West Sacramento sits at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, adjacent to the Yolo Bypass and directly within the flood plain of the Sacramento River. After record flooding in 1986 and 1997, it became clear that the city and the region needed to modernize its levee system to reduce the risk of flooding.
By 2002, an initial round of levee improvement construction in West Sacramento was largely complete, raising more than a mile of the Sacramento Bypass south levee by as much as 5 feet, and raising 4.5 miles of the Yolo Bypass levee by as much as 5.5 feet. In 2011, the Corps also began work on a setback levee along the Sacramento River south levee near South River Road as part of the Sacramento River Bank Protection Project.
The West Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency continues to move forward with levee improvements throughout the city, as well. WSAFCA completed improvements to the Sacramento Bypass levee and the Sacramento River north levee in 2011, near the I Street Bridge on the Sacramento River north levee in 2008, and is currently finalizing plans to build 6 miles of setback levee along the Sacramento River south levee.
After years of work, West Sacramento has made great strides to reduce the flood risk, but additional work remains necessary.
In July 2014, the Corps released a draft general re-evaluation report, which outlined the tentatively selected plan for more improvements for the full levee system surrounding the City of West Sacramento. Once the report and plan is finalized and approved by Corps headquarters, it becomes eligible for Congressional authorization. If authorized and funded by Congress, the project would be ready to move into design and construction phases, which would be cost-shared between the Corps, state of California and WSAFCA.