The U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved the earmarking of $8.5 million in the 2009 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill on June 25, to help stabilize and repair the Santa Maria River Levee.
Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) requested federal funding to allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin working on the first stage of the project design, as well as construction efforts to stabilize the aging levee. The legislation is expected to be voted on by the full House later this summer.
The Army Corps is currently in the process of assessing the levee’s infrastructure. Passage of $8.5 million will enable county and city officials to complete the repairs over the next few years.
“This is remarkable progress in our ongoing effort to repair the Santa Maria River Levee and protect the surrounding communities,” Capps said in a press release. “These repairs are a worthy investment in our community’s future, and prudent given the recent tragedies we have observed when levees fail, such as the New Orleans levee’s failure following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and now with the devastating flooding throughout parts of the Midwest.”
Capps worked closely with U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) to secure the funds needed to repair the aging levee.
Last year, the Santa Maria River Levee appeared on an Army Corps of Engineers national list of levees at risk of failing. The federal agency declined to certify that the levee could withstand a 100-year flood—the most severe flood that could be expected in any given 100 years.
This decertification allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to place Santa Maria in a flood plain and require thousands of homeowners to carry flood insurance.
In a preliminary map released by FEMA, 17,000 buildings within Santa Maria city limits are considered part of the flood plain.
However, county and city officials said repairing the levee will most likely mean that flood insurance no longer will be necessary.
This article appears in Jul 3-10, 2008.
