To that end, several state agencies, 21 counties and more than 5,000 state and local first responders around the state participated in the seventh Golden Guardian exercise, May 17-19, this one to practice the collaboration and action it would take to mitigate an incident or incidents in the critical delta.
The delta consists of 700 square miles and a patchwork of nearly 60 islands and tracts, numerous sloughs and channels. A levee break could be catastrophic to the state, leaving millions without drinking water and contaminating the system.
“We have eight critical islands in the delta,” said California Department of Water Resources spokesman Michael Miller at a staging site in the middle of the delta, on May 18. “If we lose these islands, there’s a chance we would have saltwater intrusion that would come in to the center of the delta, which could cause a cessation of pumping of water for up to 25 million people and 3.5 million acres of agricultural land.”
“If any of these levees break, these whole islands flood because most of these eight critical islands are below sea level and anytime you have a levee break, the whole island has to flood in order for the land to equalize before we can actually start preparing the levee and putting in rocks; and then we have to pump it out,” Miller said.
Nearby, California Conservation Corps members filled sandbags to hold down a tarp on one of the levees — an example of some of the action that would take place to mitigate seepage or instability on a flooding island.
“If you have any seepage or boils, if you have overtopping, it’s important to get that overtopping stopped because anytime you have a hydrologic balance of 20 to 30 feet below sea level, any of that water that gets in can cause a problem,” Miller said.
The state has stockpiled supplies, such as rock materials and sandbags, in warehouses in several locations around the delta for easy and quick access. “Stockpiled material allows us to decrease flood response time so we can deal with problems when they’re small, before they get big,” Miller said.
Staying Sharp
The Department of Water Resources partnered with the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) and other agencies in the effort to drill the participants so they know their places before having to deploy.
“The purpose of the exercises is really to ensure that people are on top of their game,” said Mike Dayton, acting secretary of Cal EMA. “There’s turnover in state government just like in local government so it’s really important to exercise these processes so people can respond quickly and the relationships are built up ahead of time.”
Dayton also said the Golden Guardian is partly a public awareness campaign. “The Golden Guardian exercise includes 21 counties this year so we’re really focused on evacuations, and when it comes down to it, it’s all about personal preparedness. If there are people out there who live in a flood hazard zone, they should be aware of that and have a flood disaster kit and a plan on how to reunite with their families and how to take care of their pets.”
