Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources to make examinations of lands subject to inundation and overflow by flood waters floodwaters and of the waters causing the inundation or overflow and to make plans and estimates of the cost of works to regulate and control the flood waters. floodwaters.
Existing law, the Central Valley Flood Protection Act of 2008, requires the department to prepare, and the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, a state
agency, to adopt, a plan identified as the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan.
This bill would require the department, board, in coordination with the board,
department, to undertake a study to identify and assess barriers to the implementation of flood plain restoration projects that provide increased flood risk reduction and groundwater recharge benefits. The bill would also require the
department and the board to conduct broad stakeholder outreach to inform the study. The bill would require the study to make recommendations to the Legislature on ways to expedite and scale the implementation of flood plain restoration projects that provide flood risk reduction and groundwater recharge benefits. The bill would require the study to be completed by July 1, 2024. This requirement would be inoperative on July 1, 2028. identify priority flood plain restoration or floodway expansion projects where increased flows due to climate change are likely to overwhelm existing flood protection infrastructure, as specified. The bill would require the department and the board to conduct broad stakeholder outreach to identify priority projects and would require that those projects provide at least 2 of 4 specified public benefits. The bill would require the board, upon the appropriation of funds for this purpose, to begin
preconstruction activities, including acquisition of land, easements, or rights of way, to expedite the priority projects identified.