(Darnit…forgot to promote! – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Cross-posted at MLW.
No, Mr. President, not the Levy family from LA.  California has its own set of levees that could come tumbling down in a earthquake or flood.  The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Delta has an intricate network of levees that began in the 19th Century:

Developers first thought levees 4 feet high and 12 feet at the base would protect Delta lands from tides and river overflow, but that proved inadequate fro Delta peat soils. By 1869, substantial levees had been constructed on Sherman Island and Twitchell Island by Chinese laborers, and in 1870 and 1871 the owners reaped bountiful harvests of grain and row crops. Small-scale reclamationprojects were started on Rough and Ready Island and Roberts Island in the 1870s, but the peat soils showed their weakness as levees. The peat soils would sink, blow away when dry, and develop deep cracks and fissures throughout the levee system. Sherman and Twitchell Islands flooded annually in the early 1870s.

However, we now face the more serious consequences of the failing of the levees.  Today, of course, they have a touch of modern engineering and use cement and other modern materials, but they are dangerously vulnerable to earthquakes.  According to the LA Times:

“To make them basically earthquake-proof, you would probably have to start over with a brand-new levee system,” said Les Harder, acting deputy director of the department and an engineer who helped put together a 2000 state analysis of the delta’s seismic risk. “I think it’s going to be unlikely we would ever make the whole delta today earthquake-proof.”

Now, if they were to breakdown, we are talking about much less human toll, but a substantial financial burden.

The threat is well known. A big quake rumbles across the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, knocking out dozens of the primitive levees that guard the state’s main water crossroads. A key source of water for nearly two out of three Californians and the nation’s biggest fruit and vegetable garden is shut down for months, maybe even a year or two.

The California heartland produces vast amounts of produce for the nation.  Additionally, it supplies much of the water for Southern California and much of the West.  But even fixing the current 1,100 miles of levees will be very expensive…

Schwarzenegger last week asked the federal government for $90 million to improve some of the most critical levees in the delta and the Central Valley. But that is a fraction of the $1.3 billion in repairs officials say it will take just to bring the delta levee system up to basic standards. And that would do little to protect it from earthquake damage. The state Department of Water Resources can’t even say how many billions more it would cost to do the seismic work.

Several solutions have been suggested.  Most controversial is the idea of building a canal to bring water down to Southern California.  This would provide additional water for SoCal, but there is concern that the Delta will be completely dried out by the insatiable thirst of Southern Californians.  It will also be costly, likely several times the cost of simply repairing the levees.  The federal and state government need to make the levees a priority, especially after we have seen what water has done to New Orleans.

Photo from LA Times of a Sacramento area flood.