The department may proceed immediately with the improvement of a pilot levee project which the department determines, after a public hearing, is in critical need of improvement and which is highly susceptible to failure in the absence of such immediate improvement. Prior to commencing such improvement, the department shall enter into an agreement with a local agency whereby the local agency will bear at least 20 percent of the cost of the improvement.
(Added by Stats. 1976, Ch. 1302.)