California Water Code

§ 12645

WAT § 12645 Effective Jan 1, 2011Div. 6 · Part 6 · Ch. 2 · Art. 2

Statute text

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)In 1911, the Legislature adopted a flood control plan for the Sacramento Valley, as proposed by the federal California Debris Commission, and created the Reclamation Board to regulate levees and other encroachments, and to review and approve flood control plans for the Sacramento River and its tributaries. The state’s adoption of a valleywide flood management plan was intended to create a unified plan of flood control and to reclaim lands from overflow. Six years later, California gained congressional authorization for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to collaborate with the state in building and maintaining the Sacramento River Flood Control Project. The federal government transferred completed portions of the Sacramento River Flood Control Project to the state as portions were completed, and the state, in turn, passed responsibility for operation and maintenance to local districts organized to provide flood control within their boundaries.

(b)The state and federal governments have built or rebuilt levees, weirs, and bypasses to increase conveyance of flood waters downstream. The Sacramento River Flood Control Project and the federal-state flood control project in the San Joaquin Valley include approximately 1,600 miles of levees and other facilities to reduce central valley flood risk, now defined as the State Plan of Flood Control in subdivision (j) of Section 5096.805 of the Public Resources Code. The Corps often constructed federal “project levees” in both the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds by modifying existing levees. The federal government transferred completed portions of the Sacramento River Flood Control Project to the state, as portions were completed, which in turn passed responsibility for operation and maintenance to local reclamation districts.

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Legislative history

Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 328, Sec. 238. (SB 1330) Effective January 1, 2011.