SECTIONS 8450-8457 - California Statutes

WATER CODE

SECTION 8450-8457

8450. The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) Although the levees of flood control projects in this state
have in the past been considered to be single-purpose, flood control
features, many of these projects receive heavy nonlocal usage for
recreation, transportation, and other purposes for which the
retention and maintenance of vegetative cover is desirable.
(b) Construction and maintenance practices have been developed
over the past several decades which were designed to minimize costs
while still furnishing the required degree of flood control. These
practices in many instances resulted in "bare" levees, devoid of any
vegetative cover which might interfere with local maintenance, levee
inspection, or flood fighting.
(c) Flood control project levees are increasingly recognized as
valuable wildlife, recreational, scenic, and aesthetic resources, and
construction and maintenance standards have been developed by the
Army Corps of Engineers and the State of California which minimize
vegetation removal and which encourage or require, as a condition of
the project work, replanting and controlled vegetation maintenance on
such levees as part of the responsibility of local flood control
districts.
(d) Costs of maintaining vegetation on levees for such
non-flood-control purposes as wildlife enhancement, recreation, and
scenic beauty are approximately double those of normal
flood-control-related maintenance, and nonlocal users are the prime
beneficiaries. It is therefore appropriate that the general public
participate in meeting such additional maintenance costs.

8451. It is the intent of the Legislature, in providing for state
participation in the additional costs attributable to the
non-flood-control activities described in this chapter, that the
Reclamation Board and the Department of Water Resources, in preparing
rules and regulations to implement this chapter, provide that, in
processing applications from flood control districts for state
participation in such costs, highest priority be given to those
districts in which factors, such as the size of the district, degree
of nonlocal benefits, and level of non-flood-control maintenance
costs which have been transferred to the district due to
circumstances beyond their control, combine to work financial
hardship on such districts.

8452. Wherever the words "department or the Reclamation Board" are
used together in this chapter, they shall mean the Reclamation Board
as to any flood control project levees under its jurisdiction and the
Department of Water Resources as to all other flood control project
levees.

8453. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary,
it is the intention of the Legislature that the state shall pay 50
percent of the costs associated with the operation and maintenance of
project facilities under the State Water Resources Law of 1945 which
are directly attributable to the planting or retention of controlled
vegetative cover for wildlife, recreational, scenic, and aesthetic
purposes on project levees.

8454. Local agencies maintaining project facilities under the State
Water Resources Law of 1945 shall be eligible for reimbursement
pursuant to the provisions of this chapter if the cost of maintenance
is increased by the planting or retention of vegetative cover on
such levees, if the local agency agrees to maintain such vegetative
cover on project levees as may be determined by the department or
Reclamation Board, after consultation with any other affected state
agencies, to be necessary for wildlife habitat, recreational,
aesthetic, and scenic purposes.

8455. Local agencies entering into agreements with the state shall
annually prepare a work program and estimate of cost for conducting
any maintenance activities necessary to carry out the project
maintenance and the purposes of this chapter and shall submit the
proposed program and cost estimates to the department or the
Reclamation Board for review. The department or the Reclamation Board
shall review the proposed program and, after receiving the comments
of any other affected state agencies, the department or the
Reclamation Board shall certify for reimbursement 50 percent of those
costs which are found to be attributable to the maintenance of
vegetative cover for wildlife, recreational, aesthetic, and scenic
purposes, and may allocate funds appropriated for these purposes to
local agencies which have entered into agreements with the state
pursuant to this chapter.

8456. Administrative costs incurred by the department or the
Reclamation Board under this chapter in any fiscal year shall not
exceed 10 percent of the annual cost of the program established by
this chapter.

8457. State expenditures for the purposes of this chapter shall not
exceed the amount of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) per
year.