The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public and stakeholder comments on a draft study for flood risk management on the Pajaro River.
The goal of this study is to identify a solution that reasonably maximizes net flood risk reduction benefits to the communities of Watsonville and Pajaro, USACE said.
In 2012, USACE, recognizing the need to complete complex and challenging studies in a more expeditious manner, employed a more streamlined, risked based feasibility study process.
Passed into law in the Water Resources Development and Reform Act of 2014, this process has been fully employed to all USACE studies, including those that were ongoing prior to the 2014 legislation.
The Pajaro Feasibility Study is one of those challenging studies that has been going on for a long time, as USACE and local stakeholders have faced significant challenges on finding a plan that can be supported by both the Federal and local governments.
The Pajaro study was rescoped using updated USACE planning procedures and received USACE executive level attention in order to complete this important study. Recently, USACE and the non-Federal Sponsors (local cost share partners) have agreed upon a tentative plan and will be seeking public and agency comments during a 30-day comment period.
Comments on the draft study may be submitted no later than November 30, 2017, said USACE.