Levee project up for review

SACRAMENTO – The public gets another chance this week to comment on the first phase of a plan to improve levees in Sacramento's Natomas basin.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, or SAFCA, will take comments on a draft environmental impact statement at a meeting Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Teal Bend Golf Club, 7200 Garden Highway.

The document is a required companion to a similar SAFCA study approved last year.

The study examines environmental effects of the project's first phase, which extends from Elverta Road to Highway 99. Most work is set for 2009 and involves raising levees up to 3 feet and widening them by as much as 350 feet.

The study can be found online at www.spk.usace. army.mil/. Written comments may be submitted to: Liz Holland, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1325 J St., 10th floor, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Numerous private properties must be purchased for the project, which is just the first phase of a larger plan to upgrade 25 miles of Natomas levees.

The total project involves moving some 5 million cubic yards of dirt and creating a variety of habitat areas. Estimated to cost $579 million, it is the largest levee project in modern Sacramento history. Future phases will be studied separately.

– Matt Weiser