California Conservative

Reader Matt M. writes to us this morning:

Hi guys,

I noticed you haven’t expressed an opinion on Governor Schwarzenegger’s effort to repair the levee system in the San Joaquin Delta. It appears he isn’t going to get a whole lot of opposition, which is a good thing.

In my opinion, this is the single most important thing Arnold or any other California governor has done for the state in a long time. My reasoning is the vulnerability of the Delta to earthquakes, which I have not yet seen reported in the news regarding this story. A powerful earthquake could cripple the levees and flood the Delta, which would have the immediate effect of wiping out the population and farmland there. A far more serious threat is brackish water from the estuary pushing past the flooded Delta to threaten much of Northern California’s fresh water supply.

I don’t know if Arnold had that specifically in mind, but he is doing the right thing to help reduce the risk of a disaster of Katrina-like proportions. This theory is put forth in the book “A Dangerous Place” by Marc Reisner, and while it may be controversial, anything the Governor can do to prevent even the possibility of such a catastrophe is money well spent. If the Delta is flooded, California’s current problems will pale in comparison. I’m not a geologist or a pundit — hell, I’m not even a Californian, but as a guy who lives in an earthquake-vulnerable area (Japan), I’m convinced Arnold is doing the right thing here and that he needs your support. Keep up the good work and God bless.

Best regards,
Matt

Thank you for those comments, Matt. You make some excellent points and we appreciate your input.

We agree with the assessment that California needs to be better prepared for a major disaster. And we think Gov. Schwarzenegger is doing the right thing by aggressively pursuing federal funding for critical upgrades to the state’s levee system.

Here’s the news:

Schwarzenegger Declares Emergency Over Levee System

AP reports: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday for California’s levee system, a step administration officials said would help speed up repairs to 24 flood-prone sites.”

“In order to protect ourselves we need to move quickly and address all of these sites and repair them before the next flood season,” said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources.

Officials said the declaration would allow the state to waive environmental and contracting laws in making the repairs and open up emergency funding as part of an attempt to complete repairs before the next flood season.

“If we did this through normal funding and normal procedures it probably would take us three to four years,” Snow said.

Most of the sites are along the Sacramento River system, and a few are in the northern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Snow added.

The declaration also allows the state to make repairs to other sections of levee found to be in severe need of maintenance in addition to the 24 mentioned by Snow.

Cost of the work is estimated to be between $75 million and $100 million.

Today, AP reports: “Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will tour the Sacramento area to see if federal help is needed to prevent a Katrina-style disaster there, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday.”

Schwarzenegger said Chertoff made the commitment during a meeting in which Schwarzenegger pressed him to support a federal disaster declaration for Sacramento’s fragile river and delta levee system. On Friday, Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for the levees to try to get quick funding to repair them.

“He said that he will help, that he will look into it,” Schwarzenegger told The Associated Press in an interview. “He has committed to come to California to take a tour with me.”

“It’s always easier if you see it,” said Schwarzenegger, who toured the levees by helicopter several days before issuing the disaster declaration.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, which covers 738,000 acres, receives runoff from more than 40 percent of California. Much of the land is below sea level and relies on more than 1,000 miles of levees for protection against flooding, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

Because of weaknesses in the levees — some built more than 100 years ago — there are fears that an earthquake or flood could cause catastrophic flooding. (Emphasis ours)

Schwarzenegger and Chertoff also discussed the need to ensure that the federal government would be prepared to respond to a disaster in the nation’s most populous state.

In response to requests from Democratic senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, Chertoff has said the federal government has no specific plan to respond to a catastrophic earthquake in California.

Read more.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 9:30 am and is filed under Arnold, California, Domestic Policies, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.