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Warnings from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center predict there is a 90% chance that El Niño storms will have a major impact on the Central Coast this coming fall and winter. In response, the San Benito County Public Works Department briefed the Board of Supervisors on Aug. 1 regarding emergency preparedness and potential emergencies.
New county Public Works Administrator Adolfo Gonzalez, who had been on the job just two days, told the board that Public Works was already inspecting known flooding and drainage problem areas, grading roads and shoulders, clearing culverts and drainage facilities, and removing material that could obstruct stormwater flows.
Gonzalez said county staff met Aug. 27 with the local 911 communications team to receive an overview of the county Office of Emergency Services’ Emergency Alert and Warning System. He said the staff is scheduled to attend Emergency Operations Center training.
During emergency operations activation, according to the briefing, the Health and Human Services Agency will coordinate the county’s mass care and shelter functions. They will include supporting the opening and operation of emergency shelters; coordinating food, water, basic necessities, health and behavioral health services, providing access to social services and addressing the needs of children, older adults, individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs.
Supervisor Angela Curro placed the blame for the 2017 and 2023 floods that inundated the Lovers Lane area off the Pacheco Creek on state government because the county was prevented from clearing waterways because of environmental regulations.
BenitoLink reported in 2017 and 2023 on the flooding along Lovers Lane. In both years, Pacheco Creek flowed over its levees and rapidly covered homes, roads and farmland. In 2018, BenitoLink reported that heavy winter storms caused major overbank flooding, trapping residents and prompting emergency evacuations.
In January 2023, the situation was even more severe, with floodwaters surging through the area beginning Jan. 8, leading sheriff’s deputies, Hollister Police, CalFire, and Search and Rescue to evacuate 23 residents, while another 25 refused to leave.
“Fish and Wildlife and CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] have killed us,” Curro said, referring to the county’s inability to clean out Pacheco Creek in sections that are private property. She noted that Monterey and Santa Cruz County water agencies have already submitted Pajaro River watershed prevention requests to the state government to gain access to the river to clean it out. She emphasized that San Benito County should follow their examples.
“We don’t have the right to go into private property in flood areas and clean out creeks,” she said. “We have no legal authority to fix things. But there are areas that are private residents’ responsibility. If we don’t collaborate, you’re going to have an impact because it just takes one property owner not cleaning out their portion that could flood everyone else.”
Curro said there is an urgent need to educate the public through a series of town halls and to develop maps identifying the property owners along Pacheco Creek. First, though, she said the board needs to obtain California Department of Fish & Wildlife exemptions and convince the governor to declare a “pre-state of emergency” to ensure that the county “can go in there and clear it out. We should not wait and respond to where the floods are.”
Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki said he wanted to prioritize “sensitive areas” such as schools, medical facilities, homes and vulnerable populations, along with evacuation routes, “in the event of a major catastrophe here.” He said he also favored having a list of “on-call contractors who own heavy equipment.”
“If there is a major event there’s going to be a high demand for those contractors,” he said. He added that the county “needs to develop a task force immediately that would encompass local jurisdictions, state and federal representatives, nonprofits, the agriculture community, and the stormwater district.”
Sam Brigantino, owner of Brigantino Dirt Works, is one such contractor, though he told BenitoLink he has been unsuccessful in getting placed on the list of on-call contractors. He said he has already started work for some farmers and cattle ranchers prepping draining ditches.
His brother, Ralph Brigantino, who owns Brigantino Irrigation, said, “We usually don’t start moving large amounts of drainage products until the end of October, but this year, we started moving culverts, drainage materials in July because everyone is prepping for the super El Nino.”
Resident and pig farmer Jack Kimmich, who lives in the floodplain near San Felipe Road, said after the 2017 flood he spoke to some “old timers” who told him farmers were once allowed to clear out the gravel in the creeks that were wide and deep. He warned the board again, as he did after the 2017 and 2023 floods, that because Pacheco Creek, which flows into the Soap Lake floodplain, is clogged with trees and brush, the water backs up quickly, causing the floods in the Lovers Lane area.
“It’s great to hear that there are plans and actions, and people are doing inspections and stuff like that, but unless you got boots on the ground and clear out that waterway we’re just going to have more of the same,” Kimmich said.
Sheriff Eric Taylor said he wanted the public to understand that if the floods come and evacuations are called for, his handful of deputies will go house to house to tell people to leave, but they will not “stand there and argue with you.”
“We’re not going to listen to how you know better than we know and the waters aren’t coming, or you’ll evacuate when you want to,” Taylor said. “We’re going to facilitate everyone to evacuate in the moment that we deem it’s necessary and we’re going to move on to the next house.”
He said in the past his deputies were not obligated to return to areas they had already canvassed, and that they were ridiculed in the media for not going back when somebody’s animals or families were at risk because they chose not to evacuate.
“I will tell you, because of the heart that all of our employees have, they are going to go back in,” he said. “They don’t have to, but they’re still going because that’s what they put this uniform on for. But I can’t promise we’re going to be able to get back into every place we’ve already cleared.”
A resident named Josephine who lives in the Lovers Lane area said she was concerned about not having representation for District 5 because of the recall of former supervisor Ignacio Velasquez. County CEO Esperanza Colio Warren said she and Public Works would take District 5 residents’ concerns for the time being and that a new email address would be established for residents to contact the county.
Supervisor Mindy Sotelo questioned how Public Works could ensure that the work to be done to prepare for El Niño was its top priority, considering how understaffed the department is.
“What are we diverting or stopping people from working on to start to prepare for creek cleanup?” she asked Gonzalez. “We need to hit this very aggressively. What can we do from now until when these storms start?”
Gonzalez said he intends to have weekly status meetings in order to obtain progress reports.
“We are doing inspections,” he said. “Then we will prioritize how we’re going to attack these specific areas. Some things will have to give. Some of the typical routine maintenance we will have to move away from unless it’s a safety issue so we can focus on clearing out some of these other areas.”
Kosmicki asked Gonzalez whether it was true that even if the state permitted the county and property owners to clean out the creeks, they could only remove loose objects but not trees or sediment. Gonzales confirmed that is the case.
Referencing Curro’s comment about CEQA, Kosmicki said it was more important to clean out the creeks than abide by “antiquated laws” and “worry about salamanders and frogs.”
“We need to do it, at the very least, by late September,” he said.
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California Fish & Wildlife allows emergency clearing of waterways | BenitoLink
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