Governor Newsom Signs Flood Preparedness Executive Order

An executive order aimed at streamlining levee repairs and debris removal to help with flood recovery and the next wet season was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday, less than five months after the majority of the state was under a state of emergency due to flooding and flood damage.

Flooding and worry over levees and debris removal directly stem from the large atmospheric river storms that struck the state between late December 2022 and March 2023. Large scale flooding and subsequent damage caused at least 22 deaths and an estimated $4.6 billion in damages, mostly in California. While the storms did quickly alleviate the megadrought affecting the state, they also highlighted how outdated flood prevention in the state was and showed the areas in which it was lacking.

A slew of bills, laws, and executive orders were proposed in the Spring, including an executive order for emergency storm services, a $17.2 million spending package to fortify the Corcoran levee, and an unprecedented block of over $500 million in the budget to go directly to flood response and flood protection. Many bills bolstering reservoir space and other flood prevention measures are also currently awaiting passage in both the state Senate and Assembly.

On Friday, with yet another wet winter becoming increasingly possible, Newsom continued to build on this momentum and signed Executive Order N-10-23 into law. According to a statement from the Governor’s office, the executive order will do the following:

• Streamlines public agencies’ emergency levee repair and debris removal work to address this past winter’s storms and prepare for next winter;
• Applies to emergency levee repair and debris clearing impacted by this past winter’s storms, including: the San Joaquin River and tributaries, the Tulare Lake Basin and tributaries, the Salinas River and tributaries, the Pajaro River and tributaries, and other coastal streams between the Pajaro River and the Ventura River;
• Suspends certain laws, regulations, and criteria in existing orders – conditioned on agencies complying with specified environmental and resource protection requirements – for emergency levee repair and debris removal projects. Suspensions include:
  • Lake and streambed alteration agreement laws and regulations implemented by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife;
  • Limiting provisions in State Water Board water quality certifications that would otherwise limit circumstances under which a public agency could rely on emergency regional general permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
  • Waste discharge requirements laws and regulations implemented by the Water Boards for projects that do not require an Army Corps of Engineers emergency permit;
  • The California Environmental Quality Act.

The latest flood-related Executive Order from Newsom

While the order does bring in many needed infrastructure needs, such as levee repair work, experts noted that  even with repair and infrastructure work to continue the rest of the year, California will still likely not be prepared if another similar storm system hits later this year and early next year.

“This isn’t too little, too late,” explained Rachael Patterson, an emergency services coordinator, to the Globe on Friday. “This order, other orders Newsom made, new things being brought up by the state, local efforts, and all of these bills coming up expanding California’s water storage and building improvements to curtail future floods are great. We just don’t have the time to implement all of them, with many needing to be signed off by state officials and engineers and such to get them done. That can take awhile, as you want things built right and to make sure they last. Nobody wants another levee failure like what New Orleans had 18 years ago during Hurricane Katrina.”

“State and local officials just have less than a year to bring everything up to speed and improve where they had failed last year. For a lot of things that isn’t enough time. Notice in this executive order they’re just streamlining services, focusing on areas that were hit the most hard, and approving of bypassing laws to get things done quicker. That isn’t building up as much as it is mitigating future damage until new infrastructure is in place.

“If a similar storm system happens next year, there will be flooding and billions of dollars of damage again. But these types of laws will quicken the response, quicken recovery, and help pinpoint areas that need the most improvement. We have drier months now, so the time is to build and improve on what we need now. Being ready for floods will take years, and even then we’ll probably still find new areas where flooding occurs. But California is working at it and preparing. Right now, we need to focus on getting as much done until the rains start up again.”

Bills concerning levee repair and construction, as well as other flood control infrastructure and water storage expansion, are expected to be decided on in Sacramento in the coming month.