Reclamation District 1000 has been providing flood protection to the citizens of Natomas for over a century. Formed by an act of the State Legislature in 1911 our mission is to protect the citizens in our District by maintaining the four levees surrounding the Natomas Basin, miles of drainage canals that form our flood infrastructure and provide irrigation to the basin, and maintaining seven pumping plants.

Levees

The Reclamation District No. 1000 levee system consists of approximately 46.5 miles of Project Levees (levees that are a part of the federal Sacramento River Flood Control Project) encircling the District which is also known as the Natomas basin.

The District’s operation and maintenance levee work program includes trimming vegetation that impairs visibility of the levees and adjacent areas where boils, seepage, or other signs of levee distress can be observed; spraying pre-and post-emergent herbicides to control weed growth and reduce fire risk; mowing vegetation to control growth and reduce fire hazard; rodent abatement; erosion repairs to levees from high river stages, wind, and wave effects and runoff; resurface levee access roads for all-weather access; flood season preparation; equipment maintenance and repair; stockpile flood emergency materials; routine levee inspections year-round and 24-hour levee patrols during high river stages; and emergency flood response.  

Interior Drainage

The District's interior drainage system consists of 30 miles of main drainage canals, about 150 miles of drainage ditches, and seven main pumping stations. The drainage system collects stormwater runoff, seepage waters, and agricultural drainage and delivers them to the pumping plants for disposal into the Sacramento River or other adjacent creeks.

Maintenance of ditches and canals consists of silt and debris removal as required to maintain capacity; removing trash and other debris dumped, repairing slips and other erosion; and treating vegetation that reduce canal capacity and limit flows with herbicides.  In addition, the canals and interior levees must be mowed on a regular basis, particularly in urban areas, to reduce fire hazards.  With the continued urbanization of Natomas, the canal maintenance costs have increased significantly.

Maintenance and operation of the pumping plants consist of normal mechanical upkeep such as lubrication, checking and replacing worn or broken parts, maintaining supporting structures, and electrical components, monitoring during a flood, and furnishing power.  The total power costs fluctuate with the amount of rainfall and runoff in any given year, but overall this is the largest single cost in the District’s annual operations and maintenance budget other than personnel costs. In addition to the routine operation and maintenance costs, the District has undertaken capital improvements to the pump stations including repairs to trash racks, pump motors, and other mechanical/electrical parts. As the pumping facilities age, more capital improvements are anticipated to keep them operational. Also, the District will need to replace these pump stations when they exceed their useful life.  The current discharge capacity of the pumping plants and their original dates of construction (and major modifications) are as follows:

Plant 1A.    1916 - Four pumps with a total capacity of 621 cfs.

Plant 1B.    2003 - Six pumps with a total capacity of 834 cfs.

Plant 2.       1920 - (reconstructed in 1976 and again in 2013) Two pumps for a total capacity of 120 cfs.

Plant 3.       1939 - (reconstructed in 2022) Four pumps with a total capacity of 276 cfs.

Plant 4.       1964 - (reconstructed in 2023) Three pumps with a total capacity of 306 cfs.

Plant 5.       1965 - Three pumps with a total capacity of 57 cfs 

Plant 6.       1974 - Four pumps with a total capacity of 230 cfs.  The plant is designed to accommodate one additional pump.

Plant 8.       1984 - (modifications in 2001) Nine pumps with a total capacity of 779 cfs.

In addition to the main perimeter pump stations, the District operates and maintains two small pump stations along its West Drain to lift stormwater and agricultural runoff from adjacent ditches into the West Drain near San Juan Road.  These pump stations were constructed in 1997 with a combined capacity of 7 acre-feet per hour.