Commentary - Homeless camps damage California’s levees; proposed legislation would protect the barriers
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2020/03/homeless-camps-damage-California-levess.html
California’s
homeless crisis is one of the state’s top issues, but the
least discussed aspect of this broad problem is the damage these homeless
encampments cause to our levees.
Too often
unauthorized encampments threaten not just the environment, but many California
communities. Large trenches dug into the side of levees impact the integrity
and stability of our protective barriers that are engineered to keep our homes
and community from flooding.
Reclamation
District 1000, which provides flood protection for more than 60,000 acres in
the Natomas Basin with over 100,000 residents in Sacramento and Sutter
counties, is experiencing a rapid and unprecedented increase in encampments
along the district’s levee system.
Ten years
ago we had fewer than 10 encampments along the American River, today we have
more than 100 encampments. The problem is that the tents, while providing
privacy and shelter, frequently hide trenches as deep as 10 feet carved into
the levees to create a flat surface. That adds up to a dangerous situation in a
city like Sacramento that relies on levees to protect communities from
flooding.
Large
storms could bring fast water in our rivers and canals, damaging our levees and
impacting the overall integrity. In the Natomas Basin, some areas of the
community could be under 22 feet of water with a catastrophic levee break.
Local
flood control engineers routinely survey our levees looking for erosion, but
the increased number of encampments is making monitoring and maintenance
unworkable and unsafe. The deep trenches under tents must be fixed immediately
or we risk the failure of our levee system.
Under the
law, flood control agencies have the responsibility for monitoring the levees
but lack the legal authority to relocate encampments from these critical areas.
Without this authority, the process for agencies like the Reclamation District
to respond to levee intrusion is complicated and time intensive.
This
impedes the district from carrying out its responsibility to monitor, maintain,
rebuild, construct and operate the levee system. Failure to act could
jeopardize the residents who live and work in the Natomas Basin and other areas
whose homes are protected by the levee system.
Last
year, lawmakers introduced legislation giving flood control districts the
authority to have encampments relocated. Unfortunately, the legislation bogged
down in committee and never made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.
This
year, Assemblymembers Jim Cooper of Elk Grove, and Kevin McCarty of
Sacramento, are again working to fix this problem by introducing Assembly Bill 1958. This
measure will protect our levees, and those across the state, from unauthorized
excavations and enable regular maintenance and inspection critical to flood
season preparation.
We urge
the Legislature and the public to support this important public safety
bill.
While the
state and city leaders continue to dedicate needed resources to shelter
and housing programs for
our homeless population, they must be just as committed to addressing the
immediate threats to our regional levee systems that protect our communities.
This is an important start to protecting our region’s levees and the families
and lives those levees protect. We must provide our flood control agencies the
right tools to respond before disaster strikes.
_____
Jeff
Harris is Sacramento’s vice mayor and represents the 3rd City Council
District, SHarris@cityofsacramento.org. Elena Lee Reeder is a trustee
for Reclamation District 1000, elenaleereeder@rd1000.org. They
wrote this commentary for CalMatters, a public interest journalism venture
committed to explaining how California's Capitol works and why it matters.
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