Featured IWRP Projects

Rural Roads Erosion Control Technical Assistance Program

This IWRP component is currently being developed. It includes the expansion of the RCD rural roads technical assistance program throughout the San Lorenzo River, Soquel Creek, and Aptos Creek watersheds, including non-county road targeted assessments, landowner outreach, and designs and permits for 20-40 road-related erosion control projects. These road-related design projects will follow the same track described in the IWRP Design & Coordination Process.

As identified in the local watershed plans, the San Lorenzo River Sediment Source Assessment, and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s San Lorenzo River Sediment Total Maximum Daily Load report, one of the major sources of sediment is from poorly maintained public and private roads. With funding from the Department of Fish and Game, the County is currently preparing road erosion as-sessments for all county roads in the San Lorenzo River and Soquel Creek watersheds. To give a sense of the scale of needed road repairs, these assessments have identified over $49,000,000 worth of implementation projects. There is currently no comparable assessment underway for non-county roads. Given the size of the non-county road system and the high cost of conducting road erosion assessments, a more realistic approach is to target key areas with a road association outreach and assis-tance program. This one-on-one approach also provides an important educational op-portunity which can lead to increased awareness of potential problems before they become excessively expensive to repair.

The RCD has developed such a program within parts of the San Lorenzo River water-shed under the auspices of a current federally-funded State Water Quality Control Board 319(h) grant, and under past grants. Working with private road associations, several demonstration projects have been successfully completed. The current 319(h) grant is establishing a San Lorenzo River private roads technical advisory committee to focus on water quality objectives and establish criteria for project selection that in-corporate endangered species concerns. The grant also includes the development of two workshops, a small amount of money for designs for additional demonstration projects in the San Lorenzo River watershed, and funding for some project implementation. Because the need is so great, the Regional Water Quality Control Board is urging the RCD to submit more projects for implementation funding. The RCD has also obtained a grant from the Department of Fish and Game to host technical training for road repair consultants and contractors working in the San Lorenzo River, Soquel Creek, and Aptos Creek watersheds.

The proposed IWRP component is to take this successful model and expand it throughout the entire San Lorenzo River watershed and to the Soquel and Aptos Creek watersheds. The San Lorenzo River technical advisory committee will be expanded, or comparable committees created, to cover the other watersheds. Advisory committee members will include staff from the County of Santa Cruz, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Department of Fish and Game, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and certified professional erosion and sediment control specialists, and will include a water quality specialist, a fisheries specialist, and a roads engineer. This committee(s) will assist in identifying target areas and monitoring program success. The RCD will also significantly expand its outreach efforts to private road associations in the Soquel and Aptos Creek watersheds to explain the assistance program and will conduct additional assessments on approximately 75 miles of non-county roads using the Department of Fish and Game’s road assessment protocols (Chapter 9 of the California Salmonid Stream Habitat Restoration Manual) and identify projects. Designs, permits, and environmental review documentation will be prepared for 20-40 key projects identified in the three watersheds through this process so that they are ready for implementation. Implementation of these projects will be funded by future grants and/or by the affected residents.

Additional details on this component will be posted here as they become available.

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