California Reclamation Districts

California Reclamation Districts are legal subdivisions within California's Central Valley that are responsible for managing and maintaining the levees, fresh water channels, or sloughs (pronounced slü),^[1] canals, pumps, and other flood protection structures in the area. Each is run autonomously and is run by an elected board and funded with taxes to property owners in the local area. However, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board^[2] has the power to determine that a district is not satisfactorily maintaining the structures and causing the California Department of Water Resources^[3] to declare an area as a maintenance area.