Central Valley Flood Protection Board

The Central Valley Flood Protection Board (Board) establishes, maintains, and enforces standards for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the flood control system to protect life, property, and habitat in California’s Central Valley. The Board coordinates State entities, local flood risk control agencies and the federal government to minimize damages from floods in California’s Central Valley and is the non-federal sponsor for federal flood control projects in the State Plan of Flood Control. The Board serves as a public forum for flood risk reduction policy in the Central Valley and is responsible for adopting updates to the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan every five years.

May 17, 2024 – Board Meeting, 9:00am (Agenda)

2023 PUBLIC HOURS AND MEETING SCHEDULE

In accordance with the Governor’s order, the Board will continue to host hybrid meetings and workshops through 2023. Locations and access information for future meetings will be posted on our homepage and updated as needed.

For public drop off of physical documents, including applications and fees, we can be contacted by phone or email as noted below to schedule a drop off.

With our new hybrid teleworking environment, most staff are only at our office location on Tuesdays each week. Administrative staff are available at the front desk Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 am – 3:00 pm. Appointments are required to meet with staff or receive in-person assistance at the front desk. If you are currently working with a staff member on an item, please continue to contact that staff member. If you need general information, please contact the general mailbox at Questions@CVFlood.ca.gov.
We will be prioritizing permits based upon health and safety factors, including the availability of staff and partners, and application processing times may be extended during this period. Please bear with us as we work through this new system.
Past recordings of Board meetings and workshops can be found on the CVFPB YouTube Channel

Jane Dolan
Board President

NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS

Book Review: Seek Higher Ground

Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis, by Tim Palmer. University of California Press 2024.

From California Water Blog – Flooding is a natural phenomenon that we humans keep assuming can be controlled with enough effort and engineering. But this simply is not possible, as floods across the globe repeatedly demonstrate. People continue to be surprised when landscapes become waterscapes. This brings loss of life and enormous costs of repairing damaged infrastructure and constructing bigger levees and dams for flood control. As Tim Palmer says in his new book (2024) local to global failures of current flood management practices: “The age of denial is over. The time has come to take a different path (p 140)”. Palmer is the right person to explore new pathways. He is an independent writer and photographer who has spent a lifetime exploring the rivers and watersheds of North America, but especially those in California (Palmer 2010) (more)

Climatologists Expect La Nina to Return Before Summer Ends

From the Capital Press – The surface of the Pacific Ocean along the equator is cooling and likely will continue to cool, triggering a La Nina this summer that will stay through the winter, the National Weather Service predicted Thursday. Sea-surface temperatures have been above average for almost a year, but will drop this month to near normal, ending a strong El Nino that peaked in December, according to the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center. There is a 69% chance that between July and September seas will be cool enough for a La Nina. La Nina winters are generally cooler and wetter in the Pacific Northwest and good for irrigators. Some stretches of the Pacific Ocean already are cooler than normal. La Ninas tends to follow strong El Ninos, adding confidence to the forecast, according to the climate center. (more)

First-of-its-Kind Watershed Study Highlights How Innovative Tools Help Build Climate Resilience in the San Joaquin Valley

From DWR – California’s changing climate brings new challenges each year for water managers as they navigate extreme shifts from drought to flood while working to ensure safe, reliable water supplies for California’s 39 million residents. Water managers address these challenges in their local watersheds, which are often at the forefront of the impacts of climate change. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is working with local and regional water agencies such as the Merced Irrigation District to conduct cutting-edge climate vulnerability assessments of watersheds in the San Joaquin Valley and evaluating how flood protection and groundwater recharge strategies can be used to adapt to climate vulnerabilities. (more)

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