Boxer Secures Funding for Key Investments Throughout California
Energy and Water Bill Includes More Than $168 Million for California Sought By Boxer
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Washington, DC -- The U.S. Senate today passed the Energy and Water Appropriations conference report, which includes $168,154,000 requested by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for key investments throughout California.
Senator Boxer said, “I am so pleased that the Senate passed this bill, which includes crucial investments to help protect Californians from floods, provide clean and reliable water supplies, restore critical habitats, and advance clean energy technologies. I look forward to seeing President Obama sign it into law.”
The conference report now goes to President Obama for his signature.
The following are investments secured by Senator Boxer for California:
American River Watershed (Common Features)
Location: Sacramento, California
Amount: $6,330,000
Funding will be used to strengthen levees in the Natomas Basin north of Sacramento along the American and Sacramento Rivers. These levees have been deemed to no longer provide the necessary level of flood protection.
American River Watershed (Folsom Dam Modifications)
Location: Sacramento, California
Amount: $63,016,000
Funding will be used to modify Folsom Dam to better manage flood water. One modification includes constructing a spillway to increase the dam’s capacity to handle storm water.
American River Watershed (Folsom Dam Raise & Bridge)
Location: Sacramento, California
Amount: $567,000
Funding will be used to raise Folsom Dam, improve three emergency spillway gates, build the Folsom Dam bridge, and restore the lower American River ecosystem. Raising Folsom Dam, along with other American River Watershed project components, will provide 200-year flood protection that will cover approximately 86 square miles of the Sacramento area, affecting 330,000 people and $16 billion in property.
California Polytechnic State University Center for Renewable Energy and Alternative Electric Transportation Technologies Acquisition
Location: San Luis Obispo, California
Amount: $250,000
Funding will be used to support the Center for Renewable Energy and Alternative Electric Transportation Technologies, a test-bed for developing and testing new alternative energy technologies. The proposed test-beds will also be used for training a high-tech, clean energy workforce.
Crescent City Harbor
Location: Del Norte County, California
Amount: $1,878,000
Funding will be used to dredge the federal channel, which was last dredged in 2000. Due to silt accumulation, vessels have been running aground and the channel may soon become impassable, which would devastate the local fishing industry.
Dry Creek (Warm Springs) Lake and Channel
Location: Sonoma and Marin Counties, California
Amount: $4,884,000
Funding will be used to install a hatchery water supply pipeline, implement a hatchery genetic management plan for Steelhead trout, and perform genetic analysis and monitoring of Coho salmon broodstock.
Hamilton Airfields Wetlands Restoration
Location: Marin and Novato Counties, California
Amount: $14,250,000
Funding will be used to recreate a salt marsh with dredged sediment, creating a beneficial use for material that would otherwise require disposal. The wetlands will provide a critical habitat for several threatened and endangered species.
Llagas Creek
Location: Santa Clara, California
Amount: $242,000
Funding will be used to provide flood protection, improve water quality and preserve habitat for fish and wildlife in Santa Clara County by replacing 35 road crossings, planting native trees and shrubs, and installing habitat benefits for the endangered Steelhead trout.
Lower Cache Creek, Yolo County, Woodland and Vicinity
Location: Yolo County, California
Amount: $117,000
Funds will be used to raise the height of the settling basin and make other modifications to improve flood protection for the area. Raising the height will fix a design flaw, which has actually increased the area’s flood risk.
Lower Mission Creek
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Amount: $99,000
Funding will be used to provide necessary flood control that spans 1.3 miles and protects the west downtown and waterfront neighborhoods of Santa Barbara. The project also would remove more than 60 properties from the local Flood Insurance Rate Maps and protects the endangered Tidewater Goby’s habitat.
Los Angeles River Watercourse Improvement, Headworks
Location: Los Angeles, California
Amount: $332,000
Funding will be used to complete a feasibility study to restore 51 miles of the Los Angeles River and evaluate alternatives to restore the Headworks area in the San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles River Ecosystem Restoration; Los Angeles River Demonstration Projects
Location: Los Angeles, California
Amount: $817,000
Of this funding, $717,000 will be used to continue investigations and $100,000 will be used for demonstration projects on the Los Angeles River. The ultimate plan is to restore 32 miles of this concrete river that runs through the nation’s second most populous city and is home to more than one million people. The project will also benefit indigenous wildlife, water quality, public access, open space, and air quality.
Marina del Rey Harbor Dredging
Location: Los Angeles County, California
Amount: $1,406,000
Funding will be used to dredge the north and south entrances and the main channel at Marina del Rey Harbor in order to allow the Coast Guard and local law enforcement to maintain public safety and rescue options. Additionally, studies will be done on a storage, treatment and reprocessing facility to determine the benefits of dredged material on area beaches.
Murrieta Creek
Location: Riverside County, California
Amount: $1,890,000
Funding will be used to provide flood protection to old-town Temecula as well as completing the next phase of design work to provide flood protection to Murrieta and Temecula. The project also provides for environmental restoration and recreation benefits.
Napa River, Salt Marsh Restoration
Location: Napa, Sonoma, and Solano Counties, California
Amount: $100,000
Funding will be used to begin habitat restoration and salinity reduction.
Oakland Harbor (50 Foot Project)
Location: Oakland, Alameda County California
Amount: $1,000,000
Funds will be used to dredge the port to accommodate bigger container vessels, which will improve shipping efficiency, reduce transportation costs and improve air quality.
Pajaro River
Location: Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Clara Counties, California
Amount: $583,000
Funding will be used to upgrade the Pajaro River levee system, which was found inadequate in 1963 and provides only 25-year flood protection along the Pajaro River and seven-year protection along two if its tributaries. This project is needed to protect residents in this flood-prone area.
Petaluma River Flood Control Project
Location: Petaluma, California
Amount: $727,000
Funding will be used to complete required investigations to make sure that recently completed flood control projects will ensure adequate flood protection.
Placer County Subregional Wastewater Treatment Project
Location: Placer County, California
Amount: $921,000
Funding will be used to remove outdated wastewater facilities and replace them with new modern treatment facilities, which will improve water quality and provide up to 30,000 acre-feet of reclaimed water every year.
Pinole Shoal Management Study
Location: Contra Costa County, California
Amount: $100,000
Funding will be used to begin studies and preliminary work on using dredged sediment for levee reconstruction in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Reusing dredged material to repair the levees would turn this waste material into a resource.
Sacramento River Bank Protection Project
Location: Sacramento, California
Amount: $14,171,000
Funding will be used to strengthen the Sacramento River levees by protecting 5,000 feet of bank along the Sacramento River. The levee system, which protects about 2.3 million people, over one million acres, and 50 communities from flood, is seriously threatened by erosion.
Sacramento River Deepwater Ship Channel
Location: Sacramento and Yolo Counties, California
Amount: $2,000,000
Funding will be used to add five feet of depth to the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel, which connects West Sacramento the San Francisco Bay. The current depth of 30 feet limits some ships from navigating the channel.
San Bernardino Municipal Water Department
Location:San Bernardino County, California
Amount: $1,000,000
Funding will be used to recycle 18,000 acre-feet of water every year for groundwater recharge and other uses in San Bernardino, which will improve the reliability of the area’s water supply.
San Diego County Shoreline
Location: Oceanside, San Diego County, California
Amount: $134,000
Funding will be used to determine the best way to mitigate a long-term beach erosion problem in Oceanside.
San Diego Four-Reservoir Intertie
Location: San Diego, California
Amount: $120,000
Funding will be used to connect four reservoirs -- San Vicente, El Capitan, Murray and Loveland -- in the San Diego area, allowing them to share water resources and improve water supply reliability.
San Francisco Electric Vehicle Initiative
Location: San Francisco, California
Amount: $1,000,000
Funds will be used towards planning and building the required public infrastructure to make it feasible to use electric vehicles, and would serve as a model of how major American cities can facilitate large scale consumer conversion to electric vehicles.
San Joaquin River Basin, Lower San Joaquin River
Location: San Joaquin County, California
Amount: $897,000
Funding will be used to evaluate existing flood control infrastructure in San Joaquin County and develop alternatives to improve flood protection to 200-year levels in order to protect 250,000 residents.
San Ramon Valley Recycled Water
Location: Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, California
Amount: $170,000
Funding will be used to further a project to provide recycled water for irrigation, improving the water supply for people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The project also helps reduce wastewater disposal issues.
Santa Ana River Mainstem
Location: Orange County, California
Amount: $43,310,000
Funding will be used to build the Seven Oaks Dam, raise the existing Prado Dam and perform other infrastructure projects to provide flood control needed to protect at least three million people and 110,000 acres in Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties.
Location: Solana Beach, San Diego County, California
Amount: $305,000
Funding will be used to complete a feasibility study and preliminary engineering and design for a barrier between the bluffs and the ocean. Significant erosion is undermining the coastal bluffs, which are falling into the ocean and threatening coastal structures.
South Sacramento County Streams
Location: Sacramento, California
Amount: $2,500,000
Funding will be used for channel and levee improvements and ecosystem restoration to provide minimum 100-year flood protection to over 100,000 people and over $7 billion of property in the South Sacramento area.
St. Helena-Napa River
Location: St. Helena, Napa County, California
Amount: $90,000
Funds will be used to provide 100-year flood protection to the St. Helena area through restoration and re-vegetation of the natural floodplain terraces.
Success Dam and Reservoir (Dam Safety)
Location: Tulare County
Amount: $2,500,000
Funding will be used toward efforts to provide necessary flood control by fixing structural issues with the current Lake Success Dam, which could collapse during an earthquake, and by building a new dam immediately down river.
West Sacramento
Location: West Sacramento, California
Amount: $448,000
Funding will be used to determine and fix problems with West Sacramento’s recently completed flood control project to ensure adequate flood protection for the area’s residents.
