Flood Protection

Key dates and opportunities for participation

Your participation and comments are vital to the plan's development.

• Draft Central Valley Flood Protection Plan: The DWR Public Draft Central Valley Flood Protection Plan is now available at www.water.ca.gov/cvfmp. Related information on plan review, public participation, and adoption process available on the Central Valley Flood Protection Board's website at www.cvfpb.ca.gov.
• Flood Plan Adoption Process: The Flood Board's process to review and adopt a final Central Valley Flood Protection Plan by July 1, 2012 includes the following meetings and opportunities for public input:
  • May 11 Special Meeting – 9 a.m., California Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA: The purpose of this meeting will be to consider a staff draft Flood Plan "adoption packet," including a draft resolution for plan. In addition, Board staff will receive addition input from the Board on plan revisions, public input, etc. The meeting will include a segment for public comments.
  • May 25 Regular Board Meeting – 9 a.m., California Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA: At this meeting, flood staff will present roughly half of all draft content for the Final Revised Plan, based public input and direction from the Board up to this point. Again, there will be a segment of the meeting dedicated to public comment.
  • June 15 Special Meeting – 9 a.m., California Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA: At this meeting, the Board will consider a more definitive version of the "adoption packet" for the Final Revised Plan. Also at this meeting, the board is expected to approve the "adoption packet" for posting online, during a two-week period prior to plan adoption, as required by statute. Per the Board, this two-week period will not start a new public comment period on the Plan. However, the public can continue to write to the Board and address the Board in meetings through adoption of the plan. As with the other meetings, it is expected that this meeting will include an opportunity for the public to address the Board.
  • June 29 Special Meeting – 9 a.m., California Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA: At this final special meeting, the Board is expected to adopt a Final Plan. The public will have an opportunity to address the Board.
• Public Process After June 29 – Start of Regional Planning Phase of Plan Implementation:

  After June 29, the Flood Board's work with the 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan will be complete—although individual projects will come to the Board for permitting and approval once developed and ready for approval, as will subsequent 5-year updates of Flood Plan itself.

  In the weeks or months after the Board's anticipated adoption of a Final Plan in late June, the Department of Water Resources will initiate a regional planning process for project development and plan implementation at the regional level. According to the department, this regional planning phase of the plan's implementation will involve much more detailed and extensive outreach to and involvement from local interests at the regional level, for the purpose of selecting and further developing local projects and better defining proposed regional components of the Plan.

  Some general discussion of the regional planning process is provided in the implementation section of the Flood Plan itself (See Flood Plan Implementation Chapter), in a regional planning map identifying potential planning units by geographic area, and in certain process schematics found in the implementation chapter (See DWR Regional Planning Map and Schematics).

  While more specific detail on the regional planning phase is not yet available, it is sufficiently clear already that it will be very important for farmers, landowners, agricultural, rural, and local interests and local agencies to ensure there is clear communication and ample opportunity for public participation in the regional planning phase of plan implementation. Most importantly, rural, agricultural, and local interests must seek adequate assurances that their perspectives, preferences, and concerns will be properly represented and fully integrated in the coming local and regional planning stages of the process.

Recent Updates

• Extensive input from agricultural stakeholders during April 2012 flood board public hearings:

  Agricultural stakeholders made their concerns about the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan heard over the course of four public meetings held by the Central Valley Flood Protection Board on April 5, 6, 9, and 11, in Sacramento, Marysville, Stockton, and Woodland, respectively.

• Townhall-style meetings with agricultural stakeholders in Butte County and Colusa County:

  On March 28, more than 120 local citizens—including many concerned agricultural stakeholders—attended a meeting in Richvale and asked Department of Water Resources representatives questions about the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan. On April 13, more than 70 citizens attended a similar meeting in Colusa. A primary focus of both meetings was the proposed Feather River Bypass, from the Feather to the Sacramento River along the Cherokee Canal, in Butte County.

• Public Comments submitted on Flood Plan:

  Written public comments on the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan and a related Programmatic Environmental Impact Report were submitted by the April 20, 2012 deadline for comments, by CFBF, several affected County Farm Bureaus (including the Yolo, Yuba-Sutter, Colusa, Butte, Sacramento, and San Joaquin County Farm Bureaus), and numerous other agricultural stakeholders, and affected farmers and landowners. CFBF's public comments can be viewed in the Key Documents section below.

• Plan Adoption Process and Start of Regional Plan Phase: See related update in "Key Dates and Opportunities" section above.

Overview of Issues

Central Valley Flood Protection Plan

The state of California (through the Department of Water Resources) has prepared a Central Valley Flood Protection Plan. Required by legislation passed in 2007, the Flood Plan is intended to guide an estimated $14 billion to $17 billion of investment in the Central Valley state-federal flood system during a 20-to-25-year period.

A major feature of the long-term Flood Plan is the creation of a proposed 40,000 acres of new flood space or system capacity, by means of "setback levees" and "bypass expansions" on lands that are mostly now farmland. Of this approximately 40,000-acre footprint, the Draft Flood Plan indicates that 25 percent (about 10,000 acres) would become permanent habitat. According to the Draft Plan, the remaining 75 percent (about 30,000 acres) would remain farmable, subject to flood easements and seasonal flooding, similar to farming in the existing bypasses today.

In addition to these 40,000 acres of habitat and 10,000 restored habitat in new or existing flood bypass areas, the plan also proposed to modify levees and acquire flood easements an overlapping 50,000-75,000 acres. The purpose of these easements would be to allow lands in agricultural and rural areas to provide additional flood protection to urban areas downstream and to function as "transitional storage" by temporarily receiving excess flood waters. Specifically, the plan proposes creating the equivalent of 200,000 acre-feet of "transitional storage" in the Sacramento Valley, and 100,000 acre-feet in the San Joaquin River system.

In addition to 10,000 acres of restored habitat, new bypass and setbacks on 40,000 acres of acquisition, and 50,000-75,000 acres, the Flood Plan also proposes to place 70,000 to 115,000 acres of Central Valley land under agricultural conservation easement. While it seems these lands would continue to be farmed, it is presently unclear what types of restrictions would apply.

The footprint and rough locations of the proposed setback and bypass expansion features are shown in yellow, in a map (PDF, 2.3 MB) from the Flood Plan.

The Central Valley Flood Protection Board will consider the DWR Draft Flood Plan as part of a public process extending through adoption of a Final Plan in June 2012. The Plan will then enter implementation, with periodic updates every five years thereafter.

Changes proposed in the Draft Plan could have major implications for farmers and ranchers in the Sacramento Valley and require meaningful involvement from affected communities and individuals. Farm Bureau, through this webpage and other efforts, will work to inform landowners and other affected people in the Sacramento Valley so that this involvement can occur.

Background information, pertinent documents, links, and periodic updates will be posted on this webpage for individuals interested in weighing in on the Flood Plan for their local communities and private agricultural operations.

For additional information, or to subscribe to our contact list, please fill out the online form.

FEMA National Flood Insurance Program Legislative Effort

Farm Bureau is working with a coalition toward legislative reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency National Flood Insurance Program, to create a special designation for rural and agricultural areas. The need for such reform can be briefly summarized as follows:

As result of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, FEMA is engaged in a nationwide effort to remap floodplain zones throughout the United States. Based on mapped floodplain zones, FEMA has authority to "decertify" levees that do not meet specified minimum protective standards. Rural and agricultural levees typically do not meet heightened FEMA protective standards for levees.

Property owners in areas where levees have been decertified must maintain federally subsidized flood insurance through the FEMA-administered National Flood Insurance Program—and building permits for new structures, including both residential and agricultural structures and facilities, may be delayed or denied.

For more information on this issue, see coverage in Ag Alert, as well as other links and updates to be periodically posted on this page.

For additional information, or to subscribe to our contact list, please fill out the online form.

Key Documents and Links Related to Central Valley Issues and Processes

1. California Farm Bureau Apr. 20, 2012, Comments on the Public Draft 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (PDF, 238 KB)
2. California Farm Bureau Apr. 20, 2012, Comments on the March 2012 CVFPP DPEIR (PDF, 200 KB)
3. California Farm Bureau Apr. 11, 2012, Comments on Public Draft 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (PDF, 75 KB)
4. California Farm Bureau Feb. 24, 2012, Comments on the Public Draft 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (PDF, 264 KB)
5. Dec. 30, 2011, Draft Central Valley Flood Protection Plan
6. Central Valley Flood Plan Setback and Bypass Expansion Map (PDF, 2.3 MB)
7. October 2011 "Rural Flood Protection in the Sacramento Valley" Issue Paper (prepared and transmitted to the Department of Water Resources by the Sacramento Valley Flood Control Action Work Group) (PDF, 2 MB)
8. California Farm Bureau Nov. 15, 2011, Comments on DWR Working Draft Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (PDF, 219 KB)
9. Legislation – Senate Bill No. 5 (PDF, 122 KB)
10. Central Valley Flood Protection Board
11. Department of Water Resources Central Valley Flood Management Planning Program
12. Flood Plan Excerpts of Interest
    • Existing System (PDF, 2.3 MB)
    • Levee Conditions (PDF, 5.4 MB)
    • Asset Protection (PDF, 1.5 MB)
    • Relative Performance of Approaches (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Proposed Bypass Expansion and Levee Setback Areas By County

A map of proposed bypass and setback areas is shown below. For comparison, Google Earth view satellite images of potentially affected areas are also provided.

Download map (PDF, 2.3 MB)

*Links provided show the approximate locations, by county, of the bypass and setback areas shown in DWR's "Major Capital Improvements" map (PDF, 2.3 MB).

Butte County/Colusa County

CVFPP Proposed Cherokee Canal Bypass Area

 

Sutter County/Sacramento County

CVFPP Proposed Sutter Causeway Expansion, Reach 1, Yuba City/Highway 20 to Trowbridge

 

CVFPP Proposed Sutter Bypass Expansion Reach 2, Trowbridge to Fremont Weir/Sacramento International Airport

 

Sacramento County/Yolo County

CVFPP Proposed Yolo Bypass Expansion Reach 1, Fremont Weir to Putah Creek

 

Yolo County

CVFPP Proposed Yolo Bypass Expansion Reach 2, Putah Creek to Stair Step Levee/Liberty Island

 

Yolo County/Solano County

CVFPP Proposed Yolo Bypass Expansion Reach 3, Yolano to Rio Vista/Hastings Tract, Egbert Tract

 

San Joaquin County

CVFPP Proposed South Delta Bypass Expansion (Stewart Tract, Pescadero District & Paradise Junction)

 

Coverage

Ag Alert

• Commentary: Board needs to hear about flood plan impact on farms (Ag Alert, Feb. 22, 2012)
• Draft flood plan includes some farmland losses (Ag Alert, Feb. 1, 2012)
• Remapped flood zones mean new restrictions (Ag Alert, Nov. 23, 2011)

General Media

• Ag land at risk in flood plan? (Sacramento Business Journal, Feb. 17, 2012)

More information