Monterey County Public Works crews continue monitoring Carmel River breach

While the Carmel Lagoon has traditionally breached naturally, this year the waterway needed a little help.

Over the weekend, Monterey County Public Works crews moved about a foot and a half of sand between the lagoon and the ocean. The goal is to let the lagoon drain into the ocean, and prevent that water from flooding nearby homes.

County officials began noticing to the rising water levels last week.

“The lagoon was going to rise to a point where it would essentially risk catastrophic failure of the sandbag wall that we had protecting the adjacent communities and/or simply just flooding over,” said Melanie Beretti, special programs manager for the Monterey County Resource Management Agency.

Homeowners are already on edge about flooding.

“Carmel is on a slant so when it rains, everything flows down to the beach,” said Diana Lowry. “So a lot of the gullies have gotten really full and gone over the sides. I’ve noticed a lot of homeowners are sandbagging now. People who you would think wouldn’t have to sand, are sandbagging.”

Public Works crews are monitoring the flow daily. On Monday morning, realizing the lagoon was draining too quickly, they were ready to take action. But by Monday afternoon, they were pleased with the results of the breach.

“Based on conditions and based on anticipated precipitation for the coming week, the best approach was to not close it this morning, to not move any sand, look and see how it fares over the next week, and look at coming in for potential action in the following week or two,” Beretti said.

If needed, crews can dump sand into the channel to stop the flow. However, the beach has less sand this year, and Public Works doesn’t want to risk running out if they need to shore up the breach at the tail end of the season.