Flood plain restoration projects: Central Valley: study.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources to make examinations of lands subject to inundation and overflow by floodwaters and of the waters causing the inundation or overflow and to make plans and estimates of the cost of works to regulate and control the floodwaters. Existing law, the Central Valley Flood Protection Act of 2008, requires the department to prepare, and the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, a state agency, to adopt, a plan identified as the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan. This bill would require the board, in coordination with the department, to identify priority flood plain restoration or floodway expansion projects where increased flows due to climate change are likely to overwhelm existing flood protection infrastructure, as specified. The bill would require the department and the board to conduct broad stakeholder outreach to identify priority projects and would require that those projects provide at least 2 of 4 specified public benefits. The bill would require the board, upon the appropriation of funds for this purpose, to begin preconstruction activities, including acquisition of land, easements, or rights of way, to expedite the priority projects identified.