New Bullards Bar Dam is an integral part of the Yuba River Development Project. Photo courtesy of Yuba Water Agency

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) – On May 20, Yuba Water Agency committed more than $2.2 million in grants for projects to improve levees and benefit water supply reliability in Yuba County.

A grant for more than $1.1 million was approved for the Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority to evaluate flood risk and deficiencies in the Horseshoe Basin levees, which are located within a rural area of Yuba County east of Plumas Lake. The funds will be used to assess the current condition of the levees and identify potential maintenance needed in the future.

Yuba Water also approved a grant amendment for approximately $640,000 in additional funding for Reclamation District 2103 for further repairs to its approximately one-mile-long Grasshopper Slough levee near Wheatland.

The agency previously provided RD 2103 with $495,000 in 2021 to complete design and implement necessary repairs to the levee. However, due to environmental permitting delays, construction costs for the remaining work increased. These funds will allow the district to complete the project this year.

“Reducing flood risk is our primary mission for good reason,” said Sami Nall, Yuba Water’s flood risk reduction manager. “Anyone who remembers 1986 or 1997 knows that we simply cannot stop doing everything possible to reduce the likelihood of that ever happening again.”

Yuba Water approved a 50% cost-share grant worth $370,113 for the Camptonville Community Services District for a new chlorine contact tank at its water treatment plant, which is a critical component used to provide safe and reliable water to residents in Camptonville. The current tank is inadequately sized and too old to update or repair.

Yuba Water also approved an approximately $49,000 cost-share grant amendment for Cordua Irrigation District for further improvements to the district’s main canal, improving the reliability of water deliveries to Yuba County farmers and ranchers.

Yuba Water’s Board of Directors also received an annual safety update from the agency’s Chief Dam Safety Engineer Tim Truong on the state of the agency’s dams, including New Bullards Bar Dam, the second tallest dam in California and the fifth tallest in the country.

During the presentation, Truong outlined several recent dam safety improvement projects as well as several planned for the future. He shared findings from a rigorous third-party inspection of the dams and an audit of the agency’s Dam Safety program. The report found the agency meets or exceeds the highest dam safety standards and regulatory requirements set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Water Resources’ Division of Safety of Dams.

Yuba Water owns and operates New Bullards Bar Dam, Log Cabin Dam and Our House Dam as part of the Yuba River Development Project, a multipurpose flood risk reduction, water supply, hydroelectric power generation and recreation project on the Yuba River. The agency also maintains Lake Francis Dam.

Learn more at yubawater.org.