Photo of Andrea P. Clark

Andrea Clark specializes in water rights and flood control, serving as general counsel to a variety of public agencies from local reclamation districts and water districts to regional joint powers authorities.

Public agencies in the water and flood control fields rely on Andrea for her ability to explain in understandable terms the wide range of issues impacting them, including basic transparency laws (Brown Act and Public Records Act), public bidding and contracting, bond financing, the unique nature of joint powers authorities, and elections. She also regularly counsels clients on water transfers, Proposition 218 compliance, the California Environmental Quality Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and financing strategies for major capital improvement projects.

With a special expertise in flood control and floodplain management, Andrea is regularly asked to speak on topics ranging from flood insurance to climate change and the future of flood control policy in California. Through her representation of clients in state flood policy and speaking engagements, she has forged strong relationships with key members of the flood control community in California.

Andrea also counsels private clients, including landowners and mutual water companies, on water supply matters, including proceedings before the State Water Resources Control Board, water rights determinations, and contractual disputes with Federal agencies.

Finance Letter

Here’s our Saturday morning update on flood control issues in the Central Valley and beyond. Things have been quieter this week at Oroville Dam, but there’s plenty to report on from around the state.

As always, if you find this blog helpful or interesting, please feel free to share it with others who may be interested. And if you would like to be updated when we post a new entry, please add your email on the right or below where it says “stay connected.”

Clark Bypass cropped
The Sutter Bypass looking north; photo by Andrea Clark

It feels like Monday morning’s installment should start with a rousing round of “rain, rain, go away, come again another day, Californians want to play!”  With even more storms set to hit Northern and Southern California, the rain totals continue to rise and Mother Nature once again shows her awesome power.  Today’s installment is focused on short summaries of events from around the state.

As always, if you find this blog helpful or interesting, please feel free to share it with others who may be interested. And if you would like to be updated when we post a new entry, please add your email on the right or below where it says “stay connected.”

Power Transmission Towers

Here is Saturday morning’s installment of our update on the Oroville Dam spillway incident and more news about the valley.  In summary, Oroville’s Powerhouse is still not able to produce power; the emergency or auxiliary spillway remains stable; workers continue to add rock and concrete to address the erosion that led to the evacuations; the primary or service spillway is also stable, and is now  evacuating 70,000 cfs from the reservoir; but new storms have started to roll in.

As always, if you find this blog helpful or interesting, please feel free to share it with others who may be interested. And if you would like to be updated when we post a new entry, please add your email on the right or below where it says “stay connected.”

Bags of crushed rock ready to be dropped into damaged areas of Spillway. Dale Kasler/The Sacramento Bee
Bags of crushed rock ready to be dropped into damaged areas of Oroville Dam emergency spillway. Dale Kasler/The Sacramento Bee

Here is Wednesday morning’s installment of our update on the Oroville Dam spillway incident and more news about the valley. For background, please see our earlier blog posts which set the stage and provide context.  In sum, the mandatory evacuation is over; the emergency or auxiliary spillway remains stable; workers continue to add rock and concrete to address the erosion that led to the evacuations; the primary or service spillway is also stable, and is still evacuating 100,000 cfs from the reservoir; but new storms are forecasted to roll in starting Wednesday evening.

Because there is less news today, we have tried to provide some information on the weather and flood system operations.  As always, if you find this blog helpful or interesting, please feel free to share it with others who may be interested. And if you would like to be updated when we post a new entry, please add your email on the right where it says “stay connected.”

Oroville Emergency SpillwayHere is Tuesday morning’s installment of our update on the Oroville Dam spillway incident.  For background, please see our earlier blog posts, starting last Thursday, February 9, and most recently our update of February 13 which sets the stage and provides context.  In sum, the evacuation continues; the emergency or auxiliary spillway is stable; workers are adding rock to address the erosion that caused the evacuation; the primary or service spillway is also stable, and is currently evacuating 100,000 cfs from the reservoir; but new storms are forecasted to roll in starting Wednesday, and many people are still worried about how the reservoir and its spillways will handle the water.

Once again we have tried to share the important facts and the context, without hype, sensationalism, or blame.  If you find this helpful, please feel free to share it with others who may be interested.  And if you would like to be updated when we post a new entry, please add your email on the right where it says “stay connected.”

On Saturday we said, “What a difference a day makes!”  And that is true again!  As of Sunday night at 11:00 pm when we wrote this we had been through several very scary hours and over a hundred thousand people had been evacuated from their homes.  Indeed, the facts are so fluid and the information so incomplete that we debated not posting at all.  But we ultimately decided to post what we know, again in a simple format to hopefully make it easily understandable for those trying to follow along.  But remember, there is always a risk that by the time you read this, it may be out of date.

Oroville SpillwayWhat a difference a day makes!  As of Friday afternoon, it appeared unlikely that Oroville Reservoir would rise enough for water to flow over the emergency spillway, as inflow into the lake had been declining since early Friday, the rain had stopped, and the primary spillway continued to be used to manage outflow. But the gaping hole in the spillway, coupled with concerns about downstream flooding, resulted in the story traveling all the way back to New York.  And with the latest inflow figures and DWR’s modified release schedule from the Primary Spillway, the emergency spillway actually started spilling on Saturday morning.

The Oroville DamAs many of you know, the big news on Tuesday was that the spillway on Oroville Dam had developed a large crater from water eroding away the Oroville Spillway structure.  Based on the large hole, DWR stopped all flows down the Spillway to evaluate the damage.  Water users downstream started to get nervous as Oroville was rising quickly, and folks feared that water could come over the emergency spillway, which would be uncontrolled.

So this might be time to back-up and offer some context.  Oroville is on the Feather River and holds about 3.5 million acre-feet.  It was about 80% full when this happened, and the operators were releasing about 70,000 cfs to make room for the storm that was on its way in.  Inflow into Oroville has exceeded 200,00 cfs in the past, and the levees downstream have historically started to be stressed at flows approaching the 100-year event, or about 150,000 cfs.  Thus, the strategy was to release enough water to make room to hold back the peak of the latest storm.  In other words, the reservoir was to function as intended.

Flooded AreaResearchers at UC Davis recently concluded that California should consider leaving the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and explore implementation of its own statewide flood insurance program in order to invest in risk reduction rather than premiums.  This is an idea that has been talked about for years by state and local flood management experts.  But does it make sense?

The National Flood Insurance Program

The U.S. Congress established NFIP with the passage of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968. NFIP is a Federal program enabling property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance as a protection against flood losses in exchange for state and community floodplain management regulations that reduce future flood damages. Participation in the NFIP is based on an agreement between communities and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). If a community adopts and enforces a floodplain management ordinance to reduce future flood risk to new construction in floodplains, the government will make flood insurance available within the community as a financial protection against flood losses.

Last fall we crossed our fingers that the predicted El Niño weather pattern would drench us just enough to alleviate California’s critical drought conditions, but not so much that the flood control system would be overwhelmed (even though, as I explained here, past El Niño patterns have not been associated with big flooding events).

The critical factors for past major floods have been how early in the year water falls (earlier means reservoirs fill up and there’s less room for additional rains) and whether there is significant rainfall in a short period of time.

So, did El Niño come through? Yes and no.

Yes, it came through, because we got a lot of rain and snow, at least compared to what we’ve received in the past four years of drought. It’s been the wettest year since the drought began in 2012. Our critical Northern California reservoirs (Shasta, Folsom and Oroville) were each over 100% of historical average levels as of April 7. The State Water Project Contractors, who receive water by contract with the Department of Water Resources, are expecting to get 45 percent of requested water for 2016 (that’s comparatively high based on the last few years of precipitation).

Our statewide snowpack has also fared well in the winter of 2016. As of April 1 it was 89 percent of average; skiers have rejoiced after a few dismal years.

But no, it didn’t come through, because our precipitation remains below average in both Northern and Southern California, and Southern California is particularly low. Reservoirs in the San Joaquin Valley have not recovered the way northern reservoirs have.