[Marxism] A shift in U.S. politics - New Orleans and California

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The front-page article below shows that the tragedy of New Orleans has
opened a shift in U.S. politics. The long-range impact of New Orleans
poses issues for liberals, conservatives and socialists. It will help
those who have been on the defensive against the new laissez-faire
capitalists. The Democratic Party will be strengthened in the short
run. However, the media and organizations will be more open to
working-class criticism of government as well as solutions put forward
by socialists.

The first question posed is planning. Planning means that society does
not have to wait; it is against our social interest to take the profit
now and pay later.

But who does the planning? And for what purpose and in whose interest?

Brian Shannon
_____________

Years of neglect help put Valley's levees at risk

By Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, September 4, 2005

On a frontage road along Interstate 5 near Freeport, a construction
crew pumps concrete into steel forms to build a flood wall. Nearby,
tractors are pushing dirt to raise a levee by 4 feet.

One side of the levee faces Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, an
area intended to absorb floodwaters. On the other side, new housing
subdivisions are planned.

This $85 million project, which is intended to protect south Sacramento
from flooding, illustrates the paradox of Central Valley flood control.

The project is crucial to protecting existing homes from increasingly
vigorous floods. On the other hand, some say it creates a false sense
of security that such floods can be avoided.

It's the same paradox that got New Orleans into trouble when Hurricane
Katrina struck, causing what may become the worst disaster in American
history.

Jeffrey Mount, a member of the state Reclamation Board, which is
charged with controlling floods, put it simply. He said there are two
kinds of levees: those that have failed, and those that will fail.

"It is a fact of life that people see levees as part of a scheme of
flood prevention," said Mount, also a geology professor at UC Davis.
"Rather, levees are simply flood reduction structures."

In California's Central Valley, even this levee function is becoming
increasingly suspect. Some flood experts, in fact, think the Valley is
becoming a "perfect storm" of flood problems:

* Levees built on unstable ground out of unknown materials.

* More people moving into new homes behind those levees.

* A changing climate delivering higher sea levels and worse storms.

* State and federal money for levee maintenance declining, making more
levees vulnerable to failure.

* Less money and manpower for fixing levee breaks, meaning future
floods will be faster and deeper.

It's not a what-if scenario. This is reality, California flood experts
say, as real as the waters that buried New Orleans this week.

"These levees are going to fail. They are going to fail more
frequently," said Steve Hall, executive director of the Association of
California Water Agencies.

"I have a real fear the problem will be ignored by policymakers, and we
will find ourselves dealing with a very serious problem that will make
even Hurricane Katrina look small in comparison."

The Central Valley has 2,600 miles of levees that are vital to flood
protection and water quality. Yet the integrity of those levees has
been neglected for decades, as described in a January report to the
Legislature by the state Department of Water Resources.

Among the problems are a 35 percent reduction in state levee
maintenance workers since 1986 and an 80 percent decline in sediment
removal from flood channels since 1993.

There are nearly 200 critical erosion sites on the Sacramento River
levee system. Yet the report also notes that the criteria used to
identify those levee problems were inadequate, so the number of problem
sites may be much higher.

Money available for flood management has declined to a fraction of what
was available just five years ago.

All these problems have cropped up since the floods of 1986, an event
many considered the Central Valley's wake-up call.

"The system is in crisis today because of decades of neglect, and it
can't be fixed tomorrow or in one year," said Les Harder, chief of the
division of flood management for the state Department of Water
Resources.

The department recently received an additional $9.7 million to hire 27
people for levee maintenance. But, said Harder, "You still need
millions of dollars to prepare levees that have deficiencies."

The state report calls the Valley's flood risk nothing less than "a
ticking time bomb."

Its key recommendations include restricting floodplain development,
creating a single Valleywide flood control district to raise money for
levee upgrades, and changing the state constitution so levee districts
can more easily raise taxes to fund repairs.

So far, none of this has been done.

Economist Robert Fountain estimated in 1999 that Sacramento, capital of
the nation's fifth-largest economy, could suffer $7.7 billion in direct
damages from a flood, and 242,000 jobs would be affected.

In contrast, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency figures the city
needs about $1 billion to double its flood protection, both for levee
projects and to improve Folsom Dam. This number may increase, but it's
still a bargain next to potential flood losses.

"The damages, when you try to add all those numbers up, makes a levee
construction project seem like small change," Fountain said. "We really
have to view the levees and flood control as a fundamental protection
for everything we have."

A major flood in the Central Valley and Delta would bring much bigger
economic impacts, because the region serves as a funnel for a domestic
water supply serving more than 22 million Californians. A major flood
could contaminate this vital water supply for months, wipe out
railroads and highways, and submerge millions of acres of farmland.

The Department of Water Resources estimated in its January report that
it needs about $2 billion to improve the Central Valley's flood control
system (above and beyond Sacramento's needs) and $100 million annually
for maintenance.

The department also is undertaking a major study of the Delta to find
out if the region should be reconfigured to withstand a major flood.

"What I hope will happen is that people will see the broader
implications of what's occurred (in New Orleans), and that we will have
some rethinking of state and national priorities," said Sacramento
County Supervisor Roger Dickinson.

"We need to devote sufficient federal attention and resources to
insuring that we do not have these kinds of national tragedies if they
can be avoided."

Most of the Central Valley's levees were originally built not by levee
experts, but by farmers to dry out land for crops. Many were built on
sand washed out of the Sierra by hydraulic mining, which creates an
unstable surface subject to seepage.

Worse, many of the major Sacramento River levees were originally built
to scour out that Gold Rush-era sediment. Today that scouring power
adds to erosion problems in the levee system.

Many levees have been re-engineered and upgraded to modern standards.
But there are unknowns about whether the standards truly match modern
flood conditions, and whether the subsequent maintenance is up to
snuff.

A big question mark for Sacramento is the rapidly growing Natomas area,
where a study is expected to be completed next year to determine if
levee upgrades are needed. Though levees have been improved and shored
up there, Natomas lies in a deep floodplain, leaving it particularly
vulnerable in a levee break.

In urban Sacramento, tremendous progress has been made in upgrading
levees in recent years. Today, most of the city enjoys 100-year flood
protection, meaning there is a 1-in-100 chance that a flood will
overwhelm levees.

But there is still more than $122 million in work to be done in the
city on weak spots in Sacramento and American river levees. Much of
this is unfunded.

One critical erosion site in Sacramento lies on the east bank of the
Sacramento River, just downstream from Miller Park. The Sacramento Area
Flood Control Agency had hoped to get $4.9 million from the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers this summer to shore up the levee.

"In the current fiscal climate, it's extremely difficult to get
funding," said Stein Buer, executive director of SAFCA.

"We are competing with projects all over the country, but this is a
public-safety priority. If you had a failure and managed to eat through
the levee, you'd have water pouring into the whole south Sacramento
area."

Money for the project finally came through on Friday, thanks to
pressure from Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento. But it was too late for
construction to start this year, and now the project must wait through
another flood season.

While the needed projects await funding, more homes will be built in
the path of floods, not just in Sacramento but also throughout the
Central Valley.

Mount of the state Reclamation Board said halting this development is a
first line of defense that is also the first to be ignored.

"The desire to build homes on floodplains is an irresistible force,
greater than the floodwaters of the Sacramento and the tides of the
Delta," he said. "Yet this force ensures that in the future, the human
suffering will be incalculable, as it currently is in New Orleans."

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13517809p-14358627c.html


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