What do Dutch engineers and the new California water governance bills have to do with one another? Quite a lot, I realized the other afternoon, as I listened to a group of engineers explain how the Netherlands is preparing its Rhine Delta for significant sea-level rise in the coming century.

The Dutch are the world's leading experts in fighting back the seas, and the engineers I heard speak have come to San Francisco to work with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. The BCDC is just the right agency for the Dutch to partner with, because it is helping to lead a regional effort to plan comprehensively for adapting to climate change along the shores of San Francisco Bay.

These same Dutch engineers might be able to help California think about a comprehensive plan for the other half of this needlessly bifurcated estuary - the Delta.  But astonishingly, there's a major obstacle to developing such a partnership: there is no California agency for them to work with.

There is no Delta agency tasked with creating a comprehensive program to cope with sea-level rise by addressing the three key issues in the Delta: ecosystem health, water supply, and in-Delta issues like protecting farms, residents and infrastructure from growing flood risks. It's quite astonishing that no such state agency exists, despite the fact that:                                                                                                        

• The Delta is the U.S. region most vulnerable to catastrophic flooding next to New Orleans.
• The potential for flooding in some places in the Delta is not to the depth of your ankles; it is up to the eaves, like the Ninth Ward, and flood waters could be bone-chilling cold, reducing the ability of Delta residents to "self-rescue," as most did in New Orleans.
• Some of the levees in the Delta were originally built when my great- great- grandfather was a California gold miner a century and a half ago.
• A failure of Delta levees could threaten one of the state's most important sources of water supply.
• The Delta is home to a vast network of highways, pipelines, railroads and other infrastructure that could cost billions to repair in the case of a disastrous levee failure.
• The Delta ecosystem is already in a free-fall, with untold potential additional impacts from climate change and potential levee failures.

Simply put, there is no one at the helm in the Delta. The Bay-Delta may be one single ecosystem, but politically it is divided into dozens of parts.  Unlike in the Bay, there is no Delta agency with jurisdiction broad enough to make it an appropriate partner for collaborating with the Dutch.

In significant part, the new package of governance bills that I have written about here is designed to address this problem. These bills would create a Delta Stewardship Council charged with writing and implementing a comprehensive plan to address sea level rise and how it will impact the Delta ecosystem, water supply, communities, agriculture, and infrastructure.

Once this council is in place, our Delta can start applying the lessons about sea-level rise that the Dutch have learned from their delta.

Dutch Lessons that Could Translate to the Delta

I have seen many of the Dutch flood-control techniques first-hand. A few years ago, I traveled to the Netherlands and went out into the fields around Rotterdam to see how this lowland country--where more than two-thirds of the population lives below sea level--was protecting itself.

The Dutch have been known for centuries for their sea barriers. But it wasn't until a devastating storm surge from the North Sea drowned more than 1,800 people in 1953 that the Netherlands seriously committed to modernizing its flood control systems.

At the start of the process, the Dutch adopted a key concept. To figure out how strong to build the defenses, they accounted for the cost of damage if the defenses failed. So, for instance, the levees around Rotterdam--vulnerable to sea-level rise and one of the largest ports in the world--are designed to stand up to a flood that you would only see once every 10,000 years. 

A panel recently recommended that for the core of their flood system, the goal should be a risk of one flood each 125,000 years. A quieter, more rural area might require defenses against a once in a 250-year flood. This level of protection stands in stark contrast with many parts of the US, including the Delta. 

Considering that the US Congress recently ordered the Army Corp of Engineers to upgrade New Orleans hurricane protection to the once-in-100-year level, the United States could learn a lot from the Dutch. The San Francisco Bay-Delta, in particular, lies at the heart of much of California's economic vitality, so there are a great may reasons to develop a comprehensive plan for the Delta.                                                     

What I learned from my time in the Netherlands was that highly effective flood solutions exist, some of which could be easily adapted to our Delta. For example, four lessons hold great potential for our situation:

• 1. Smart Levees: To me these levees looked like regular levees--although more manicured and modern than some of the rickety Gold Rush-era ones I have seen in parts of the Delta--but they include sensors to detect weak spots and warn of potential failures.
• 2. "Room for the River" Programs: I saw one of these ambitious habitat and farmland restoration projects outside of Rotterdam. To prevent flooding in densely populated areas, the government buys easements from farmers. In exchange for allowing their lands to be flooded every decade or so, farmers get help flood-proofing their homes and payment for crop damage. The result is cost-effective flood protection and new hope for fish and wildlife. NRDC has already adopted a similar approach in the South Delta, where we consulted with local farmers and governments before we reached a legal settlement with the State and a local developer to build a flood bypass in the Delta to provide habitat, preserve flood-compatible agriculture, and protect Delta communities, farms and water supply. But this settlement is still a plan - it's a long way from construction.
• 3. A Comprehensive Approach.The Dutch have emphasized an integrated approach to their flood management planning. There's support for such an approach in the Delta, but no agency to carry it forward.
• 4. Leadership.The Dutch had a national tragedy in 1953 to galvanize their country and ensure decades of leadership on this issue. We hope that California will provide this needed leadership without such a disaster - not just in one year, but for decades - to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for the Delta.

These are just a few of the lessons we can learn from the Netherlands. But if no one in the Delta is on the receiving end, the lessons will be lost.

This is why we should pass an ambitious package of governance bills. Delta communities, its environment, and the Delta economic engine deserve to be protected from sea-level rise just as much as the San Francisco Bay and as the Rhine Delta.  With the creation of a Delta Stewardship Council, the Delta could have a fighting chance.  Without such an agency.....