Pajaro River flooding preparations with upcoming storm

The Pajaro River mouth is a trouble spot for flooding because it’s part of a massive watershed.

15-hundred square miles of rivers, creeks and streams coming together. All of which contribute to runoff that flows through the city of Watsonville and ends up at the mouth of the river.

This week, Santa Cruz County Public Works went on the offensive and breached the mouth of the Pajaro River.

“We like to breach it, we waitas long as we can to breach it, so it’ll stay open so the flow will come through and we generally do it before a storm. So it reduces the threat to the community of Pajaro Dunes and reduces the threat to the agricultural fields out there,” said John Presleigh, Director of Public Works with Santa Cruz County.

The 25 foot swells earlier this week brought flooding to the Pajaro River and now with even bigger swells and stormy conditions in the forecast, the city of Watsonville, and county of Santa Cruz, are on alert.

The county public works has flood gauges all throughout the watershed to constantly monitor the changing conditions.

“So we can see, at any given time at our desk how much it’s raining at each of these watersheds and how much the rivers are rising. So it’s all really, what’s called real time instrumentation,” said Bruce Laclergue, Flood Control Program Manager with Santa Cruz County Public Works.

Also, the runoff from all of the watershed takes several hours to even days to reach the gauges, so severe flooding may happen well after heavy rains.