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In the Delta, major investments are likely to wait at least a year pending a new "Delta Vision" process -- the latest effort to figure out how best to manage a troubled river delta that serves as one of the state's most important sources of drinking water and wildlife habitat. The proceeds from Proposition 1E bonds could be spent fortifying Delta levees that protect farmland, houses or water delivery channels. Money could even be spent to purchase land and create flood bypasses. And in the more populated -- and quickly growing -- Central Valley, a debate is already brewing over...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A campaign committee controlled by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata received a half-million dollars this week from the California Building Industry Association, two days after the lawmaker killed flood-control legislation opposed by the group. The $500,000 contribution was made to Rebuilding California, formed by Perata to promote the transportation, housing, flood control and other bond measures on the Nov. 7 ballot. The massive donation on Thursday came after Perata's disclosure on Tuesday that he has shelved a package of eight flood-control bills touted as a way to reduce flooding risk in the Central Valley and other...

Officials who OK'd Delta homes illegally failed to consider sea level rise, groups say. Environmental groups plan to file a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court today claiming that flood-control officials violated state law by allowing major levee modifications in San Joaquin County without considering the effect of global warming. The groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, assert that the sea level rise associated with climate change could eventually overtop those levees, putting thousands of people at risk. The suit targets a permit approved June 26 by the state Reclamation Board that cleared the way for the River Islands...

SACRAMENTO State lawmakers are betting that voters eager to avoid a Katrina-style disaster in California will rally behind a $4.1 billion bond on the November ballot to shore up the state's fragile levees. While few experts disagree that California needs to rebuild its aging levee system, an Associated Press review of the bond has found the measure requires voters to take a leap of faith that the state will spend the money the way lawmakers have promised. An extensive examination of the measure, reviews of state and federal studies, and interviews with two dozen water experts, lawmakers and environmentalists have...

California voters will be asked to approve a $4.1 billion levee bond in November. The figure represents a compromise between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had sought about $6.5 billion, and Democratic lawmakers, who had wanted to spend about half that. THE PROBLEM: _ Levee system: A fragile network of 2,300 miles of levees in the state's Central Valley and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in need of major repairs. The system includes 1,600 miles of levees that were reinforced in the 1960s and 1970s and 700 miles that amount to little more than grassy berms. It was built more than...

Sacramento and New Orleans are 2,000 miles apart. But when the Crescent City was submerged in what the media insisted on calling "toxic gumbo" following Hurricane Katrina, it brought overdue attention to the neglected levees of California's Delta. That's the good news. The bad news is that estimates for the amount of money needed to completely fix the Delta levees could range up to $1.5 trillion, according to Ron Ott, deputy director of the California Bay-Delta Authority. Ott came up with that shocking figure by comparing the Delta system to Holland; that country is in the midst of investing $2.5...

State flood-control officials gave a green light Monday to a developer's plan to build luxury homes atop a massive new levee in San Joaquin County. The vote by the California Reclamation Board allows the River Islands project in Lathrop to move ahead with the first phase of a development that will eventually include 11,000 homes on Stewart Tract, an island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The developer, British-owned Cambay Group, plans to build 224 of those homes on top of a new 300-foot-wide "superlevee" overlooking the San Joaquin River. The Reclamation Board approved an encroachment permit that determines where private...

President Bush on Thursday signed a $94.5 billion emergency spending bill to fund hurricane relief and the Iraq war that includes $30.4 million for Sacramento flood protection and levee repairs. The money includes $23.3 million targeted for 29 levee sites that state officials say represent an urgent risk. Last month, the state and federal governments agreed to allow expedited environmental reviews so those projects can be completed by Nov. 1. State officials now estimate the total cost of repairing those levees at less than $150 million. The remaining $7.1 million is for stream repairs in south Sacramento. The total was...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday fired all six members of the state Reclamation Board, an agency that oversees flood control along California's two biggest rivers and had recently become more aggressive about slowing development on flood plains. The Republican governor replaced the members — who serve indefinite terms at the governor's pleasure — with seven of his own appointees, most with ties to agriculture and the engineering profession. One board seat had been vacant since spring. Five of the fired members had been appointed by Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, and one had first been appointed by Gov....

Last year - on Sept. 16, to be precise - the state Reclamation Board, a relatively obscure state agency that oversees flood protection levees, approved a potentially far-reaching policy to intercede when local governments and developers propose residential subdivisions behind levees designed to protect farmland. Spurred by the devastation of New Orleans when levees failed during Hurricane Katrina and an appellate court decision declaring the state liable for damages from levee failures in California, the board activated powers that it had long held under state law, but rarely exercised, to review developments behind levees for flood safety. "I believe if...

With the May revision of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for 2006-2007 due out in just days, he is facing a new issue: What to do with the surplus of tax revenues currently flowing into the state treasury? With history as his guide, he must focus some of that revenue on essential one-time projects that do not plunge California into ongoing commitments that could jeopardize California's current fiscal stability. The governor could hit another home run for Californians by allocating a portion of the state revenue increase to levee repair -- something we have all become too aware is a...

Interview with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos, April 23, 2006 Transcript below. Video available at ABC website: STEPHANOPOULOS: (intro): Our next guest California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He marked Earth Day this weekend with a beach clean up in San Pedro, a day after meeting up with President Bush in San Jose. As they both try to recover from record low approval ratings, Schwarzenegger and Bush are locked in an uneasy embrace. When I sat down with the Governor in Sacramento before his summit with the president, it was clear that Schwarzenegger thinks the key to...

A bill requiring Central Valley property owners who live in flood-prone areas to have flood insurance has died without getting a vote in a state Assembly committee. The measure by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, failed Monday when none of the 10 members of the Banking and Finance Committee asked for a vote. The bill would have required valley property owners to buy coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program unless the state or a local agency certified that levees provided at least 200-year flood protection. An area with such protection has a one in 200 chance of catastrophic flooding in...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sharply criticized the Bush administration Saturday for refusing his request to declare a pre-emptive federal disaster for California's fragile levees. President Bush offered California some aid Friday, issuing a rare directive letting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers help with badly needed levee repairs. "I think the response that the federal government has given us is unacceptable," the governor told reporters at an Earth Day event on a San Pedro beach. "We need the federal government to come in and help us so we can build the levees as quickly as possible." Schwarzenegger said the state would...

President George W. Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put aside their differences in a show of Republican solidarity on Friday after Bush approved federal help to shore up the state's fragile levee system. "He is a really interesting man," Bush said of his fellow Republican. "He didn't have to run for office, but chose to do so and I admire that in you, I admire somebody who doesn't always take the comfortable way in life." Bush issued a directive clearing the way for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help with urgently needed repairs on 29 levees in...

SAN FRANCISCO — President Bush does not plan to declare the pre-emptive federal disaster Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought for California's fragile levees, but he issued an unusual directive letting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers help with urgently needed repairs. "This is an emergency situation," James Connaughton, chief environmental adviser to the president, said today. He spoke hours before Bush was to meet with Schwarzenegger in San Jose to discuss the issue. Bush's move allows the Corps of Engineers -- a branch of the U.S. military -- to accept $23 million in California money for repair work on 29 critically...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger again blasted President Bush's Cabinet as ``dangerously wrong'' about the condition of California's waterlogged levees Thursday -- a move political analysts say could be a calculated attempt to curry favor with the state's left-leaning voters while stopping just short of alienating the president. The election-year maneuver has set up a pivotal moment today for Schwarzenegger as the two embattled Republican leaders prepare to meet in San Jose. If Schwarzenegger fails to persuade Bush to pay for levees, it could be the governor's most high-profile defeat of a campaign promise to act as the ``Collectinator,'' and...

President Bush has issued an unusual waiver that will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to accept state money for critical levee repairs, a senior Bush administration official said Friday. In a meeting planned Friday afternoon in San Jose with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bush did not plan to grant the federal disaster declaration the governor sought as heavy rains strained the fragile levee system. The waiver, plus help with expediting permits and the possibility of future federal funds, were likely in lieu of the declaration, the Bush administration official said. The kind of pre-emptive disaster declaration Schwarzenegger sought in...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Monday in seven northern and central California counties, a move aimed at putting more resources into protecting the state’s waterlogged levy system. The governor’s declaration said that with more rain expected after the rainiest March on record, people and property are in "extreme peril." State water officials fear the heavy rain could weaken some levees to the point of failure. They took advantage of a weekend lull in the storms to patch some weak spots in the system but were still concerned. Levee repairs are typically done in the summer, when the...

Everyone knows that it's risky to build large tracts of homes beside flood-prone rivers but developers and local governments, especially in the fast-growing Sacramento area, are continuing to do it with little regard for the potential consequences--because financially and legally, they are protected from the consequences. As long as the subdivisions comply with very outdated federal floodplain maps, or the promoters have obtained some sort of exemption from the Army Corps of Engineers, there are no restrictions or flood insurance requirements. And under a recent state appellate court decision, if a levee fails and nearby homes are flooded, the State...