Single Failed Delta Levee = $80 Million + In Damages, Irrigation Worries

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FRESNO, Calif. - "The levee that broke in the heart of the state's complex irrigation system put 1 million acres of irrigated Central Valley farmland on alert for possible water cutbacks, just as peak irrigation season begins.

San Joaquin County estimates the damage, and the cost of rebuilding the levee which failed last week, at more than $82 million.

The nation's most productive farmbelt, California's Central Valley is watered by irrigation districts as large as Rhode Island. Six thousand miles of levees contain and channel snowmelt as it runs down the Sierra Nevada and runs through the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to the Pacific. And yet one broken levee — one burst capillary in the heart of the intricate system — can hurt users more than 100 miles away.

"The scary part of it is still evolving," said Dan Errotabere, a board member of Westlands Water District, which uses delta water to irrigate 550,000 acres of farmland in the western San Joaquin Valley. "We're getting cooler weather, and that's helping with demand, but the concern is, are we going to have water when we need it?"

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