Caring for your levee

Each owner looks after their own section. Here's what that means.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Your responsibilities

Each owner maintains their own levee section. NRRD recommends 12 feet, watertight and continuous with the neighbors' levees. Owners are liable for damage their levee's failure causes. Keep an 8-foot access path, and don't build on the levee: it blocks emergency inspection and repair.

Source: NRRD Winter Notice, September 23, 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Levees keep sinking

Levees settle forever, so raising yours once doesn't finish the job.

Source: NRRD Flood Emergency Self-Help Plan, revised October 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Weight and footing

Too much fill on a deep-water levee without enough underwater footing can make it slough; it happened here in 1960. Place fill on top carefully. Stabilization fill at the underwater toe has been done before, and NRRD recommends repeating it as needed. Any work on the river side of the State line needs State Lands approval.

What State Lands told us about the State line

Source: NRRD Flood Emergency Self-Help Plan, revised October 2026 (opens in a new tab)

Four facts about levees

Every river floods eventually.
No levee is flood-proof.
Each household needs to know its own risk.
Work done now saves lives and property.

Over a 30-year mortgage, a levee built for a 100-year flood has about a 26% chance of being overtopped.

In our own words, after the American Society of Civil Engineers' booklet So, You Live Behind a Levee! (2010). Find it on the Resources page.

Warning signs to watch for

Trees, brush or debris on the levee
Structures or digging in it
Cracks, slides or slumps
Erosion or scour
Low spots from settling
Damaged rock
Wet spots, seepage or bubbling water on the land side
Animal burrows

If the levee looks like it's failing, get away from it and call 911. Otherwise tell NRRD, and members can add a photo to the Levee log.

Open the Levee log (members)

Levee words

Crown: the flat top of the levee.
Toe: where the levee slope meets the ground or the riverbed. On the river side it's often underwater.
Freeboard: the height between the water and the top of the levee, usually 2 to 3 feet as a safety margin.
Seepage: water soaking through or under the levee to the land side.
Piping: seepage that carries soil with it and opens a channel through or under the levee.
Sand boil: water bubbling up on the land side after pushing under the levee.
Overtopping: water pouring over the top of the levee.
Breach: a break where the levee gives way.
Encroachment: anything built on or dug into the levee that weakens it or blocks access.
Riprap: rock laid on the slope to protect it from waves and current.
Subsidence: ground sinking over time, which is why levees here need topping up.