Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-09-30
LEyEg BELOW TIE CITY.
It is to be Abandoned and the Mouna
evs4en, ADOPTED

System adopted.
The recent deci ion of the Supreme Court,
declaring the Drainage Act unconstitutional,
| has ended the hope that the lsyee below the
civ would be repaired and strengthened by
tbe Drainage Commissioners as part OF the
svztem of work fer correcting and improving
.ba channel of the Sacramento river. A
representative of the RECORD UNION yester-
dav called npon W. S. Nesicll of this city,
who is one of the principal land owners il
I,syee District No. l. Immediately below
the city, when the following information ard
views Of the situation were obtained, and
which will be OF interest to readers in this
citv and vicinity
stion-Mr. Mesick, now that the
Drsinses Act has been declared uncon-
stitutional ard the levees in Levee
District Ne are not to be repaired
from that source, what action will be taken
with reference to the leyee between street
and Freeport?
Answer-The general sentiment of fully
two-thirds OF the residents Of the district Is TO
do nothing with the leves this season. A
few persons are anxious to repair the breaks.
This can only be done by volunteer labor, as
there is no law to collect dollar of tax for
this purpose. a majority of the people say
that to repair the break simply Is to make
worthless xpenditure-simply putting of a
few days or weeks disaster that will event
ually and certainly come. There are at least
twenty places in the leyee as dangerous as
the two places where the breaks occurred last
spring. I.
O What is the reason for this action,
which strongly looks like an abandonment of
the levee system by the land owners of the
district
At is this: There is in this district rot
| to exceed 5000 acres of tilisbie land-land
that produces at all-and 1900 acres of land
is not worth enough money TO carry the
burden of supporting twelve miles OF levee.
The people say that with no levees at all
there will be entailed but loss of the use of
the land of from four TO six weeks each
rainy season, and that is not as bad as their
recent experience. Last spring, in Yolo
county, where the levees were totally OF sub
stantialIy destroyed for miles, and the gen.
eral surface of the water was from two to
| three feet higher than on this side, they got
| their crops of sack vegetables-that is the
| chief crop-into market three weeks sooner
than we did on this side. The reason is this:
the levee, unless il affords an effective pro-
| lection, acts as dam, snd holds the water
when once upon the land. It cannot run off
when the river recedes. Hence the ma jority
of the people below the city believe that
unless we can have levee strong enough
beyond peradventure to keep the water
ont il is better to have no levee
at all. believe that, without question.
large majority of the land owners in the dis
trict would to-day go for leveling the levees
down and building mounds instead, as a
means Of protection IN time of high water.
In such a case there would be no loss to the
farmers except as to the use of the land for
the time the water was upon it, but with
leyea which does not afford absolute pro.ec-
tion there is entailed every year loss Of miles
of fence, loss of improvements and the conse-
duent losses upon a disaster which unexpected
flooding brings, and which would not occur
if farmers expected an overflow and were pre-.
pared every year for It.
O.-Whas would it cost to put the levee
into p good state of repair at its present
hight?
quiIe tax Of fve per cent. or 50 on 500 of
all the taxable property in the district
o Would it cost that much to make sim
pie repairs to the leVee without raising il
A.-Yes. To repair the breaks them
selves. restoring to the original strength. viii
cost So 900 alone. There is at least two
ailes in extent Of the leyee, at different
places, where it was cut and sacked tor
gopher holes last spring. To repair the levee
at these places requires the sacks to be taken
out and the dirt dug up so that the fresh dirt
filed in will mix with the old and this is as
expensive as building a new levee. Added to
that. there are good many places where the
| levse must be increased IN its hight-where 1t
Is two feet lower than the general average of
the ieyee, and the top was barely out Of
water last spring. The river front from
| Me. KEYS place down to the old Lovedal
break is In very insecure and dangerous
Il , a -, all ,fa,,, la.I
| winter by hand, and brush filed in behind
the posts. During the low stage of water
sincs.it has cut in below the brush filing, and
tie levee has caved in, and to repair it at all
as it should be, it is necessary to drive long
line of piles at these places, and fill in anew
with brush. These placessare to-day more
dangerous than the points at which the
breaks occurred last spring. This IS the
exact condition of the leyees now, and it is
utterly useless to go to work and repair two
or three, or even a majority Of the weak
places, and leave the others.
O Mr.. Mesick, to give up the levee sys-
tenn is to st once give up any use OF the lands
which would require their cultivation or oc-
cupation in winter months /; do you think the
people there seriously contemplate such ac-
tion
myseif | have already Cancelled the lease of
the tenant upon my farm because of the fail
ura to keep up the leves as was expected
would be done when the lease was entered
into. take possession again upon the lst OF
November next and [ am going to take up
| all my fences and pus them upon the mound
which is upon my place, and thus secure
| them from being washed away and lost
| Neighbors of niue are engaged in preparing
| to raise their buildings and preparing for high
water. They will raise their houses and barns
! so as to be above the overflow, and take up
| their fences to secure them. AS to the
| change of the use of lands, the bed of
| the river has already been raised so
much by deposits that the lands have
! become so wet 10 winter by seipage, that
| they canaot now be used, or at least only
| fractional portion OF them: Not to exceed
| 200 acres of the entire district is sufficiently
dry in the rainy season for alfalfa to exist
upon it, and upon the remainder it has to be
seeded annually. For myself, l am unquali-
! fiedly in favor of not touching the levees this
| fall allowing the river to flow in next win
| ter as it will. In other words, / am in favor
| of trying the mound system in place of the
leYee System. and thereby demonstrate that
| il we are to have lsvee system, who ought
to contribute to its building, for ! held that
every piece of property that would be injari-
ously affected il the absence of lsvee should
| contribute its just prop Jrtion towards main
tanning such levee.
Q-Is it anticipated this abandonment of
the levee and letting the river hJw in unob-
| structed will have any influence, by backing
the water upon the city, to thus show or
steach MS that we need the protection of
| the levee below the city, and thus secure the
aid and cooperation of the city in the future
/ Al am willing to answer that question
! The river flowing in unobstrucsed will certain
! ly dem onstrate the fact whether Sacramento
| can protect herself by cutting herself off, or
! leveelng herself in with the Y-street embank-
ment II she can, she ought not to pay a
! cent toward this levee fro Y street TO Free
pors. II she cannot. she ought to contribute
! to its building and maiaten aace for her
own protection 81 with the country
/ living east Of Lsvee District Ne l. Thousands
! Of acres which les believe are as much pro-
teesed by this levse, as the landowners of the
! district, are required to bear no part of the
expense for protection. 1t it Is shown
| hy the proposed change Of system that they
need this levee to keep the water from ipjur-
| iug them, then they also should contribute
their share. If they should not help US, then
they will not be ffscted when the river runs
unobstructed over Levee District No. l. 1t
is a fact that hundreds of acres OF summer
fallow land lying to the east Of our district
are not being sowp, and will not be, until
they find ont what is going to be done with
the levee. l personally know this to be a
fact.