<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="State"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="City"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceType"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceName"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
h1
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<h1><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><font size=6
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>California</span></font></b></st1:place></st1:State>'s
Levees Are in Sorry Shape<o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050919/ts_latimes/californiasleveesareinsorryshape">http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050919/ts_latimes/californiasleveesareinsorryshape</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>LA Times <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>By Bettina Boxall Times Staff Writer Mon Sep 19, 7:55 AM ET<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The threat is well known. A big quake rumbles across the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, knocking out dozens of the primitive levees that
guard the state's main water crossroads. A key source of water for nearly two
out of three Californians and the nation's biggest fruit and vegetable garden
is shut down for months, maybe even a year or two.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>ADVERTISEMENT<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Can the state avert such a scenario?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The watery calamity that befell <st1:City w:st="on">New
Orleans</st1:City> has highlighted the sorry state of delta levees, prompting
calls from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> congressional leaders for federal
money for levee repairs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The delta's vulnerabilities have also prompted some experts
to dust off an idea they believe might be more practical: building a canal that
would route water around the delta to agricultural and urban consumers in
Central and <st1:place w:st="on">Southern California</st1:place>. For though it
may be technically possible to armor the delta, many experts doubt it is
economically feasible.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Schwarzenegger last week asked the federal government for
$90 million to improve some of the most critical levees in the delta and the <st1:place
w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>. But that is a fraction of the $1.3
billion in repairs officials say it will take just to bring the delta levee
system up to basic standards. And that would do little to protect it from
earthquake damage. The state Department of Water Resources can't even say how many
billions more it would cost to do the seismic work.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"To make them basically earthquake-proof, you would
probably have to start over with a brand-new levee system," said Les
Harder, acting deputy director of the department and an engineer who helped put
together a 2000 state analysis of the delta's seismic risk. "I think it's
going to be unlikely we would ever make the whole delta today
earthquake-proof."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>That — coupled with projections of rising sea levels
that would stress the fragile levee system even without a major quake or flood
— is reviving talk of a politically charged alternative to delta water
shipments: the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Peripheral</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Canal</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. Rejected by <st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State> voters in 1982, the canal would have drawn
water from the Sacramento River and carried it around the delta to federal and
state aqueducts supplying the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>
and the Southland.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"The idea that you can fix this so that [massive
earthquake failure] won't happen is nonsense," said B.J. Miller, an
environmental engineering consultant who represents some of the <st1:place
w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>'s largest irrigation districts. "You
can't dig out the peat soil the levees are resting on. There is no economic way
to do that.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"Everybody knows what the solution is," he said.
"Build a canal around the delta."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Peripheral</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Canal</st1:PlaceType> died largely because of fears that it would
become a giant straw through which <st1:place w:st="on">Southern California</st1:place>
could suck more of the north's water. Though the concept remains highly
controversial, Miller is not the only one raising it. Former Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt mentioned it recently at a hearing on the CalFed program he
helped set up to improve water delivery from the delta. And even some
environmentalists are broaching the idea of a smaller pipeline around the delta
that would ferry some — but not too much — water south.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Overall, the delta levee system is in far worse shape than
the levees that so dramatically failed in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New
Orleans</st1:place></st1:City>. They have collapsed for no apparent reason in
good weather. Dozens could fall apart if a major earthquake or flood were to
strike, not only imperiling water supplies but also flooding thousands of acres
of farmland as well as highways and railroads that cross the delta.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>And though the more than 400,000 people who live in the
delta reside mostly on its edge rather than its more flood-prone interior,
growth is encroaching, bringing more people closer to the levee system.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The threat of an earthquake is by no means the only concern.
There is a growing recognition that given rising sea levels, an inadequate
levee system, natural disasters and the ongoing subsidence of delta islands,
the delta is not going to stay the same.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"There is a very strong likelihood that the delta as we
know it today is not sustainable over the long term," Harder said.
"We're going to have to take a look at what we need most and where."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Change has been a constant in the delta since Gold Rush
settlers started draining and dredging the vast tidal marsh created thousands
of years ago by the confluence of two of the state's biggest rivers, the <st1:City
w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City> and the San Joaquin, as they flowed into <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Using shovels and wheelbarrows, laborers began building what
became a 1,100-mile maze of earthen levees that keeps the water out of the
dozens of islands that were planted with crops after they rose from the drained
marshland.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The drainage and farming have turned the delta, which is
bigger than <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Orange</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType>, into <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>'s
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Holland</st1:place></st1:City>, making
for a constant battle between land and the more than 700 miles of waterways
that wreathe the islands.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Cultivation has broken down the deep peat soils, causing
them to blow away and oxidize, turning to gas. Through soil loss, the islands
sink ever lower. Some areas are now as much as 20 to 30 feet below sea level.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The subsidence probably will be accentuated by an expected
rise in sea level tied to global warming. Scientists say the ocean off <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> could rise
roughly a foot over the next 50 years and perhaps as much as 3 feet over the
next 100 years.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>As the land sank during the past century, the levees got
higher. But they weren't built up according to sophisticated engineering
standards. Mechanical dredges simply scooped up the muck from the adjoining
sloughs and tossed it on top of the old berms. Beneath the levees lie loose
sand and silt that can liquefy in an earthquake.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Of the roughly 1,100 miles of delta levees, 385 are
maintained by federal and state agencies and are in somewhat better shape than
the rest, which are overseen by small delta reclamation districts. In general,
however, experts say the levee system is a disaster in the making.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Concern for the levees was sharpened with the recent
prediction by a pair of UC Davis scientists that there is a two-in-three chance
that a major earthquake or flood will hit the delta in the next 50 years,
causing widespread levee failure.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"<st1:City w:st="on">New Orleans</st1:City> lost the
battle with the inevitable, and we will suffer the same fate in some form here
in <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>," said geologist Jeffrey
Mount, one of the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Davis</st1:place></st1:City>
researchers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Multiple levee breaks could draw <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType>'s salt
water toward the enormous federal and state pumps that siphon water from the
south delta and send it to the cities of Southern California and millions of
acres of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> cropland.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>If that happened, water managers would have to shut the
pumps down. For how long would depend on where and when the levee breaks
occurred.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Breaches in levees in the western delta, near the bay, would
let more salt water in. If levees collapsed in the summer, agencies would
either have to release a rush of water from upstream reservoirs to flush out
the system or wait until the following spring, when high natural flows would do
the flushing for them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Massive levee failure could easily shut down delta water
exports for months, and, in a worst case, for a year or two. "That's one
of the scenarios they're looking at," said David Mraz, delta levees
program manager for the state water department.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Over the last three decades, the state has spent $210
million on delta levees. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent additional
millions on repairs. Last year's reauthorization of CalFed included $90 million
in federal funding for levee repairs. But none of that has been appropriated,
and total CalFed levee spending has lagged behind projections. Moreover, the
program has yet to adopt a promised fee system under which delta users would
help pay for projects they benefit from, such as levee work.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"There have been a lot of improvements of levee
sections. [But] nothing has yet happened in a meaningful way to reduce the
seismic risk, and that is a Damocles sword for California," said Ray Seed,
a professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley who has been evaluating the
delta levee system for the last 20 years. "There are lots of people who
know how to fix it. The issue is it's too expensive."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Even if it costs too much to seismically reinforce all 800
miles of levees that are the most critical to maintaining water quality, Seed
said selected levees could be upgraded. He suggested there are simple,
relatively inexpensive things that could be done to speed repairs when disaster
strikes. The state could stockpile the big rocks needed to plug holes and store
on islands the plastic sheeting and sandbags that can slow erosion after a
levee break.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Other proposals include taking islands out of farming to
slow the subsidence, flooding some islands with fresh water to combat a
saltwater intrusion during levee failure and erecting barriers that would force
fresh water toward the pumps in the event of flooding.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The state has begun a two-year, $6-million analysis of risk
to delta levees that will include ways of dealing with a major saltwater
intrusion to try to avoid a long shutdown in water shipments.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>In the meantime, some politicians are looking warily at
another delta trend: creeping urbanization. Though most of the delta's 738,000
acres are farmed, some of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s
fastest-growing areas are pushing into delta lowlands.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Symbolic of that growth is the little town of <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lathrop</st1:place></st1:City>, on the delta's
southeastern perimeter. It plans to expand from 12,000 to 80,000 residents over
the next 25 years. About 35,000 of those newcomers would move into a
master-planned community the town has approved for a now-empty delta island
known as the Stewart Tract.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Town officials say they will require the developers to pay
for levee construction that will guard against a 200-year flood. But critics
say that could just push floodwaters elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"I am very concerned about the urbanization of the
delta," said Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, a Davis Democrat who has been
pushing legislation — thus far unsuccessfully — to give the state
Delta Protection Commission more muscle to restrict delta growth.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"For me, it's part of a larger issue which I believe
has become very clear with what's happened in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Louisiana</st1:place></st1:State>. That is the foolhardiness of
building in a flood plain. We continue to do that and … we need to have a
statewide approach to restricting that growth. If local government won't do it,
then the state has to do it."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>More than the delta, the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>
is seeing thousands of houses sprout in areas that have flooded in recent
decades. Those areas are protected by a river levee system that is also in need
of extensive repairs, although it is generally thought to be in better shape
than the delta's aging system.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Pointing to new development in Lathrop, as well as north of
the delta near <st1:City w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City> and in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Sutter</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,
Wolk said: "All of these are built in areas that should have remained in
agriculture. It should be expected that there will be a flood. You simply can't
make the levees strong enough."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>