Bill Lynch: This isn't the first time Sonoma's opposed a flood project

Recently, the Sonoma County Water Agency withdrew its proposal to spend $3.8 million for a flood-control project for the upper portions First Street West from the Veterans Memorial Building down to the Plaza, citing opposition from some local veterans who objected to the parts of that project that would involve parts of the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building parking area.

I know very little about that proposal, but it reminded me of the time more than 40 years ago when another group of Sonoma Valley residents objected to, and eventually stopped, an $11.5 million Army Corps of Engineers flood control project proposed for Sonoma Creek.

The funds for that project were to come from the federal government as the result of a study of the Schellville area near Sonoma Creek just before the start of World War II. That area is a flood plain, but had been farmed for decades because dredging and dike building in the early 20th century had confined Sonoma Creek to keep it from flooding the plains around it.

When the dredging and levee maintenance got too expensive and was stopped, the creek began to revert to its annual and natural way of overflowing into the surrounding land, which is nearly at sea level.

Several landowners who farmed in the Sonoma Creek floodplain complained about annual winter flooding. After WWII, the study was revived and eventually made it onto the Army Corps of Engineers projects list and it got funding authorization from Congress.

Finally, in the late 1960s, as the Corps was beginning to plan the actual project, some local residents became concerned about the environmental impact and cost.

The Corps’ usual flood control methods then included turning a natural, meandering creek into a straight, concrete-lined “trapezoidal” channel with banks of rip-rap (large rocks) and enclosed in a chain-link fence. At one point, this large drainage ditch approach was envisioned for Sonoma Creek all the way upstream to Boyes Boulevard. It was not a pretty picture.

The $11.5 million construction cost plus the annual maintenance costs were also questioned, with one local resident, prominent wineman August Sebastiani, pointing out that the flooded land in Schellville could be purchased for $1 million.

In fact, buying the land and letting it flood naturally was one of the solutions proposed by the groups opposing the project.

A local citizens study committee was appointed by then supervisor Ignazio Vella. The discussions dragged on into 1972.

After months of study and many public meetings and a separate study by a group from the University of California, the Corps saw that its original project was not going to earn popular support. Our local congressman, Don Clausen, also could feel which way the winds were blowing.

The local committee recommended more environmentally friendly solutions; the Corps took it under study. The original flood control project was canceled. The issue sort of faded away.

Today, some of that land is now public and allowed to flood. The intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 121 at Schellville still floods in some winter storms. With global warming and sea level rising perhaps Schellville will become a bayside community.