Alejo, Cannella both introduce Salinas River channel-clearing bills.

A plan for clearing excess vegetation from the banks of the Salinas River seems to be as elusive these days as the river itself. 

Much of the riverbed is bone dry, making flooding seem like just a remote possibility. But growers with high-value crops near the river banks worry deeply about the possibility of severe flooding in a rainy winter. 

That's gotten many of the stakeholders in this regulatory tangle trying to propose a solution for Salinas River channel maintenance, effectively how to create a system of permitting for landowners to clear trees and brush from the riverbed, which in theory would let water flow faster past their fields and out to the bay. 

The County Water Resources Agency axed its own plan, prepared for about $600,000 by a contractor (where former agency GM Curtis Weeks now works), that would have allowed removal of vegetation. Without a plan in place, no work has been done since 2008, leading to dense overgrowth.

The Nature Conservancy has been convening stakeholder meetings with growers for about four months, working on plans for a pilot project to remove vegetation in very focused, strategic locations.

And the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is holding an all-day workshop March 6 in Salinas in an effort to get various stakeholders talking. 

"The intention is to bring everybody together to figure out solutions on how this work could happen," says the water board's Jennifer Epp. 

Meanwhile, the Salinas Valley's two reps in Sacramento—Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, and Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres—each introduced a bill last week that would aim to resolve the stalemate on Salinas River channel maintenance. 

Cannella held a press conference in December to promote his plans for a special loophole in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to let growers swiftly remove pesky vegetation. 

"I want to see all available options to get it cleared," Cannella said. "We cannot ignore this anymore."

That option comes in the form of SB 1398, which would allow farmers and landowners to proceed with vegetation removal—and block the courts from halting such activity.

CEQA lawsuits are a familiar feature of the Monterey County land use issues, and Cannella's bill would stop such lawsuits from interfering with channel maintenance work unless that work is shown to imminently threaten public safety.  

Meanwhile, Alejo introduced AB 155,  which would require the county Water Resources Agency to establish a "consensus-based comprehensive Salinas River Management Program," along with a steering committee to develop said program. 

Countywide losses from 1998 flooding totaled more than $38 million, according to Cannella's bill, and ag-related losses alone were more than $7 million.  

1995 floods caused some $240 million worth of damage, according to language in Alejo's bill. 

While the bills proceed toward Senate and Assembly committee hearings in Sacramento, the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County is moving forward with plans of its own to get permits for removal of invasive species. 

RCD is aiming to remove arundo and tamarisk this fall and summer, which would mean spraying glyphosate from an ATV or small tractor in the dry riverbed next August. 

The largest untreated population of bamboo-like arundo, which crowds out native species, is along the Salinas River, says RCD Director Paul Robins. "We're mostly focused on big nasty weeds," he says.