Monterey County agriculture leaders discuss Salinas River flood mitigation
SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- Local agriculture leaders said the winter storms caused $1 billion in damages along the Salinas and Pajaro river, and they're requesting help from state and federal leaders.
Rincon Farms in Gonzales is one of the multiple places dealing with the aftermath of severe flooding.
"This whole ranch is about 200 acres, a fourth of it is organic production, the entire ranch went underwater," said Jynel Gularte, who is a controller & compliance at Rincon farms. "In January, only the organic portions were the most damaged, and then they got hit AGAIN in March."
Gularte works at her family-owned ranch. She said her family and the farmworkers who normally work there are devastated and are trying to work through the damage left behind.
Members of the agriculture industry and county leaders want this problem addressed now. They also discussed what needs to happen next to mitigate future flooding.
"Everyone is losing, " said Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez, "The farm workers are losing, the fish are losing, our general public is losing, and nobody is winning."
Local agriculture leaders said that action needs to be taken to rebuild the infrastructure and farmland that was lost earlier this year.
They also said the levees along the Salinas River need to be fixed.
"We're asking all the state and federal agencies that have jurisdictions over the Salinas river channel to come together and make decisions; that will allow the landowners, farm operators, the vineyards, the ranchers to do what they need to do in the Salinas river channel, to not only improve capacity flow, but the environment itself," said Norman Groot, Executive Director, at Farm Bureau Monterey.
Part of that is to get rid of all the exotic vegetation that does not belong in the Salinas River channel. And they also want to make improvements to the river so they don't see this type of flooding happen again.
Local agriculture leaders said that they hope to meet with state and federal leaders by the first week of May.
