 of the Water Code, relating to
water resources.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 144, as introduced, Pan. Water development projects:
Sacramento-San Joaquin watersheds.
Existing law provides for state cooperation with the federal
government in the construction of specified flood control projects.
Existing law adopts and authorizes federally adopted and approved
projects, including a 200-year level of flood protection in the
Natomas Basin, in areas within the City of Sacramento and the
Counties of Sacramento and Sutter. The projects are 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 of Water Resources or the Central Valley
Flood Protection Board, formerly known as the Reclamation Board.
This bill would describe the Natomas Basin flood protection
project as further modified by a specified report adopted by
Congress. The bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) In April 2007, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency
(SAFCA) 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 Basin, 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.
Later that year, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 276, enacted as
Chapter 641 of the Statutes of 2007, which modified existing state
authorizations for these projects in order to continue the historic
federal-state-local cost-sharing partnership governing the projects
and ensure that project construction could move forward as quickly as
possible.
(b) Since 2007, more than one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) in
federal, state, and local funds has been expended on these projects
in a manner that has substantially increased 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.
(c) Much of this work has occurred in the Natomas Basin where
SAFCA, with the state's financial assistance, has raised and
strengthened about 18 miles of the most vulnerable segments of the
perimeter levee system protecting the Natomas Basin. Because of
changes in federal and state engineering standards since 2007, these
improvements and the improvements needed for the remainder of the
perimeter levee system have greatly exceeded the scope of the Natomas
Project set forth in the Final Engineer's Report dated April 19,
2007, which governed SAFCA's special benefit assessment proceedings
and informed the Legislature's accompanying project authorization.
(d) The full scope of the work necessary to provide the Natomas
Basin with at least a 200-year level of flood protection is described
in an engineering report prepared in 2010 by the United States Army
Corps of Engineers (Corps) for the American River Watershed, Common
Features Project, Natomas Basin. This report, which outlines the
steps the Corps will take to complete the work in Natomas initiated
by the state and SAFCA, was transmitted to Congress by the Chief of
Engineers of the Corps in December 2010 and adopted by Congress as
part of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014
(Public Law 113-121).
(e) Consistent with its historic practice of providing state
approval for federally authorized projects affecting the State Plan
of Flood Control, the Legislature has determined that modification of
the 2007 state authorization for the Natomas Project is warranted in
order to enlarge the scope of the authorized project to match the
federal authorization without altering the federal-state-local cost
sharing made applicable to the project under the 2007 authorization.
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 Central Valley Flood Protection
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 (Public
Law 104-303) 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 1999 (Public Law
106-53), 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
Final Engineer's Report dated April 19, 2007, adopted by the
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. Agency,
and as further modified by the 2010 final feasibility study for the
American River Watershed, Common Features Project, Natomas Basin,
adopted by Congress in Section 7002 of the Water Resources Reform and
Development Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-121).
(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, 1999 (Public Law 106-53), 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 3029 of the Water Resources Development Act
of 2007. 2007 (Public Law 110-114).
(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)
101(a)(8) of the Water Resources Development Act of 1999
(Public Law 106-53) 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 Central Valley Flood Protection
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
Central Valley Flood Protection Board.