Andy Guiterrez has seen the Santa Maria riverbed flood time and time again since calling Guadalupe his home in 1957.
Most recently, he watched the church where his mother’s funeral was held flood and an entire neighborhood get destroyed when a river levee breached during the January storms, he told the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 12.
“Help us,” he pleaded to the supervisors. “Have the hindsight to see what needs to be done. … Now we’re looking at El Niño, climate change, all this other stuff going on, it will happen again. It will.”
Guiterrez was one of more than 20 Guadalupe residents requesting the board to approve a plan and the funding to realign the Santa Maria River and create temporary solutions to prevent future flood damage.
“[This project] will assist and protect the disadvantaged community of Guadalupe; it will take hundreds of acres of farmland out of the river bottom and resume access to the Guadalupe dunes,” Public Works Director Scott McGolpin told the supervisors.
The river’s south bank breached during the historic winter of rain, flooding Pioneer Street’s church and homes, cutting off the Guadalupe Dunes and beach access and flooding the city’s wastewater treatment plant—releasing non-disinfected effluent into the river and the Pacific Ocean, McGolpin told supervisors. West Main Street was also destroyed when the river left its natural path, and the street is now considered part of the river bottom.
The project, which supervisors unanimously approved, will take $8 million in county funds to remove sediment and vegetation from the riverbed, realign the river, and provide HESCO Baskets—filled with sand, dirt, or gravel—to protect communities along Pioneer Street and help prevent flooding.
Normally the county relies on state and federal funding for these recovery projects, but both state and federal agencies determined that the issue was not an emergency and declined to provide additional funding, McGolpin said.
“On Aug. 4, the governor issued an executive order allowing work in waterways if they are dry to repair levees and remove debris due to historic rainfall. This executive order is why we are here today,” McGolpin said. “It will expire on Nov. 1 without an extension, and if the disadvantaged community of Guadalupe has got any chance this coming winter, the county of Santa Barbara has to take on a leadership role, as we’re finding no other level of government wants to do that.”
If the county didn’t take action, the flooded areas would become regulated waters of the U.S. by 2025, cutting off North County beach access, risking the closure of West Main Street, and losing acres of farmland, Deputy Director of Water Resources Walter Rubalcava added.
“This is not a permanent fix; all this repair is temporary and subject to breakouts. The community needs to understand this is not a future long-term fix,” Rubalcava said. “However, in its current state, any flow can be problematic.”
Benjamin Pitterle, Los Padres ForestWatch’s director of advocacy and field operations, said during public comment that the nonprofit recognizes serious concerns about flooding, but he wanted the supervisors to understand that rivers meander and it’s a natural process.
“We have recognized that this part of the floodplain has been deeply encroached by agriculture, but with farming in the floodplain it’s not surprising that flooding has happened,” Pitterle said. “We aren’t saying do nothing, especially with respect to protecting homes and infrastructure, but we do have concerns with massive excavations of the main channel.”
Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson responded and said that the Santa Maria Valley is one large floodplain and the county’s been working on finding balance between agriculture and nature. The supervisors all agreed that this action needed to be taken because of the Nov. 1 deadline, but Nelson encouraged ForestWatch to be a part of the solution in this process.
Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, who represents Guadalupe, said that he’s been impressed with Guadalupe’s resilience and was proud to see this project pass.
“Members of this board, they set aside their own interests. They have districts like I do; everyone put their project on the backburner and voted to spend a lot of money to support our most underserved community. Today you guys were public servants and you should be proud,” Lavagnino said.
This article appears in Sep 14-24, 2023.