Federal, state and local leaders on Tuesday marked receipt of 40 million dollars in state funding for the project. Lester Snow heads the State Department of Water Resources.  

“This is a very big deal to provide protection to Sacramento which has one of the lowest levels of flood protection in the country.”
  
  
Until recently officials weren’t sure money for the project would come through because of the state budget crisis.  The current repairs are taking place 15 miles north of Sacramento. They include raising a five mile section of levee by three feet and building cutoff walls. 

Repairs to the entire system of Natomas Basin levees in Sacramento and Sutter counties are expected to be completed in 2012 and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.