Approve vital Pajaro River assessment

With the June 7 primary election concluded, there remains an additional vote to be tallied: the Pajaro River assessment with the cutoff for returning ballots today.

This assessment was not on the June primary ballot but was mailed to 3,000-plus affected parcel owners in North Monterey County and the Pajaro Valley whose properties are near the river.

If approved, it will require these owners to make up for a shortfall in operations and maintenance budgets that provide for the current, unacceptable, flood protection offered by the river levees. Perhaps more importantly, the assessment also will unlock $400 million in federal funding that will finally, lead to a much improved levee system that could offer protections from a 100-year flood.

For affected parcel owners, we urge them, if they have not already done so, to return the ballots today with an agreement to assess themselves.

While the last major Pajaro River flood happened in 1995 (which killed two people and left more than $95 million in damages), storms in

2017 brought the river nearly to the brink again. The levee system in place dates back to 1949 and public agencies and officials have known for decades it is outmoded and offers scant protection against disastrous floods. The system of levees in place, moreover, offers the lowest level of protection in California.

This has been known for decades. What's changed is that the project to increase flood protection finally looks like it will be funded through the $400 million Pajaro River

Flood Risk Management Project, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with the state and the newly formed Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency.

Not only would this project provide up to 100-year flood protection for thousands of properties in the Pajaro River area, but once it is completed, property owners will be free from having to carry expensive mandatory flood insurance.

And it gets better: the Army Corps and the state will pay 100% of the project design and construction costs.

But to get this federal and state funding, the local community has to provide enough funding for operations and maintenance of the levees so they meet federal standards. The budget for these maintenance costs, though, has a shortfall of $1.2 million.

If the assessment is approved by property owners (as low as $16 a month for some, much more for owners of larger parcels and farms), the Flood Management Agency will assume responsibilities for levee maintenance.

John Martinelli, chairman of the board of Watsonville's S. Martinelli & Company, made the case for the assessment in a recent letter to the Sentinel. Here is a section of what he wrote:

“Both my great-grandfathers immigrated to Watsonville in the 1850s. Not long after they first arrived, they were introduced to one of our region's greatest threats to lives and livelihoods: flooding from the Pajaro River and its tributaries. Soon after arriving, my great-grandfather Stephano Martinelli, a farmer by trade, planted a wheat crop along the Pajaro River. Within a year, he lost his investment to a flood, so he went to work for his older brother Luigi, who was growing apples on what is now Martinelli Street. Although that twist of fate worked out for my family, many others were not so lucky ...

“To prevent repeated flood events, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built earthen levees along the river and creeks in 1945, which are still in place and relatively unchanged today. Ten short years later, people were rowing boats down Main Street following a levee failure caused by a 25-year storm on the Pajaro River and Corralitos Creek . ... The existing levees have proven time and again to be woefully inadequate, and are rated at among the lowest level of flood protection in the state and nation.

“...The Corps estimates a major flood on the Watsonville side would cause $1 billion in damages. A flood of that magnitude would devastate our company ...The resulting loss of our employees' homes and livelihood, multiplied across every employer in our downtown community, would destroy our local economy for many years to come . ...

“If the assessment is not approved by property owners we'll lose a once-in-a-lifetime chance to protect our properties from flooding.”