City Of American Canyon Online Community Forums

With all of the news out of New Orleans and the break in their levee system, I wonder what the condition is of our levees on the west side of town. Having lived here during the Napa flood in the late 80's, I remember the areas all along the west side flooded. When phase 2 of Napa Meadows was to be built, the joke around town was the develper might want to build the homes on pontoons. On the serious side, all of the new housing, on the west side of town is built in a flood zone. Those residents should be concerned that our own levee system is up to par and continually maintained and that they are insured against such a disaster.

The levies west of the City have been breached for more than 5 years now. That breaching is what created the wetlands you have today. The levies were built about 100 yrs ago to by the same people who built the Delta levy systems, to create farm land. Prior to that, the area west of where our town is now was salt marshes. Our wetlands are tidal, meaning it rises and falls with the bay tides.
The homes in Waterton are above the high water line. The river west of our town is very wide, nearly 1/2 mile at one point. There are open marshes with plenty of room to accept large volumes of water. The work you see going on behind the corperation yard is further breeching of the levies for the purpose of increasing tidal flow to the marsh. This will help to keep the water from stagnating and will help to reduce algea blooms which are very smelly. It will provide a healthy habitat for many species of birds and fish. It will also allow creek waters to flow more easily into the river and onto the bay. If there is a chance of flooding it would be along these creeks. If they are not properly maintained, a blockage could cause water to spill over onto city streets. I have heard that that has happened before, back when the levies were sound.
Our situation here is very different from the one in New Orleans. They were far below Sea Level with a large lake above them and completely surrounded by levies. A similar situation exists here in the bay area on the penninsula. Much of San Mateo and Foster City are below sea level and Crystal Springs Resevior is above them, held back by a dam. Thankfully this dam has survived the earthquakes so far but if it gave way you would see a similar situation there.
Up here in Napa flooding has occured mostly in areas where the Napa River is constained. Areas like Downtown Napa , bridges and narrow banks restrict water flow and when the volume exceeds the capacity it flows over. I hope this helps explain our situation. For more informationon our wetlands reconstruction you can contact the Public Works Department. For information on marshes in our area go to http://www.dfg.gov and look up Napa Solano Marshes.