Pumping up the Sacramento River Levees

Maybe he could help…?(click for his web site) The Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento, CA has been issuing firm-fixed-price contracts for Sacramento River levee repairs. Sacramento is California’s state capital, and Governor Schwarzenegger must be relieved to hear the news; note his February 2006 release promising that the levees would be fixed before the flood season – which begins around November. His presence has turned Sacramento into California’s 3rd-biggest tourist destination; no point in spoiling it all now. After a near-biblical rainfall in 2005-06, California’s 2006-07 winter rainy season turned out to be a bust, with rainfall in some places under half of annual averages. Work continues, however; death and taxes may be inevitable, but nobody can predict long-term weather. So what, exactly, is going on? And who will be pumping… the levees up? When the Levee Breaks? From a June 21/06 US Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration memo [PDF format]: “On February 24,2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an emergency proclamation for California’s levee system. The proclamation focused on the imminent threat of 24 critical levee erosion sites located in Colusa, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties. The Governor’s declaration directed that additional, potentially critical, sites […]