Twelve miles of levees had been constructed to carry again the Pajaro River — a waterway with Monterey County on one aspect, Santa Cruz County on the opposite. However a Bay Space Information Group assessment reveals there had been considerably much less flood management work on the south financial institution the place the levee failed this month, catastrophically flooding the small farming city of Pajaro, than alongside the north financial institution, the place the town of Watsonville escaped an identical destiny.
Which will assist clarify why the practically 75-year-old south levee crumbled March 11, regardless of the river by no means rising to ranges traditionally related to disastrous floods — and even topping flood stage.
It might virtually be referred to as the Story of Two Levees.
As a result of the river kinds the border between the 2 counties, flood management work — together with levee upkeep like tree and vegetation elimination, rodent management and slope rehabilitation — has traditionally been achieved by separate companies that devoted vastly completely different assets to the maintenance, the information group’s assessment discovered.
Alongside the river’s north financial institution, the Santa Cruz County Flood Management and Water Conservation District Zone 7 has spent $16.9 million within the final three years on Pajaro flood management work.
Alongside the south financial institution, the Monterey County Water Sources Company spent about $3.4 million over those self same years on Pajaro flood management work, virtually 5 occasions much less.
Native flood management officers wouldn’t say whether or not the disparities performed a job within the levee’s failure, insisting the query requires a deeper evaluation. Nonetheless, the revelations about upkeep increase new questions concerning the south levee’s integrity, provided that it failed regardless of the river cresting 3 toes beneath flood stage. The levee on the Monterey County aspect additionally breached in a second spot downriver from Pajaro, the place it didn’t pose a menace to the city.
“Individuals are beginning proper now to play the blame sport when the main target ought to be on restoration,” stated Mark Strudley, government director on the Pajaro Regional Flood Administration Company, which was fashioned in 2021 to supply extra coordinated Pajaro Valley flood management forward of a long-planned levee alternative.
Lew Bauman, the Monterey County Water Sources Company’s interim common supervisor, would solely echo Strudley’s response.
“Our focus is on restoration and re-entry” of the city’s flooded out residents, Bauman stated, “and I most admire your understanding.”
Particulars on how the upkeep cash was spent on both aspect of the river weren't out there final week. However those that dwell and work in Pajaro say the relative lack of upkeep alongside the Monterey County aspect of the river had important penalties.
“We all know that there isn’t correct upkeep achieved on river itself to guard the levees, to have bushes eliminated, shrubs eliminated, to ensure that water to maneuver extra freely,” stated Fabiola Alcaraz, workplace supervisor for an organization that gives chilly storage for fresh-picked fruit in Pajaro. “The opposite aspect, Santa Cruz County, does preserve and makes positive it’s in correct situation. Our aspect, Monterey County, we don’t see them doing the work.”
Laura Garcia, who returned to her mud-filled dwelling with many different Pajaro residents Thursday, stated she’s lengthy sensed their aspect of the river wasn’t getting the eye and work it wanted.
“Pajaro all the time will get the brief finish of the stick,” Garcia stated. “We all the time get much less assist in comparison with Watsonville. Pajaro isn’t on the record of locations to save lots of. It’s an deserted place.”
It has lengthy been identified that the river’s levee system, inbuilt 1949, provides insufficient safety. Earlier than this yr, the city of Pajaro suffered disastrous flooding in 1955, 1958, 1995 and 1998 — when the river rose a lot increased than it did this month. A protracted-planned $400 million, six-year enchancment challenge to supply 100-year flood safety simply acquired funded final fall and is anticipated to get underway in 2025.
Within the meantime, the Nationwide Climate Service says the Pajaro River’s flood stage begins at 32 toes, the place levees on either side of the river are inside half a foot of overtopping. At 32.5 toes, the levees might overtop or breach and the Pajaro Valley might see not less than reasonable flooding, and at 33 toes, main flooding.
That’s what occurred in Pajaro’s worst floods — Feb. 3, 1998, when the river crested at 33.74 toes, Mar. 11, 1995, when it reached 32.2 toes, April 3, 1958, when it hit 33.11 toes, and Dec. 24, 1955, when it topped 32.46 toes.
The difficulty for the Pajaro levee this yr started after New 12 months’s Eve storms left a low spot within the south financial institution levee. Flood management officers to place up a short lived Muscle Wall, a half-mile lengthy, two-foot excessive transportable barrier of plastic, water-filled containers linked collectively forward of one other highly effective Jan. 10 storm that introduced the river to 27.77 toes, inflicting some flooding in low-lying areas. However on that day the river didn’t breach.
As one other storm approached March 10, Monterey County officers once more warned residents alongside the Pajaro to organize for attainable flood evacuation, as they did for these alongside the Salinas and Carmel rivers. That night time state officers positioned “flood fighters” to maintain watch alongside the Pajaro River and different hassle spots.
Monterey County Water Sources Company engineer Mark Foxworthy was on the levee late that night time and noticed water burbling up by means of holes within the river’s southern embankment. Crews sandbagged round them, however a sinkhole started to type and crews fled to security because it widened. Shortly after midnight on March 11, Foxworthy recalled listening to the Muscle Wall crack and separate and the river rush by means of. The river had crested at 29.2 toes — nonetheless effectively beneath flood stage.
Foxworthy wouldn’t touch upon what may need precipitated the levee to fail.
“I can’t reply till there’s an investigation,” Foxworthy stated, “and I gained’t speculate.”
State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who authored the invoice for the state to fund the levee alternative challenge, stated this month’s flood is the agonizing tragedy he and others had been attempting to keep away from.
“We've this challenge utterly funded and we simply didn’t get to it” in time, Laird stated. “It’s simply heartbreaking.”
Laird stated that there could also be different explanations for the levee failure than native upkeep spending. He stated levees got here near failing on the Santa Cruz aspect too, and that it’s attainable silt buildup within the river channel through the years could have diminished its capability, successfully reducing its flood stage.
He stated he’s conscious of the funding disparities on either side of the river, however insisted it’s not as a result of Pajaro largely is dwelling to low-paid farmworkers. There are additionally many farmworkers who dwell throughout the river in Watsonville, but it surely’s a metropolis of greater than 50,000 with a bigger tax base than Pajaro, a city of three,000.
“While you speak about expenditures associated to the river, although either side are deprived, there’s many extra individuals on one aspect to unfold out the associated fee,” Laird stated.
The brand new Pajaro Regional Flood Administration Company will oversee the rebuilt levee system, paid by federal and state funds, and upkeep might be funded by a particular evaluation property homeowners on either side of the river overwhelmingly permitted final June.
Laird stated having one company overseeing flood management on either side of the river might be an enormous enchancment.
“That is one system,” Laird stated, “and tending to it as one system goes to be smarter below the brand new district going ahead.”
Employees Author Aldo Toledo contributed to this report.