March 29, 2023 - Washington - Amid extreme weather in California that has caused devastating flooding and breached the Pajaro River levee, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla and Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Jimmy Panetta (all D-Calif.) called on the the Army Corps of Engineers to accelerate construction of the federally authorized project, to repair the levee, and to provide emergency repairs and response for the towns of Pajaro and Watsonville, which bore the brunt of the flooding.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif)

Padilla, Feinstein, and Panetta secured $149 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law to address the urgent flood risks along the Pajaro River, including the modernization of the 74-year-old levee that breached before improvements could be made.

In their letter, the lawmakers request that the corps provide emergency funds for rehabilitation to rebuild the levees to meet higher performance standards, expedite the administrative process to make the $149 million in construction funding more immediately available, and provide additional federal construction funds to fund this project to completion and to allow for a “design-build.”

“In advance of your upcoming trip to tour the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project (Pajaro) in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in California, we ask that you take immediate steps to provide emergency relief to the towns of Pajaro and Watsonville and to accelerate construction of the federally authorized levee project,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Specifically, we urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to 1) provide P.L. 84-99 funds for emergency rehabilitation in a manner that rebuilds the levees to meet higher performance standards, 2) to expedite the requisite engineering reviews and project agreements, 3) to expedite the expenditure of the $149 million in Construction funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 4) to provide additional federal construction funds to fund this project to completion, and 5) to allow for the use of “design-build” in order to deliver this project in an expedited manner,” the lawmakers continued.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Assistant Secretary Connor:

In advance of your upcoming trip to tour the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project (Pajaro) in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in California, we ask that you take immediate steps to provide emergency relief to the towns of Pajaro and Watsonville and to accelerate construction of the federally authorized levee project.

As you know, the community of Pajaro experienced a serious levee failure on March 11, resulting in the evacuation of over 2,000 people, 200 water rescues, significant flooding of farms, and closure of a major transportation artery (Highway 1). The great majority of those impacted by the floods are farmworkers who have lost both their homes and their livelihoods. As California experiences another atmospheric river storm that will stress the already impacted levee system, we are requesting your assistance in providing emergency repairs and in expediting construction of the Pajaro project.

Specifically, we urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to 1) provide P.L. 84-99 funds for emergency rehabilitation in a manner that rebuilds the levees to meet higher performance standards, 2) to expedite the requisite engineering reviews and project agreements, 3) to expedite the expenditure of the $149 million in Construction funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 4) to provide additional federal construction funds to fund this project to completion, and 5) to encourage the use of “design-build” or other innovative delivery methods in order to execute this project in an expedited manner.

We remain extremely grateful that this Administration, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provided $149 million toward construction of the project. While it was not soon enough to avoid the most recent flood, it was an historic achievement for a project that has been continually neglected for over 50 years.

Thank you for your attention to this important project, and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Source: Senator Dianne Feinstein