SLR Lagoon Culvert Project Public Participation Welcomed By Santa Cruz Transportation And Public Works Commission

Press release from the City of Santa Cruz:

September 8, 2020

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The City of Santa Cruz Transportation and Public Works Commission is requesting public feedback and questions regarding the San Lorenzo River (SLR) Lagoon Culvert Project on Monday, Sept. 21, at 6 p.m. Interested persons are encouraged to attend this virtual meeting and comment on the issues being discussed at https://zoom.us/j/99054692912 /meeting ID: 990 5469 2912.

The SLR Lagoon Culvert Project will have multiple benefits across environmental, public safety and infrastructure fronts, and has been in design, in partnership with regulatory agencies for many years including NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Coastal Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the California State Water Resources Control Board and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The project will:

• Prevent unnatural flooding of the lower Ocean and Beach Flat neighborhoods caused by a closed lagoon (a condition that has been exasperated unnaturally by the construction of the harbor jetties in the 1960s).
• Reduce or eliminate “catastrophic” breaches of the lagoon which seriously damages the lagoon habitat for and can purge protected species including steelhead trout and tidewater goby.
• Mitigate or eliminate the life safety danger posed by lagoon breaches which can sweep beachgoers into life-threatening swift waters.

The project is entirely funded by a $2,215,000 grant received from the California Wildlife Conservation Board’s Streamflow Enhancement Program with no impact to the City’s General Fund.

Further San Lorenzo River Lagoon Culvert Project details are posted in English and Spanish at www.cityofsantacruz.com/Culvert. Details for participation at the Sept. 21 virtual meeting are listed at www.cityofsantacruz.com/TPWC.

Public comments may also be submitted (no later than 12 noon on Sept. 21) by email: TPWC@cityofsantacruz.com.

This press release was produced by the City of Santa Cruz. The views expressed here are the author’s own.