Background
Historically known as the “Sinks of Dry Creek,” the Fresno area would often fill up with water due to no existing natural drainage. To protect urban areas from excess floodwater, urban basins were created throughout the City to detain floodwaters. In addition, the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District (FMFCD) collaborated with the Fresno Irrigation District (FID) to use FID’s irrigation canals located throughout Fresno County to convey stormwater floods away from urban areas. Due to limited storage capacity of the urban basins and canals, building additional storage capacity is a significant need to address flood risks.
Grant Contract
Proposition 1E, the Disaster Preparedness and Flood Protection Bond Act, was passed by California voters in November 2006 and included funding for flood control structure, flood prevention, identification of risks and protection of flood corridors, and stormwater reuse. The Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District (FMFCD) received the highest score of the 10 funded projects in the second round of the Stormwater Flood Management grant under Prop. 1E for their project titled “Dry Creek Flood Control Improvement Project.” The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) awarded FMFCD $6,891,011.00 in grants. The awarded grant combined with a 50% local cost share of $6,891,011.00 brought the Project to a total cost of $13,782,021.00. The grant agreement between FMFCD and DWR was executed on May 12, 2014 and is expected to conclude on or before March 2020.