Sacramento’s Natomas Basin is dangerously prone to flooding. How Washington aims to help
Hundreds of millions of new federal dollars are headed to the region to help fund the major Natomas levee project.
President Joe Biden has signed legislation that includes $157 million for an existing project in the Natomas Basin, as well as $17.9 million to begin construction in West Sacramento.
In addition, Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal 2023, the 12 month period that begins Oct. 1, includes another $172 million for the levee project and $79.7 million to help the West Sacramento project.
The Biden funding proposal for the next year still needs congressional approval – which is hardly assured – but Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, maintains that since it has White House support, it has some political heft.
After all, she said, the budget “serves as a roadmap of the Administration’s priorities for the next fiscal year.”
Matsui and local officials are slated to discuss the projects at a morning news conference Friday.
Money for the Natomas Basin
The Natomas Basin is regarded as one of the nation’s most at-risk areas for “catastrophic flooding,” according to the federal project’s webpage.
Severe storms in 1997 and 2006 exposed “serious underseepage” in the basin.
Local and federal agencies are aiming to bolster the 42-mile ring of levees that surround it. The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency completed the first 18 miles of improvements, with federal projects in progress on the remaining 24.
The levee improvements are expected to help trigger important economic benefits, allowing more housing construction to occur. The Sacramento River flood threat has choked off development of new homes on the acres west of Interstate 80 and El Centro Road, and south of San Juan Road.
Contractors are expected to begin levee construction on a key 3.5-mile stretch near that area by June, according to federal planning documents from January.
Sacramento River flood risks
The flood risk is also heightened across the Sacramento River in West Sacramento, as the city is cut roughly in half by the Deep Water Ship Channel. Half is north and half is south.
Almost the entire perimeter of West Sacramento is bound by levees to the Sacramento River, bypasses and the ship channel.
The new levee improvement project has been in the planning stage since July 2014. The $17.9 million in the spending bill will unlock its first phase, centered on the Yolo Bypass East Levee, a small segment in the city’s northwest corner.
The full project — bolstering the levees around the entire city – is a projected $1 billion undertaking.
As with Natomas, the levee improvements will be necessary before building many homes in West Sacramento – particularly the area just west of the Sacramento River and south of the ship channel, where the Army Corps of Engineers is proposing construction of an additional “setback” levee.
The next phase in the blockbuster project, after the Yolo Bypass East Levee, would improve the Sacramento River North Levee, which protects thousands of existing homes in the burgeoning city.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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