Supervisors approve request to support flood plan

Glenn County will provide a letter of support to Reclamation District 108's efforts to secure funding for a Mid and Upper Sacramento Regional Flood Management Plan.

Supervisors approved the request Tuesday after Supervisor Leigh McDaniel brought it forward.

He said the Sacramento flood management proposal is a sub-set of the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan.

Six counties are involved in the Central Valley project, he added.

As for the Mid and Upper Sacramento regions, McDaniel said they contain a diverse set of stakeholder groups in urban and rural areas with varied interests in his board report.

These regions also encompass about 470,000 acres.

A large number of interests are collaborating on the Central Valley flood management project, he said, including, towns, cities, Native American tribes, flood control and water agencies, reclamation districts, levee maintenance agencies and landowners to create a regional flood plan.

The Central Valley Flood Protection Plan calls for the state Department of Water Resources to work with local flood management agencies to prepare detailed regional plans that describe flood management challenges and deficiencies on a regional level including operations and maintenance practices, levee and channel inspection and emergency response plans.

The plan also would propose potential solutions to these issues as identified by local agencies, the report said, along with project costs and priorities for enhanced operations, maintenance and emergency response along with floodplain management.

This plan also will propose financial strategies and identify benefits of the projects and funding sources for implementing them, he wrote.

McDaniel said the regions have formed two coordinating committees, one for each region, and an oversight joint-steering committee which will allow the regions to come together and hopefully develop a broadly supported regional flood management plan.

In a separate action, the board also approved a letter of support for provisions in a federal appropriations bill to further the proposed Sites Reservoir and other water storage projects .

McDaniel explained Congress approved $32.1 billion in a 2013 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations bill in June.

The legislation provides annual funding to various agencies and programs under the U.S. Department of Energy and others. However, the $32.1 billion is $965 million less than President Barack Obama's requested budget.

However, money will be made available to non-federal agencies that work under joint-powers authority agreements, McDaniel said.

The Sites Project Joint-Power Authority, of which Glenn County is a member, believes a portion of the work on reservoir studies can be carried out in less time by non-federal sponsors and for less money, thus saving the federal government and taxpayers money.

So it is seeking that authority under a section of the legislation, McDaniel said.

Another section of Senate legislation related to the bill allows for water supply flexibility and the opportunity to accelerate development of additional water supplies, the county letter said, that are critical "given the current regulatory restrictions on the operation of federal and state water projects in California for the benefit of urban and agricultural water users."

The president's budget request for Fiscal year 2013 provides $600,000 for the Sites Reservoir and shows another $6 million is expected to be spent on an environmental impact report and another feasibility study.

Glenn County's letter is joined by a similar letter from the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.