Planning for Flood Plains that Protect from Disaster

After that widespread disaster, Governor Wilson created a Flood Emergency Action Team (FEAT), which focused on the immediate response and recovery, but also identified the need to address long-term issues, such as land use within the flood plain.

In June, the Governor created a Flood Plain Management Task Force composed of state officials who had served on the FEAT. The task force is working with federal agencies and community interests on better ways to anticipate and prevent losses from floods. It is examining flood plain management and flood control statewide, but with special emphasis on the Central Valley, and will make recommendations to the Governor by March 31, 1998.

The task force will be assisted by an advisory committee representing business, conservation, water, agricultural, environmental, and other interests.

Two Different Problems

Flood plain management must deal differently with developed and undeveloped areas. In developed areas, homes and businesses must be protected by the existing system of dikes and levees. In undeveloped areas, however, there is an opportunity to integrate flood management into overall land-use planning to minimize flood impacts on future development. As we learned in January, it is much simpler and less costly to defend a flood plain that is sparsely developed.

Homeowners, not taxpayers, should bear the risk of flood damage if they choose to live in a flood plain, but they need current data to make well-informed decisions. Many existing maps and surveys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin River flood plains and floodways -- natural stream beds and over-bank areas -- were drawn when California was much less populous and they need to be updated.

Especially key to this effort are the State Reclamation Board, which maps floodways, the Department of Water Resources, which manages the State Water Project, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which maps flood plains and establishes criteria for flood insurance availability.

Flooding is a natural occurrence that could be much less destructive if we anticipate and mitigate its impacts through effective management of flood plains.

Douglas P. Wheeler is California's
Secretary for Resources

Published by: California Biodiversity Council 1416 Ninth Street Room 1311 Sacramento, CA 95814 Chris Chrystal, Editor

This page was developed for the California Resources Agency Sign up to receive this Newsletter via postal mail.