Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I am responding to your August 28, 2018 news article titled “Biggest Public Works Project: 200-year flood protection effort could cost in excess of $180M.”

The article specifically characterized flood impacts as being limited to “sacrificing those south of the new cross levee for those north of it in a 200-year flood event.”

I wish to call attention to the fact that in our community, what affects one area may affect another. I believe that the impacts due to planned modifications to levees and drainage pathways could be felt all across Manteca and Lathrop, including those areas that might believe they are safe because they might technically be designated out of the flood plain. I believe the recent news article does not adequately describe the broader range and full extent of flood impacts that may be created.

This isn’t just about levees: it’s about the river’s ability to handle its own water. In recent meetings, city staff has declared that the City of Manteca plans to drain storm water runoff, which apparently includes storm water generated from a 200-year event, around or through Oakwood Shores and into the San Joaquin River. This may or may not be a safe solution. The San Joaquin River and local waterways such as Paradise Cut and Old River are full of debris, sedimentation, and vegetative overgrowth. This decreases their ability to safely handle large volumes of water flowing through them. In the event of a flood, too much water flowing through weak river channels, combined with the current degraded state of our levees, may create a local disaster. Our rivers may overflow and the levees could break, causing flooding all along the San Joaquin River.

Nevertheless, I’ve been informed that the Department of Water Resources plans to allow reservoir discharge flows of as much as 46,000 cubic feet per second down the river at Vernalis. Our government officials seem to think that nothing is wrong, that they have the situation under control but doesn’t a February 20, 2017 south Manteca levee breach (which occurred at only 40,000 cubic feet per second) show cause for concern?

Over the past few years, I have written numerous public comment letters to various agencies to call attention to the impacts involved. For further information, I invite you to read two of my letters which can be downloaded through Dropbox at these hyperlinks:

1. February 26, 2018 letter from Terra Land Group to the San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency (https://www.dropbox.com/s/8scnhemfwexbkr9/2018-02-26_LTR_SJAFCA_LSJR%20EIR_Public Comm_wEncl.pdf?dl=0)

2. September 4, 2018 letter from Terra Land Group to the Manteca City Council

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/3y7wqql45kamksn/2018-09-04_LTR_MCC_AgItE1.pdf?dl=0)

Marty Harris

Manteca