The floods of Petaluma must be eliminated

By David A. Glass

Petaluma has suffered $34 million in flood damage to date. Today we are in the process of attempting to cure the problem with a $34 million flood control project. However, if we are short-sighted and continue to build in the Payran Reach area, the protection from the flood control project will decline to the 40 year level.

The city is currently attempting to recoup $15 million from the federal government to help cover the cost of the $34 million flood control project. Our chances of receiving additional funds from Washington are far greater if our new City Council can go to Washington and promise to not repeat the mistakes of the past. Our past pro-growth councils had allowed such severe overbuilding in the floodplain, which increased the sheet water runoff, that by 1993, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, the five-year storm flooded the riverbanks. After spending $34 million on a flood control project, which will initially protect us from the 100-year event, it makes no sense to then allow private special interests to develop the floodplain and degrade the protection from the project to the 40-year event.

This is in direct contrast with the current General Plan (pages 3, 118 and 119) and indeed in conflict with general decency. Building in the floodplain needs to be guided by the "Golden Rule" not by the concept that "He who has the gold makes the rules." When our community suffers flood losses, we all lose.

There is a school of thought in Petaluma that says, "We don't have a flooding problem, we have a political problem." I doubt that those who have had their homes flooded, whose children suffer anxiety attacks with the first drops of rain, would tell you flooding is a political problem.

There is a long-term health issue here as well. A high instance of sickness has taken place in the Payran neighborhood. It is possible that these illnesses are the result of moisture from flooding, which created perfect conditions for a mold to take hold in the walls of the flooded homes. Our Payran neighbors deserve our best efforts to protect them from ill-conceived development in the floodplain, which benefit special interests to the detriment of the rest of the community.

I hope you will vote for me and allow us to eliminate the mistakes of the past. Building in the floodplain doesn't make common sense and costs a community many dollars and cents.