Wolk flood protection bills move forward

Bills strengthen flood protection planning, create standards and incentives

SACRAMENTO–The Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife committee today approved two bills by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to strengthen flood protection planning throughout the state.

Along with Assembly Bill 162, to be heard tomorrow in the Assembly Local Government Committee, AB 5 and AB 1452 make up Wolk’s legislative package on flood protection.

“Flood protection remains one of the most critical issues facing California,” said Wolk, who championed efforts last session to pass meaningful flood protection legislation. “Homes continue to be built in areas at high risk of flooding. Lives and property continue to be put at risk, and every year we fail to act is another year that risk increases. My bills reduce this risk, as well as the state’s financial and moral responsibility for keeping Californians out of harms way.”       

Together, Wolk said, AB 5 and AB 1452 improve flood protection standards and planning in California—with AB 5 establishing new policies to encourage integrated floodplain management and land use decisions, and AB 1452 setting priorities and criteria for the best use of the nearly $5 billion flood bond approved by voters in November 2006.

“These bills are an approach to smart flood protection and land use,” said Wolk. “While AB 5 takes the long view, developing new plans for flood protection, AB 1452 establishes the immediate priorities for bond funding to begin rewarding those who implement smart flood protection policies. The idea is to reward better planning with more funds to carry them out.”

Among those testifying in support of AB 5 was Matt Kondolf, an Associate Professor of Environmental Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and a member of the Environmental Advisory Board to the Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Interagency Levee Policy Committee.

“Most people might be surprised to learn that we are creating in California the same conditions as existed in New Orleans before Katrina, and set the state for that tragedy,” said Kondolf. “But that is in fact the case, and it’s largely the result of two factors. The first is the disconnect between land use decisions and flood protection addressed in AB 5.”

The other factor, he said, is the federal flood control policy not to consider areas with 100-year flood protection to be floodplains.  “Even if your levee is protecting against a 100-year flood or even a 200-year flood there is still a significant risk that it will be overtopped or will fail, and you will have a Katrina-like catastrophe.”

AB 5 will next be heard in Assembly Local Government Committee, and is supported by the Planning and Conservation League, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the River, the City of Sacramento, American Planning Association, and Gray Panthers.

AB 1452, which will next be heard in Assembly Appropriations, is supported by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, the City of Sacramento, and Friends of the River.