Group gives levees poor grade

If the Central Valley flood protection system was hoping to finish high school, it would need some serious tutoring.

On Tuesday, an engineering trade group released a report card on the valley's levees to draw attention in simple terms to their dire condition. The results are not something you'd want to show Mom and Dad: The system as a whole, consisting of more than 2,500 miles of levees, got a D grade. Some areas did worse.

"A 'D' is like running around on bald tires," said Tom Smith, chairman of the committee that assigned the grades. "A 'D' is a warning sign. Maybe we've got a few more miles before a tire blows out."

The report card was produced by the Sacramento chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is the first in a series of report cards planned on the valley's infrastructure.

A committee of six engineers worked on the levee report. All are private engineering consultants who design and build levees for government agencies, including the state Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

They estimate repairing the Valley's levees will cost $12 billion, and they hope to encourage politicians to devote more public spending to infrastructure, which in turn will mean more work for engineers.

The group will present its findings to members of the state Legislature in a series of meetings today.

Smith, an engineer and manager of the Sacramento office of Ayres Associates, a consultant to the corps, said his members also feel a strong sense of personal responsibility about the poor grades.

"I don't want to see a failure on my watch," Smith said. "In the past, the engineers that have been real knowledgeable have been too quiet. If we continue to accept D's as a passing grade,...

In the Lathrop area, new homes were being built near the San Joaquin River last July. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta levee system, which the San Joaquin River is part of, was given an F grade by an engineers trade group that rated more than 2,500 miles of levees from almost to Tehama to the Merced River. The overall system earned a D grade from engineers.

What could possibly go wrong?

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