SECTIONS 12310-12318 - California Statutes

WATER CODE

SECTION 12310-12318

12310. As used in this chapter, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(a) "Local public agency" means a reclamation district or levee
district or other public agency responsible for the maintenance of a
nonproject levee as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 12980 or a
project levee as defined in subdivision (f) of Section 12980.
(b) "Project" means the flood control improvement and any
mitigation and habitat improvement constructed, or interests in land
acquired, for those purposes pursuant to this part.
(c) "Department" means the Department of Water Resources.
(d) "Delta" means the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as described in
Section 12220.
(e) "Net long-term habitat improvement" means enhancement of
riparian, fisheries, and wildlife habitat.
(f) "CALFED Bay Delta Program" or "CALFED program" means the
program established in May 1995 as a joint effort among state and
federal agencies with management and regulatory responsibilities in
the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to
develop long-term solutions to resource management problems involving
the bay-delta.

12311. (a) The department shall develop and implement a program of
flood control projects on Bethel, Bradford, Holland, Hotchkiss,
Jersey, Sherman, Twitchell, and Webb Islands, and at other locations
in the delta and for the Towns of Thornton and Walnut Grove, and for
approximately 12 miles of levees on islands bordering Northern Suisun
Bay from Van Sickle Island westerly to Montezuma Slough. This
program shall have, as its primary purpose, the protection of
discrete and identifiable public benefits, including the protection
of public highways and roads, utility lines and conduits, and other
public facilities, and the protection of urbanized areas, water
quality, recreation, navigation, and fish and wildlife habitats, and
other public benefits. The program shall also include net long-term
habitat improvement.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the department shall develop
and recommend a plan of action, including alternatives, for flood
control for the Towns of Thornton and Walnut Grove and shall submit
the plan to the Legislature by January 1, 1989. The department shall
not allocate any funds for implementation of the plan of action for
flood control for the Towns of Thornton and Walnut Grove until a plan
is approved by the Legislature.

12312. The department may expend any moneys available to it
pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 12300 or any
moneys available from other sources of funding appropriated by the
Legislature for the purposes of this part. In addition, the
department shall seek a sharing of costs with the beneficiaries or
owners or operators of the public facilities benefited by the flood
protection projects. The department shall also seek cost sharing
with, or financial assistance from, federal agencies which have
programs applicable to, or which have an interest in, the flood
protection projects.

12313. (a) The department shall develop a list of areas where flood
control work is needed to protect public facilities or provide
public benefits. In developing the list, the department shall consult
with all appropriate federal, state, and local agencies. The list
shall establish a priority for the areas based upon both of the
following:
(1) The importance or degree of public benefit needing protection.
(2) The need for flood protective work.
(b) The list shall be submitted to the California Water Commission
for approval, and shall be updated by the department, with the
approval of the California Water Commission, as the department may
deem appropriate.

12314. (a) Guided by the approved priority list developed pursuant
to Section 12313, the department shall develop project plans to
accomplish the needed flood protection work in cooperation with the
local public agency, the public beneficiary, and the Department of
Fish and Game.
(b) The plans shall be subject to the approval of the appropriate
local public agency or agencies and subject to any cost-sharing
agreement the department may have entered into under Section 12312.
Project plans may include, or be a combination of, the improvement,
rehabilitation, or modification of existing levees, and the
conveyance of interests in land to limit or to modify land management
practices which have a negative impact on flood control facilities.
(c) Project plans shall include provision for the protection of
fish and wildlife habitat determined to be necessary by the
Department of Fish and Game and not injurious to the integrity of
flood control works. The Department of Fish and Game shall consider
the value of the riparian and fisheries habitat and the need to
provide greater flood protection in preparing its requirements, and
shall not approve any plan which calls for the use of channel islands
or berms with significant riparian communities as borrow sites for
levee repair materials, unless fully mitigated, or any plans that
will result in a net long-term loss of riparian, fisheries, or
wildlife habitat.
(d) After the memorandum of understanding required pursuant to
Section 12307 is amended as required by Section 78543, the Department
of Fish and Game shall also make a written determination as part of
its review and approval of a plan or project pursuant to this section
and Section 12987 that the proposed expenditures are consistent with
a net long-term habitat improvement program and have a net benefit
for aquatic species in the delta. The memorandum of understanding in
effect prior to the amendments required by Section 78543 shall remain
in effect with regard to levee projects and plans until the
memorandum of understanding is amended.

12315. Projects shall be undertaken and completed in accordance
with the approved project plans. Project works may be undertaken by
the department or, at the department's option, by the local public
agency pursuant to an agreement with the department.

12316. In addition to any obligations assumed under an agreement
with the department and to the extent consistent with that agreement,
the local public agency shall do all of the following:
(a) Provide construction access to lands or rights-of-way which it
owns or maintains for flood control purposes or for purposes with
which the project's required uses are compatible and necessary to
complete the project.
(b) Maintain the completed project pursuant to maintenance
criteria developed and adopted in accordance with Section 12984.
(c) Apply for federal disaster assistance, whenever eligible,
under Public Law 93-288.
(d) Hold and save the department, any other agency or department
of the state, and their employees free from any and all liability for
damages, except that caused by gross negligence, that may arise out
of the construction, operation, or maintenance of the project.
(e) Acquire easements from the crown along levees for the control
and reversal of subsidence in areas where the department determines
that such an easement is desirable to maintain structural stability
of the levee. The easement shall (1) restrict the use of the land to
open-space uses, nontillable crops, the propagation of wildlife
habitat, and other compatible uses, (2) provide full access to the
local agency for levee maintenance and improvement purposes, and (3)
allow the owner to retain reasonable rights of ingress and egress as
well as reasonable rights of access to the waterways for water supply
and drainage. The local public agency costs of acquisition of the
easements shall be reimbursable by the department from moneys
appropriated pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section
12300 or any sources of funding appropriated by the Legislature for
purposes of this part.
(f) Comply with all habitat mitigation and improvement
requirements pursuant to this part.
(g) Use subsidence control alternatives, where appropriate, to
reduce long-term maintenance and improvement costs.

12318. (a) The Resources Agency may establish a team of federal,
state, and local agencies, and other persons or entities with a stake
in finding a solution to the problems of the delta levees, to
develop recommendations for the beneficial reuse of dredged material,
consistent with actions identified by the CALFED Bay-Delta Program
as core actions, which are those actions included in all bay-delta
solutions. The recommendations shall address all of the following
needs:
(1) Long-term availability of cost-effective, environmentally
safe, and appropriate dredged material for delta levee maintenance
and improvements.
(2) Beneficial reuse of dredged or suitable alternative materials.
(3) Coordination of dredging projects to augment on-island
stockpiles.
(4) Development of a comprehensive monitoring program of the
effects of the reuse of dredged material.
(5) A study of the applicability and appropriateness of
constructing channel sediment traps and dredged material rehandling
facilities adjacent to frequently dredged channel sections.