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cynical The Sacramento Bee reports.
- DWR has estimated it needs $2 billion to upgrade Central Valley levees, and the final version of the bill would not have addressed that.
No one was willing to assign blame. But Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, lamented the bill's demise.
"I'm really disturbed by the Legislature's inability to recognize the crisis that we have in our midst," said Wolk, chairwoman of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.
Most of the state's levees were built 100 years ago. Their structural integrity is uncertain, and maintenance budgets have been cut at state and federal levels.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has restored some of that funding, but huge gaps remain and there still is no stable source of funding for levees.
An additional motivation for the state was a court decision in 2003 that found DWR liable for a 1986 levee break in Yuba County. Damages cost state taxpayers $500 million.
