Entire Pajaro River watershed would help pay for downstream
improvements
A Santa Cruz County lobbying effort to make South Valley and San Benito County residents pay for upkeep of often-flooded Pajaro River levees is being countered by Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage.
Gage is opposed to the Santa Cruz County proposal that would allow the state to make all 1,310 square miles of the Pajaro River watershed responsible for maintaining the levees that keep the volatile river from overflowing.
The supervisor has called state Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, and state Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, hoping to convince them that making Santa Clara County taxpayers fund upkeep in Santa Cruz would be an unprecedented step that could change the way all of California sets taxes.
Under Santa Cruz County’s proposal, properties in Santa Clara and San Benito counties that lie within the Pajaro watershed basin would be taxed.
“We don’t charge Santa Cruz for maintaining our levees, why should we pay them for their levees?” Gage said. “I think Simon and Bruce were receptive. I think they understand it would change the way the whole state operates.”
Santa Cruz officials, however, believe they have an answer to the question Gage poses.
In a letter to the state Department of Water Resources, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ellen Pirie argues that Santa Clara County makes up more than a quarter of the area containing water bodies – such as Uvas and Llagas creeks– which flow into Pajaro River.
“Currently, only Santa Cruz and Monterey counties share the costs of maintaining the Pajaro River levee system, however, the majority of the Pajaro River watershed is located in San Benito and Santa Clara (counties),” Pirie states. “In fact, 91 percent of the watershed originates in San Benito and Santa Clara counties.”
The state has already indicated it would accept control over maintaining the Pajaro River levees, but it has proposed taxing less people than now. Approximately 14,750 properties are assessed currently. The state’s proposal would tax only 2,950. Tax levels would vary for residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural property owners.
Santa Cruz officials want the state to establish a much broader maintenance area that would include Santa Clara and San Benito counties. Monterey officials, however, are not sure they want to shift control to the state at all.
Similar to McPherson and Salinas, Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, says he is still in “a fact-finding and consulting” phase and has not decided which plan to support.
All three politicians’ decision-making process is complicated by having constituents in multiple counties.
“This issue is like an onion. Every time you peel off some skin, there’s a whole new layer that unfolds,” Laird said.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy, a veteran of the water wars, sees a bigger picture.
“I would agree that it’s not our responsibility to pay for the cost of raising the levees in Santa Cruz County,” Kennedy said, “but we do need to work together to address downstream flooding.”
He referred to a project that tamed historic flooding in downtown Santa Rosa and was funded by several entities .
“All jurisdictions and communities involved came together – state, federal and local – and came up with a solution. It is not just a matter of raising levees,” Kennedy said, “it’s a matter of what you do upstream.”
He referred to Soap Lake, a large low-lying area near Highway 152 in the eastern foothills that acts as a retention basin for flood waters.
“We’re working with the Santa Clara Valley Water District to preserve that area,” Kennedy said. “We’re doing out part upstream to be good neighbors.”
FEUDING STUDIES
What may help lawmakers determine who should pay for Pajaro River levee upkeep are environmental studies lobbyists are touting. But the studies come with onion layers of their own.
Gage points to a recently completed $2 million watershed and hydrology study funded by the state. The study revealed that growth from upstream communities such as Morgan Hill and Hollister has not contributed to Pajaro floods. Instead, Pajaro levees built high enough to only withstand 10- to 15-year level floods are the culprit to the breakdown of the 50-year-old levees. The study recommended levee improvements that can withstand 100-year flood levels.
“We (Santa Clara County) did not authorize housing to occur in the flood plain, so it should not be our responsibility to pay for damaged levees,” Gage said.
But Santa Cruz officials stand by their studies, too. In Pirie’s letter, she states that geological studies show that increased construction has decreased the ability of the land to absorb rainfall, causing additional run-off.
“This additional run-off has increased the severity of 10- to 20-year flood events, putting lands in the Pajaro Valley at greater risk of floods,” Pirie states.
UNKNOWN COSTS
A lawsuit stemming from the 1995 Pajaro River flood that damaged homes and flooded fields gives Santa Cruz and Monterey county officials incentive to find new taxpayers. A judge found Monterey County, Santa Cruz County and Caltrans 36 percent, 53 percent and 11 percent liable for the damage, respectively.
It is still unknown how much the counties and the state must pay out, but estimates exceed $100 million.
