Efforts to reduce flood risk in Yuba County got a financial boost today with the help of a pair of grants approved by Yuba Water Agency.
Marysville Ring Levee certification grant
This grant, worth up to $200,000, provides funding for MBK Engineers to perform an analysis of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Marysville Ring Levee project to determine if it supports the criteria necessary to obtain certification from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state of California.
FEMA’s certification would document that the levees meet or exceed the requirements for 100-year levees, meaning there is a 1-in-100 chance in any given year that a storm could come along that is larger than those levees were designed for. The state has a more strict standard for urban levees, requiring 200-year certifications (meaning a 1-in-200 chance of overtopping in any given year).
Once the entire project is complete, it is expected that the ring levee will provide Marysville with greater than 200-year level of protection, placing the city among the best protected urban areas at risk of flooding in California’s Central Valley.
“After working for two decades with the Marysville Levee Commission, the Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Water Resources, it is extremely gratifying that the end is in sight for the more than $100 million Marysville Ring Levee project and to see the start of the certification for the levee improvements,” said Yuba Water Agency General Manager Curt Aikens. “To be on the verge of being one of the first in California to receive 200-year level of certification is something to be really proud of and grateful for.”
Hallwood flood risk reduction grant
This $173,500 grant to Yuba County Public Works Department reimburses the county for work completed last year, as part of an urgent flood risk reduction project in the small community of Hallwood.
Hallwood is a community positioned along the Yuba River that has a heightened risk of flooding because of recent changes in the river and the deterioration of a protective training wall, known as the North Training Wall.
$133,500 will go directly toward the cost of developing the plan for the interim repair to the North Training Wall.
The additional $40,000 covers the costs to the county to develop an analysis detailing the appropriate water stages to call for evacuations for Hallwood, related to the flood risk associated with a failure of the North Training Wall.
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