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California faces $50 billion price tag for flood control

Official tells Senate panel state needs federal agencies’ aid

By Associated Press
Published: March 1, 2017, 8:40pm
2 Photos
Submerged automobiles are shown on flooded Nordale Avenue in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017. Rising floodwaters sent thousands of residents fleeing inundated homes in San Jose and forced the shutdown of a major freeway Wednesday.
Submerged automobiles are shown on flooded Nordale Avenue in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017. Rising floodwaters sent thousands of residents fleeing inundated homes in San Jose and forced the shutdown of a major freeway Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) (rich pedroncelli/Associated Press) Photo Gallery

WASHINGTON (AP) — California faces an estimated $50 billion price tag for roads, dams and other infrastructure threatened by floods such as the one that severely damaged Oroville Dam last month, the state’s natural resources secretary said Wednesday.

Nearly 200,000 people living near the country’s tallest dam were evacuated three weeks ago amid fears of a catastrophic flood after heavy rains tore away a chunk of concrete from the main spillway, leaving it severely damaged.

Swollen rivers, troubled levees and crumbling roads are causing havoc statewide as California copes with what is likely its wettest year ever, California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird said. Severe winter storms have brought torrential rain and significant snow after five years of drought.

Damage to California’s highways is estimated at nearly $600 million. More than 14,000 people in San Jose were forced to evacuate last month and floods shut down a portion of a major freeway.

In the Yosemite Valley, only one of three main routes into the national park’s major attraction is open because of damage or fear the roads could give out from cracks and seeping water, rangers said. On central California’s rain-soaked coast, a bridge in Big Sur has crumbled beyond repair, blocking passage on Highway 1 through the tourist destination for up to a year.

Gov. Jerry Brown has redirected $50 million for emergency flood response and asked state lawmakers to speed up $387 million in spending from a 2014 voter-approved water bond. Laird called the proposals “an important start,” but said they fall far short of the amount needed to address flood projects statewide. Fixing Oroville Dam alone could cost up to $200 million.

Laird told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that he has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies to expand inspection and review of all federally owned dams in California, with particular attention paid to secondary structures such as spillways.

He also has asked the Corps to update federal operating manuals for key California reservoirs and is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars authorized under a new water-projects law for rehabilitation of “high hazard dams” in the state.

Dam improvements are part of a $10 billion law approved by Congress late last year to authorize water projects across the country, including more than two dozen projects in California.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said nearly half of California’s 1,400 dams are designated as “high hazard potential” by state officials.

The state has invested about $11 billion in flood control management over the past decade, Harris said, yet more action is needed to protect nearly 7 million people and $580 billion worth of assets — buildings, farmland, and crops — that are at risk.

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