Key levee project near Yuba City almost complete after more than a decade

CBS News

28-05-2025

YUBA CITY — It's the final stretch for a years-long project to improve a key levee near Yuba City.
The Tudor flood risk reduction project is finally wrapping up after more than a decade. It will protect more than 2,000 people, farmland and Highway 99, but officials say there's still more to be done.
"You're not going to have unnecessary floods just because the infrastructure didn't get done," said Congressman Doug LaMalfa.
Congressman LaMalfa and Assemblyman James Gallagher joined the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency (SBFCA) in a groundbreaking ceremony to finish shoring up the last 1.6-mile stretch of the Feather River west levee.
"When this is done, we will have completed 44 miles of levee improvements. We've already certified 200-year level protection for our urban areas. This project helps protect the southern portion, the rural areas of our basin," said SBFCA executive director Michael Bessette.
Construction for the Tudor flood risk reduction project began in 2013 at Shanghai Bend, the same site of the 1955 levee break that claimed the lives of 30 people.
"It's an eternal, vigilant effort. You have to always maintain and keep an eye on your levees," Congressman LaMalfa said.
This last stretch of the project, which costs $18 million, is locally funded.
"The [SBFCA] have been able to do a lot of the projects in about half the time and half the cost of what it takes government entities to do," LaMalfa said.
"We're using additional funding to continue to design our bypass levee. We have 5 miles of levee repairs under design right now," Bessette said.
Levee work isn't really ever over. The next project will be to shore up the Sutter Bypass. The project was slated to begin in 2027, but with recent FEMA cuts, the SBFCA is still working on securing funds.
"We're out that $50 million, so we're looking at other FEMA programs to apply for. Congressman LaMalfa is a huge advocate for this agency, and he's going to D.C. to help pass that funding on to this program," Bessette said.
The Tudor flood risk reduction project will be completed by next year.