Central Valley Flood Protection Board

The Central Valley Flood Protection Board (Board) establishes, maintains, and enforces standards for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the flood control system to protect life, property, and habitat in California’s Central Valley. The Board coordinates State entities, local flood risk control agencies and the federal government to minimize damages from floods in California’s Central Valley and is the non-federal sponsor for federal flood control projects in the State Plan of Flood Control. The Board serves as a public forum for flood risk reduction policy in the Central Valley and is responsible for adopting updates to the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan every five years.

April 12, 2024 – Board Workshop, 10:00am (Agenda)

2023 PUBLIC HOURS AND MEETING SCHEDULE

In accordance with the Governor’s order, the Board will continue to host hybrid meetings and workshops through 2023. Locations and access information for future meetings will be posted on our homepage and updated as needed.

For public drop off of physical documents, including applications and fees, we can be contacted by phone or email as noted below to schedule a drop off.

With our new hybrid teleworking environment, most staff are only at our office location on Tuesdays each week. Administrative staff are available at the front desk Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 am – 3:00 pm. Appointments are required to meet with staff or receive in-person assistance at the front desk. If you are currently working with a staff member on an item, please continue to contact that staff member. If you need general information, please contact the general mailbox at Questions@CVFlood.ca.gov.
We will be prioritizing permits based upon health and safety factors, including the availability of staff and partners, and application processing times may be extended during this period. Please bear with us as we work through this new system.
Past recordings of Board meetings and workshops can be found on the CVFPB YouTube Channel

Jane Dolan
Board President

NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS

What Water Wants Take Care of Water and It Will Take Care of You

From River Partners – Erica Gies has always cared deeply about water. As a young reporter covering renewable energy, she wrote stories for The New York Times about the water-energy nexus. Once she did that, she said, she became more interested in water.Today, Gies is an award-winning independent journalist and author who has covered sustainability and water in outlets like The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, The Economist, and National Geographic, among others. Her 2022 book, Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge, explores how science and hydrologists around the world manage water, ways in which the United States has historically managed (and mismanaged) water, and the “slow-water” movement—how allowing water to sit on the landscape longer and infiltrate underground helps in multiple ways, something River Partners advances in our work reconnecting rivers to their historic floodplains. River Partners sat down with Gies recently to talk about bringing back floodplains, the importance of native seeds and plants in restoration, what California is doing—and what it could be doing—in managing water, and how optimistic she is that we can thrive in an era of weather whiplash. (more)

California Unveils Research into ‘Floating Solar’ Project Over Major Canal

From Courthouse News Service – Canals in California may soon feature a new look — solar panel canopies, designed to stop evaporation and soak up the sun’s rays, created under a new project funded with help from the federal government to boost green energy infrastructure. Governor Gavin Newsom joined staff from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday to highlight a new “solar-over-canal” project along one of the state’s primary aqueducts. The pilot project proposes placing a solar canopy to “float” over a major waterway as a source of renewable energy that can also prevent loss of precious water through evaporation. (more)

Lake Oroville Update

From DWR – As snowmelt season begins, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) continues to perform flood protection releases from Lake Oroville using the main spillway and Hyatt Powerplant. Releases from Lake Oroville during the spring months help maintain storage capacity in the reservoir to capture runoff from mountain snowmelt, while optimizing storage for the benefit of water supply, recreation, and fish and wildlife enhancement. DWR coordinates releases closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other water operators and adjusts releases as needed to maintain balance throughout the water system. (more)

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