Yuba Water Agency has been dedicated to reducing the county’s flood risks for more than 60 years

by Matthew Craggs

Since 1959, Yuba Water Agency has worked to sustainably manage water resources and provide the community with flood protection and a reliable water supply. With new responsibilities and power revenues, the agency looks to continue building on this history of preparation and reducing risk.

During the 1850s through the 1880s, hydraulic mining in the surrounding mountains and foothills—primarily in search of gold—dramatically altered the Yuba River and watersheds of Yuba County.

“The hydraulic mining caused the deposition of sediment material in the lower Yuba River,” Willie Whittlesey, Yuba Water Agency’s general manager, says. “It impacted about 10,000 acres of the Yuba River itself and raised the elevation for both the Yuba and Feather Rivers, seriously raising the flood risk for residents of Yuba County and the surrounding region.”

Additionally, Whittlesey says, in the early 20th century, orchards and ranches were largely irrigated by pulling directly from the ground water at a rate that was known to be unsustainable.

“The county has about 60,000 acres of irrigable land,” Whittlesey says, “and less than half of it at the time had surface water availability.”

“We will continually invest in reducing flood risk and improving water supply to mitigate the effects of a changing climate.”

Willie Whittlesey, Yuba Water Agency General Manager

Whittlesey says the land’s agricultural potential was untapped without a reliable surface water supply. Daguerre Point Dam and Englebright Dam, constructed around 1910 and 1940, respectively, were designed to hold back mining debris, not for flood risk or water supply.

There have long been advocates for finding solutions, one of whom is Charlie Mathews, whose family’s veins flow with the county’s water.

Born in Marysville, Mathews sits on Yuba Water Agency’s Board of Directors, where he represents the northern half of the county. He has lived his entire life in Yuba County and previously spent 54 years on the board of the Cordua Irrigation District.

Mathews’ grandfather helped create and served as Chairman of the Board of the Hallwood Mutual Water Company, which has claimed water rights on the Yuba River since 1910.

“My father was on the Cordua Irrigation District board from the 1930s until he passed way in 1963,” Mathews says. “When I was younger, I went with him to those meetings.”

In grammar and high school, Mathews’ father brought him to meetings with the Cordua Irrigation District, PG&E, and the State Reclamation Board—the latter of which Governor Pat Brown appointed the elder Mathews to in 1959.

However, the work wasn’t confined to the boardroom, especially during severe flooding in 1955.

“I was a senior in high school, helping to fill sandbags for the district’s levee on the same night it broke in Yuba City,” Mathews says.

“A concern in 1955 was that a levee would fail on the west side or east side of the Feather River or on the Yuba River,” Whittlesey says. “It was the west side [of the Feather River] that failed and flooded Sutter County. We in Yuba County were just as vulnerable as Sutter County, but it just so happened Sutter County was hit bad.”

For decades prior to the 1955 flood, flood projects throughout the state—and locally at Oroville, New Bullards Bar Reservoir, and Marysville—were in the planning and research phases, but the 1955 flood was an eye-opener for some.

“Following the 1955 flood,” Whittlesey says, “the leaders of Yuba County said, ‘Look, we can’t wait around for the federal and state governments to construct flood control and water supply projects. We have the ability to take matters into our own hands.’”

The leaders proposed the formation of the agency and took it to the state legislature, which agreed, and in 1959 created the Yuba County Water Agency Act.

“Once the agency was formed, the leaders thought the most beneficial thing we can do is build the New Bullards Bar Reservoir,” Whittlesey says. “That was the first thing because it would reduce flood risk and provide a water supply.”

With no funding, Yuba Water Agency partnered with PG&E and in 1961 voters approved $185 million in revenue bonds for the construction of New Bullards Bar Reservoir, additional diversion dams and powerhouses.

“We did that through a 50-year power purchase agreement,” Whittlesey says. “Yuba Water Agency would sell revenue bonds to get the money to build the dam, reservoir and hydropower generators and PG&E would pay off those bonds over the 50-year term.”

The deal, finalized in 1966, gave PG&E the power created by the various hydroelectric generators, while Yuba County citizens benefited from flood control and water supply.

The project was completed in 1970 and generators were brought online in the following few years.

With a reliable water supply, Whittlesey says the agricultural landscape shifted over the years, with farmers able to invest in expanding rice and orchard operations, tapping into the full potential of the region’s land. Mathews also notes that this helped replenish ground water into the aquifer.

Since the completion of New Bullards Bar Dam and Reservoir, Yuba Water has emphasized supporting local levee districts in their efforts to add, improve and repair the levees—particularly after devastating floods in 1986 and 1997.

Yet, it was in 2016 that Yuba Water Agency really came into power—literally.

At the end of the 50-year agreement with PG&E, Yuba Water Agency began receiving all of the power revenue that had been going to PG&E.

Now, with the ability to sell the power on the wholesale market via the California Independent System Operator, Yuba Water Agency has turned the rivers’ flow into a revenue stream to power a brighter future for Yuba County.

“We now have the ability to invest in Yuba County in ways that we never could before,” Whittlesey says. “We will continually invest in reducing flood risk and improving water supply to mitigate the effects of a changing climate, but now we have revenue to impact other areas of our missions, too.”

The funding enables work on the levees, drainage and sewer system upgrades, water education in schools, partnerships with the U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE to restore headwaters and create watershed protection, and the proposed Atmospheric River Control Spillway to provide additional flood space in New Bullards Bar Reservoir and reduce the flood risk even more.

These new projects, the new hydroelectric revenue, and long-time stewards of our natural resources such as Mathews and Whittlesey have empowered Yuba Water Agency to continue to preempt and respond to the changing climate’s impact and the community’s needs—going with the flow, wherever that may go.

This film, The Tricky Yuba, tells the inspiring story of Yuba Water Agency, a story of courage, commitment and perseverance. For more information about Yuba Water Agency’s history and continuing mission, go to www.yubawater.org.