The Contra Costa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (FC District) owns and operates 79 miles of engineered flood control channels (both concrete and earthen channels) that were built throughout the county starting in the 1950s. As these channels age and approach the end of their service lives, typically 75 years, the County will face rising maintenance costs and increasing risks from these deteriorating structures. At some point, replacement will be necessary. There is also a continual and growing environmental awareness and concern for quality of life that is increasing public interest and support for natural channels that provide ecological, open-space, recreational, and water quality benefits.   
  
Recognizing the need to address the future of aging and deteriorating channels in the coming decades, in 2009 the Board of Supervisors adopted the FC District’s “Fifty-Year Plan” policy. The policy calls for concrete channels to be replaced wherever possible by natural channels in response to community preferences for the green space, recreational, ecological, and water-quality benefits of natural channels. The Fifty-Year Plan is the FC District’s concept level capital replacement program and recognizes the long time frame needed to plan, acquire rights of way, and implement these types of significant changes.  
  
To successfully implement the Fifty-Year Plan the FC District will need to begin the process of community engagement now, developing alternatives, and assessing benefits and costs. The first step in engaging the community is to analyze Contra Costa County’s flood protection systems for opportunity sites where conversion to a natural stream system would be feasible, and to develop outreach materials to inform the public of the concept and benefits of implementing the Fifty-Year Plan.  
  
UC Berkeley, through the Interagency Agreement, will develop a study entitled “Walnut Creek Watershed Opportunities Report” that will identify locations where implementation of Fifty-Year Plan type projects are most feasible and develop land-use tools to assist in project planning and working with cities to preserve the necessary right-of-way. The report will also include a communication plan that the FC District can use to reach out and engage the community and cities where projects are feasible. UC Berkeley will initially conduct work within the Grayson Creek watershed and then move on to complete work within the larger Walnut Creek watershed. This report will help the FC District began true implementation of the Fifty-Year Plan policy.  
  
The Interagency Agreement includes a mutual indemnification provision. Each party will indemnify the other party for losses that are attributable to the indemnifying party’s negligent or willful misconduct in the performance of its obligations under the agreement.  
  

If the agreement is not approved, the FC District will not have a study that will identify opportunity areas and develop outreach information to implement the 50-Year Plan.