Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014
Floor Speech
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Mr. BERA of California. I rise today to applaud the committee for addressing a critical issue not just to my own hometown but to our Nation.
Most know Sacramento as the capital of the Golden State. What many don't know is that the Sacramento region, which sits at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers, where they converge near the bay delta, has the second highest flood risk in the United States. Only New Orleans is at greater risk for flooding. And we know what happened in Hurricane Katrina.
The Folsom Dam Joint Federal Project is vital to protecting the region from disaster. We must continue to fund these improvements to take pressure off our overburdened levees and keep people who work and live in the region safe. A flood in Sacramento would be devastating to the 1.4 million residents in our metropolitan area. The flood risk could result in closures of evacuation routes like Interstate 5 and Interstate 80, a shutdown of our international airport, and destruction of homes and hospitals, not to mention the irreversible tragic loss of life. Additionally, flooding could result in billions of dollars in potential damage, and it could take weeks or months to pump the water out of the region.
Another area of crucial importance that I hope this body will soon address is the Sacramento-American River levee system. Many of the levees in my area date from the 1870s, when farmers began building nearly 1,100 miles of protection around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to control floodwaters and create farmland. Today, these levees are in desperate need of critical repair to help prevent a catastrophic disaster.
We all witnessed the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy this past November. However, unlike a slow-moving hurricane, a breach of the levees could occur with little or no warning. In fact, Robert Bea, professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, warns:
In terms of damage, deaths, and long-term costs, a rupture in the delta levees would be far more destructive than what happened in Hurricane Katrina. This is a ticking bomb.
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Mr. BERA of California. In 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for California's levees. He signed an executive order directing agencies to identify, evaluate, and repair the levees. The citizens in Natomas levied themselves a tax; and they've already paid, along with the State of California, for 35 percent of the work. But we now need this body to allocate the rest to keep our region safe.
As the ranking member said, it is better to prevent a catastrophe than wait for that tragic loss of life. Addressing vital projects like the Sacramento-American River levees is crucial. It's what we should be doing. It puts people to work. It is time for us to come together as a body and get America working again and fund vital projects like the Sacramento-American River levees.
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