Posted on December 15, 2016
By Barry Eberling, Napa Valley Register
Napa County must provide more information to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before learning if the federal agency will help build flood control features to protect about 2,000 city of Napa properties.
The Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District has been trying to convince the federal agency for three years that the projects can be done in a cost-effective way. It hopes to get millions of dollars in federal funds to build three miles of flood walls and a pump station along the Napa River.
That effort to convince the Army Corps included paying $415,000 to a consultant for a 2014 study showing how to cut flood-control costs. It also included paying the Army Corps $105,000 to cover the costs of analyzing the study, something the agency agreed to do this year.
The Army Corps has finished its initial review of the district’s cost-cutting study and wants to know more. It wants updated project costs and benefits costs, an updated cost/benefit calculation and more analysis on a recommended pump station, a flood control district report said.
Last week, the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Board of Directors voted to pay HDR Engineering $137,796 to do the additional work.
District Engineer Phillip Miller said the Corps response at this point is neither good news nor bad news. But he sees more positive than negative.
“If their feeling was negative, they wouldn’t ask us to spend more to make it more negative,” Miller said. “There wouldn’t be any point.”
Napa County launched its flood control project in 1998 when residents passed a half-cent sales tax to provide the local match to federal funds. Work has included replacing bridges, building flood walls and creating flood plains help tame a flood-swollen Napa River and Napa Creek.
The Army Corps in 2015 completed the $18.5 million flood control bypass linking downtown Napa and the Oxbow district. It declared this would be the last, local flood control project.
But local officials want to complete the original list of projects. The 2014 study found ways to cut the cost by $103 million to a total of about $77 million.
Proving 100-year flood protection to additional city of Napa neighborhoods involves building:
— A mile of flood walls along the west riverbank north and south of Lincoln Avenue.
— A half-mile of flood walls in the Oxbow district.
— A mile-long flood wall along Riverside Drive from the Hatt building south to Imola Avenue.
— A half-mile flood wall along Soscol Avenue in the auto row area.
— A pump station at the recently completed flood control bypass.
Miller said the county should learn in 2017 whether the Army Corps will be a partner for the remaining flood control projects.
Source: Napa Valley Register
