NICE, Calif. – A levee that overtopped in February due to the heavy storms and flooding is the reason behind the extended closure of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, with county and state officials working on a plan to reopen the road.
In February, heavy rains pushed Clear Lake’s level into flood stage, which is 9 feet and above on the Rumsey gauge. The lake’s elevation topped out at about 10.6 feet Rumsey, its highest level since the 1998 flood, on Feb. 22 and 23, according to United States Geological Survey lake gauge records.
On Feb. 22, a state-maintained levee in Maintenance Area 17-Lake County, located in the Rodman Slough area to the north of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, overtopped and filled the water basin, according to Lake County Water Resources Director Phil Moy.
On the same day, the Lake County Public Works Department closed the road, as Lake County News has reported.
Even before that levee overtopped and the road was closed, there was standing water on the roadway due to issues with another levee, according to Public Works Director Scott De Leon.
“We were experiencing some flooding there in the low spot because the levee between the road and the lake was leaking,” said De Leon.
He said that water on the road normally would have receded in concert with the lake level, which has steadily decreased since the severe storms ended.
However, even with the lake level receding, the water trapped in the basin due to the overtopped levee has to dry up, be drained or be otherwise removed before the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff can dry out and the road will be safe to reopen, De Leon explained.
The basin where the water is trapped covers a sizable area. De Leon said it consists of the Rodman Slough and the rice fields on the north side of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff.
As a result, De Leon said the closure could go on for awhile, although so far he has no estimate on how long it could be.
De Leon didn’t know for sure when the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff was last closed due to flooding, adding that he presumed it was closed due to the 1998 flood, when the lake’s elevation topped 11.4 feet on the Rumsey gauge.
Moy said the California Department of Water Resources has had crews on site at the levee every day since January, when heavy storms began to hit the county.
“What they were able to do, when they saw the overtopping beginning to occur, they protected the levee so the levee itself didn’t erode and go away,” said Moy.
Moy added that the crews have not otherwise been attempting to build up the levee.
John Paasch, chief of flood operations for the California Department of Water Resources, said the MA 17-Lake County levee was maintained by the county of Lake up until 2001, at which time the county requested the state form a maintenance area to take over its management.
He said the State Department of Water Resources collects assessments from the county through the flood protection board to maintain the levees there.
“It’s a known problem area,” he said, suggesting that’s why the county wanted to turn it over to the state.
He said the State Department of Water Resources has spent a lot of time in Lake County in the last few years to address problems including a pumping plant and levee on the north side of the district that has had issues. A levee that nearly failed in 2011 and had to be sandbagged by inmate crews also is in that district.
Paasch said the county asked the state flood center to lend technical assistance in the matter. The state’s work on the levee has included shoring up its low spots and covering it with plastic.
“The maintenance area has done all it can, it’s exhausted its budget,” he said.
The maintenance district has an annual budget of $103,000, and has spent $57,000 on high water patrolling and flood emergency response this winter, Paasch said.
He said they’re waiting to see how the levee looks once the water recedes. “Until that lake comes down, there’s not a whole lot that anyone can do.”
Paasch acknowledged that the situation is a burden on the county and the community, adding that he believes closing the road is the safest thing to do right now.
“There’s a lot of things that really come to a head here,” Paasch said, noting it’s a question of land use planning – where roads and infrastructure is placed and the associated flood risk.
Moy said the county is working with the state to find a solution to the flooding that led to the road closure, with the leading option now being to pump the water out of the basin and into the lake.
Pumping the water out would take at least a week, with Moy explaining that otherwise it could take months to evaporate.
He said the area doesn’t need to be completely pumped dry. Rather, the water has to be taken down low enough so that there is no water on the road or underneath, in the road bed.
Now, the main question is where the money will come from, Moy said.
Moy said the state and county are working through a series of steps to look at all the possible sources of funding to pay for a pump, fuel and a person to check the equipment daily, as well as how much it would cost.
“We’re interested in getting the road open just as soon as possible,” Moy said.
In addition to the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, De Leon said the county is looking at serious road damage issues countywide because of the flooding.
Countywide, damage assessments are still in the early stages for the county roads system, due to many roads still being underwater, he said.
However, a ballpark estimate the county is using now, without the full assessment completed, is between $5 million and $7 million, De Leon said.
“We continue to find things,” he said.
He said the storm impacts include a second slide that’s developed on Socrates Mine Road near Middletown, about a mile away from another slide that first appeared in January.
“With the ground as saturated as it is, it doesn’t take a whole lot and the ground gives way,” he said.
Similar issues are developing on the county’s mountains roads, including Bartlett Springs Road, where De Leon said crews are discovering impacts from the storms.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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