The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has pulled its financial support of 17 Central Valley levee system rehabilitation projects due to deficiencies in state and local maintenance planning and inadequate inspection efforts.
The 17 levee systems, which are located in or near the cities of Sacramento, Stockton and Gustine, and the census-designated places (CDPs) of Chester and Knights Landing, are part of a 2009 inspection plan for 118 systems agreed to by California entities and its representative, the California Central Valley Flood Protection Board, and the Corps called the California Central Valley Flood System Improvement Framework. Through the framework, the board would proceed with an approved plan, which it agreed to in late June, to rehabilitate the 17 levee systems out of the 118 in its control, thus nullifying the framework. Under the overall Corps Levee Safety Program, which oversees 2,000 levee systems nationally, state and local government entities are responsible for identifying and planning action on five categories of deficiencies: channel capacity, seepage, erosion, encroachments and vegetation. The Corps said in a statement that the 17 levee systems it inspected in the past few months all received unacceptable ratings due to encroachments and/or erosion issues.