This would cut off water to the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Saltwater from San Francisco Bay would invade the system, forcing engineers to shut down the pumps that ship water to Central and Southern California while the levees were being repaired. Should a magnitude 6.5 earthquake strike the San Francisco Bay Area - almost a certainty by mid-century, though it could happen today - about 30 major failures can be expected in the earthen levees.Ībout 3,000 homes and 85,000 acres of cropland would be submerged. Ringing the delta is a rich empire of agriculture and suburban development. Through this delta flow the waters of Northern California, which are channeled southward to the semi-arid reaches of Central and Southern California via a network of aqueducts and pipelines representing a multibillion-dollar investment by state and federal government across 75 years of construction. It is protected by a network of earthen levees dating to the frontier era, many built by Chinese laborers following completion of the trans-Sierra railroad. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is below sea level. The scenario is as simple as what unfolded in New Orleans. The following week, Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, in testimony before a joint legislative committee, confirmed everything that Farrar, Record and Gastelum had been discussing. My companions were chillingly quick to agree that it is probable - and inevitable if no action is taken - that a quake will someday trigger a catastrophic failure of public works, and that this could prove Katrina-like in its effect. Chamber of Commerce, formerly the chief executive of the MWD. ![]() With us was Ron Gastelum, interim president of the L.A. The conversation turned almost casually to this tragic scenario as I dined recently with two Metropolitan Water District board members, David Farrar, an attorney representing the city of Los Angeles, and fifth-generation rancher Randy Record, who represents eastern Riverside County. Meanwhile, this state remains vulnerable to devastation that would combine elements of Pakistan’s earthquake and New Orleans’ flood. ![]() Instead, most California policymakers have distracted themselves with relatively minor matters, as with the recent special election. THINKING catastrophically should come naturally in this year of disaster.
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