Latest news with #SBFCA
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Levee upgrades begin final phase in Sutter County
( — The Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency broke ground on a vital flood mitigation project on Wednesday, just south of Yuba City. The improvements aim to protect both residents and local agricultural land. The Tudor Flood Risk Reduction Project is the final one-point-six-mile stretch of the 44-mile Feather River West Levee Project, which provides 100-year flood protection for nearby rural areas and 200-year protection for urban areas. 'The impetus to get this… levee improvement project going was not only public safety, but the protection of important assets,' said Marc Boomgaarden, SBFCA Board Chair and Vice-Mayor of Yuba City. The $18 million project finalizes levee improvements that began back in 2013. Michael Bessette, Executive Director of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency, said, 'It really completes what we told the public we were going to do. We were going to finish up this job along the Feather River West Levee.' In 2007, Senate Bill Five was passed, requiring flood protection measures to be in place by 2025 to continue issuing building permits. However, the Feather River West Levee is currently experiencing through and under seepage. The SBFCA is now working to correct those issues. 'We're rectifying those deficiencies by primarily constructing a cutoff wall,' said Bessette. 'Then we'll build the levee back up to the existing height, as it was before we started.' This improvement phase is entirely locally funded, avoiding federal funding cuts that are currently affecting the connecting Sutter Bypass East Levee Project. 'The voters agreed to tax themselves to fund the improvements,' said Boomgaarden. These repairs will protect not only thousands of residents from floods but also protect valuable agricultural land that this region relies on. 'This is one of the best ag growing areas in the world,' Boomgaarden explained. 'There's a lot of people who have a stake in this.' The Tudor Flood Risk Reduction Project is expected to be completed by next fall. After that, work will move to a 17-mile stretch along the Sutter Bypass to bring 100-year flood protection to the basin. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Key levee project near Yuba City almost complete after more than a decade
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.
CBS News
18-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
FEMA scraps BRIC program, drying up funds for critical Yuba-Sutter levee project
YUBA COUNTY — Federal funding for critical flood protection in the Yuba-Sutter area was cancelled, and local agencies are scrambling to come up with a solution. Construction for a project to reinforce part of the levee along the Sutter Bypass — protecting 3,400 people — was expected to start in 2027. But now the project, which is almost six years in the making, has hit a $50 million roadblock. "It's the worst five miles of that 17-mile levee," said Michael Bessette, executive director of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency (SBFCA). Late last year, Bessette's agency was awarded $50 million to shore up a stretch of the Sutter Bypass East Levee. The money was coming from FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, program. "We're at the confluence of several major rivers and we really depend on our levees to keep people safe," said Gary Bradford, Yuba County supervisor. Now that the BRIC program has been scrapped by FEMA , Bessette's agency has major concerns about how the critical project will be funded. "We didn't have the funding passed on to SBFCA. That's why they can just cancel it, which is what they seem to be doing right now," he said. FEMA said in a statement, in part, "The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters." "Those are very unfortunate and incorrect words for a project like ours. Our project is public safety," Bessette said. "Preparing local jurisdictions for disasters before they happen is much more cost-effective than waiting until after it happens, then paying for recovery," Bradford said. Now, the flood control agency and Yuba and Sutter county officials are working to come up with solutions. "We're greatly concerned. We're working very closely with Congressman Doug LaMalfa's office to see if there's any way to salvage the funding," Bessette said. A spokesperson from Congressman LaMalfa's office told CBS Sacramento, "he is less concerned about which pot of money is used and more concerned about the levee projects being completed quickly." "You're always in danger of flooding if you live behind a levee or near a river, so it's about risk reduction. So this project would've further reduced that risk," Bradford said. The goal is to get the levee in what is a rural area up to 100-year flood protection. Neighboring urban areas, like Yuba City, are at a 200-year protection.
