The State - News from Jan. 17, 1988

The state Reclamation Board has cleared the way for stabilizing 22.5 miles of bank along the Sacramento and Feather rivers despite protests by environmentalists. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project will cost the federal and state governments about $25 million and will bring to 158 the number miles of river bank that has been stabilized. Bank stabilization began in 1960 to help protect one of the largest flood-control complexes anywhere: the 980 miles of levees, overflow weirs, pumping plants and bypass channels that protect farmland and communities in the Sacramento Valley and Delta. However, environmental groups protested that the bank stabilization turns portions of the river into a rock-lined canal and destroys wildlife and fish habitat.