Sen. Padilla, Local Leaders Praise Pajaro River Levee Project, By Kieran

COMMUNITY NEWS

Sen. Padilla, Local Leaders Praise Pajaro River Levee Project

By Kieran Kelly

Along the banks of the Pajaro River in Watsonville, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and senior representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers joined Pajaro Valley’s elected officials and several residents to celebrate the funding of a historic project to rebuild the Pajaro River levee.

The communities of Watsonville and Pajaro have suffered six floods since the river’s levees were first built in 1949, most significantly in 1995 when flooding caused more than $95 million in damages and two deaths.

Levees nearly broke again during the federally declared storm disasters in early 2017.

“We thought this day would never come, and for over 70 years two federally disadvantaged communities— communities that earn less than half the national average of income—have been stuck between two false choices,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, who chairs the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency. “One,

County supervisor Zach Friend (left) and US Senator Alex Padilla

praying for drought, because of a life safety component, protected by a river levee with the lowest level of flood protection of any federally funded levee in California. While also praying for rain in order to have the economic protections for the agricultural valley - now, we can ask for normalcy in our community.”

The $400 million Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project is the first project of its kind in California.

The project is designed to deliver up to 100-year flood protection for portions of Watsonville and Pajaro by strengthening the levees along the lower Pajaro River and its tributaries.

The current federal levee system along these waterways only provides an eight-year level of flood protection, which is among the weakest of any federal levee system in California.

Martha Guzman, regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, shared President Joe Biden’s support for the project.

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