Property owners to receive flood notices

SACRAMENTO -- More than a quarter-million Central Valley property owners soon will receive letters alerting them that they live in a flood hazard area.

The letters, mailed Thursday by the state Department of Water Resources, are on their way to nearly 275,000 property owners in 17 counties. They advise the recipient that their property is located behind a state or federally maintained levee and lies within a designed Levee Flood Protection Zone.

The notifications arise from AB 156, adopted by the state Legislature in 2008. The law required DWR to create the flood protection zone maps, which DWR then uses to determine who will receive the flood risk notices annually. The maps indicate which levees protect a given property, and from which particular streams.

"We've really personalized it," said Ricardo Pineda, chief of the floodplain management branch at DWR. "All the research says people want specific data about natural hazards in their particular area."

This is the third year the notices have been mailed. The annual cost for the program is about $800,000, Pineda said, which includes an extensive new computerized mapping program as well as the mailing effort. The program has become a model for a similar effort in the New Orleans metro area.

On the Net: Property owners can enter their address to learn more about flood hazards near them: http://gis.lfpz.water.ca.gov/lfpz