Property on the Santa Ana River in Fountain Valley (Anaheim: appointed, apartment)

[tann1001]

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster. I'm a first time home buyer, and I've been looking at some properties in Fountain Valley recently. One that I'm interested in backs right up onto the Santa Ana river. According to a little online research, it is not in a flood plane and flood insurance would not be required (as is the case with most of FV now?) since circa 2001 when the Army Core of Engineers did a lot of work on the river and FEMA re-did the flood maps.

You cant actually see the river from the property because there is a wall in the way, but it is just over the wall.

Should I be concerned with flooding? Would you buy a property that backs right up onto the river? Are there any other factors I should be considering?

Thanks for any insight!

[DewDropInn]

In El Nino years I've seen the flood control channels spill over their banks many times. But I'm not sure about the Santa Ana as far down as F.V. It does get FULL though. I had a house about 2 blocks from Carbon Creek in Anaheim (read flood control channel) and in heavy rains it would overflow into my neighborhood. Would actually flood our yards and a few of the houses closest to the creek. The 5 freeway has been shut down more than once because it was flooded from the water spilling over the channel. We weren't required to get flood insurance but we sure thought about it!

Back to Fountain Valley, I had friends with a house there and they moved because every time there was a heavy rain their sunken living room filled with water coming up from the ground.

Hope that helps.

[Coldjensens]

This makes me laugh because when I first moved to California I was all excited to rent an apartment right on the Santa Ana river. I rented the apartment sight unseen becuase I could not afford two trips out. So I brought my Kayak and my visions of weekend trips up the river into the mountains.

There was one problem. The Santa Ana River does not have water in it. Almost never. Once in a grreat while it will get a run that will last two or three days, but most of the time it is just a dry gravel bed, or in many places a concrete channel. Since my Kayak did nto have wheels, I was out of luck and disappointed.

Since they put in all of the concrete, the water tends to just run out to the ocean. There is not a high liklihood of flooding. However you have to keep in mind that there are some dams along the River and those dams are aging and have been through several earthquakes. The Corps of Engineeers will release huge quantities of water if any of the dams get too full or even close to capacity. They tend to err ont he side of safety just to be safe. One in a while, they release a massive quantitity from one of the dams all at once. It is possible that they could release a sufficient quantity of water, or one of the dams could fail and you could get washed out. However barring a release or failure at one of the dams, it is very unlikley that there will ever be enough water to flood you out.

Prado dam was recently substnatially renovated, so a large release is probably less likley.
During the construciton work thre was a huge flood (2005 I think) and they released a ton of water and evacuated some people, however that was before the construciotn was finished and is unlikely to be repeated. I think that January 2005 was a 100 year flood level, plus the dam is modified now and can handle a lot more water.


Of course if Prado fails in a big earthquake, you can probably kiss your house goodbye, but that may be the least of your worries.

In most places, the Santa Ana River bed is basically ugly. In some places it is a hangout for teens and even gangbangers. Thus, it may not be a benefit to have it in your back yard.

[bhcompy]

I lived on the backside of Coyote Creek(which has been concrete for many years, and was at the time) along the border of LA and OC Counties and the highest I ever saw it get was during the 98(I think?) El Nino. I'd guess that the channels are about 20-30ft deep, and during that El Nino the channel was about 4 feet from spilling over. I've never seen it get that high again, but during heavy rains it will fill up halfway or so. Make sure the wall between the channel and your backyard is high or you'll have trouble with people looking in and/or coming in.

Oddly enough, I lived along the Santa Ana River in Norco. It's actually a real river out there, but it's fairly shallow. Used to ride my horse up and down the river(the bamboo as they call it) all the time

[tann1001]

Thanks for all the really insightful replies. I've been doing some research on the river, floods, the dams etc and talking to people at work who have lived in the area for a long time, and I'm tending to think I'm not going to let it stop me buying in that area.

I think I'm going to go see the river late next week to see how it looks after a week of heavy rain