Latest news with #SutterButteFloodControlAgency
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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
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.
