PAJARO — More than 500 residents and business owners have filed a lawsuit against Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, as well as various other agencies and municipalities, alleging that all accused parties could have done more to prevent the massive floods that occurred in Watsonville and Pajaro between Dec. 31, 2022, and March 11.
The lawsuit was filed in December and names the counties of Monterey and Santa Cruz, city of Watsonville, California Department of Transportation, Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Santa Cruz County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency.
The suit covers the early months of 2023, between New Year’s Eve when a surge in rainfall at Corralitos Creek caused water to spill out into several neighborhoods in Watsonville and trapped residents in their homes, to March 11, when a breach at the Pajaro River levee resulted in flooding of the community of Pajaro and damage to several homes, businesses and agricultural fields.
“On and around those dates, public improvements, including storm drain infrastructure and the public works known as the Pajaro Flood Control Project, failed and gave way at flows within their normal operating and design capacity discharging water, silt and debris upon and across Plaintiffs’ properties all to the damage of Plaintiffs and their property,” per the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Brian Kabateck, Marina Pacheco and Annie Martin-McDonough of the Los Angeles law firm Kabateck LLP and Emily Ruby of the El Segundo firm Greenberg and Ruby Injury Attorneys, APC. The parties had previously filed a claim in June.
The suit claimed that the floods were the result of the “defendants’ failure to properly and reasonably design, construct, control, maintain, repair, inspect and operate public improvements in a manner that they were legally obligated by.”
The suit emphasized that floods have been recorded in the lower Pajaro watershed since the 19th century, and a major flooding event has occurred every decade since. The suit cited prior floods in 1955, 1958, 1982, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2017 and 2018 as instances of the levee not being properly maintained.
“In 1963, the USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) reported that the levee system is inadequate and only provides five to eight-year protection,” per the lawsuit. “The standard protection guarantee is 100 years. A project to improve the levee system was authorized by Congress in 1966, but for more than 50 years, it has languished.”
Regarding the New Year’s Eve flooding, the lawsuit alleged that floodwaters had escaped the channel on the southern bank of Corralitos Creek and flowed through low-lying agricultural fields on the floodplain where it momentarily gathered in a drainage basin that was kept up privately and connected to the fields, creating a temporary dam along Highway 152 and overwhelming the flood control channel at Bridge Street, clogging drainage inlets and flowing into neighborhoods, such as the senior Bay Village community.
“Plaintiffs are homeowners, renters, business owners, and other individuals and entities whose property and lives were, literally and figuratively, washed away with little to no advance warning,” per the lawsuit. “Plaintiffs’ properties and homes were inundated with floodwaters, including mud, silt and debris, which caused significant stress to Plaintiffs, and damage to their real and personal property.”
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The lawsuit also claimed the damage was the result of improper design and maintenance of Highway 1 and Highway 152. The defendants argued that the rerouting of Highway 1 in 1967 and construction of a new bridge and planned embankment over the Pajaro River obstructed the drainage system and that Highway 152’s drainage capacity was inadequate to accommodate floodwaters.
“Plaintiffs are further informed and believe that the culverts are inadequate and unsafe in that, among other things, they are not equipped with trash gates, that the culverts are subject to clogging, and that clogging occurred on and around March 11,” per the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are seeking general and special damages, compensation, attorney’s fees, litigation expenses and pre and post-judgment interest, among other things.
The suit is scheduled to be heard in a case management conference at 9 a.m. April 30 in the Monterey County Superior Court.
Representatives of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties declined to comment as the litigation is pending.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is already planning to build a new levee system, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a bill by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, in October. The construction is expected to begin over the summer.
