The Smith Canal flood gate project, which was dedicated this week, could save property owners thousands of dollars a year in flood insurance premiums and protect 24,000 residents from catastrophe, officials say.

The $94 million levee and gate project, spanning the entrance of Atherton Cove from Louis Park to the Stockton Golf and Country Club, is intended to protect from the worst of floods. 

Billed as the first flood gate of its kind west of the Mississippi River, it was officially celebrated Wednesday by a host of dignitaries and public officials. 

The new gate will have its most immediate benefit to the owners of about 8,500 properties deemed to have high risk for flood damage. Their requirement to have flood insurance as a condition of their federally back mortgages now could be lifted. That could save the average property owner about $1,800 annually and some as much as $3,300 a year, San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency spokeswoman Kim Floyd said.

The gate was intended “to provide unprecedented levels of flood protection to an economically disadvantaged area in central Stockton,” the agency said. The gate will be closed during severe storms or whenever rising water could threaten the city.

After the existing levees were deemed inadequate in protecting residents from floods, the agency and the California Department of Water Resources launched the flood gate project in 2014.

The new gate will be followed by a second one at an as yet undecided location farther north. Both will be integrated into the Army Corps of Engineers’ Lower San Joaquin River Project involving 23 miles of levee improvements in north and central Stockton, which breaks ground next year.

Without further flood protection measures, a catastrophic megaflood could inundate Stockton, leaving homes and businesses underwater and causing upward of $1 trillion in damage without, Stocktonia’s Mike Fitzgerald reported in 2022. That risk is being exacerbated by climate change, a study that year found.

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