The Chapter Pajaro River Watershed Committee chaired by Lois Robin submitted comments on April 16 written by our lawyers, Richard Roos-Collins and Gary Patton and sent to the County Sponsors as well as other interested officials.The purpose of the letter is to get an improved document for the Bench Excavation Project. The project proposes to excavate excess sediment from selected locations along the upper terrace benches inside the Pajaro River levees in order to improve flood carrying capacity of the levee system. The project area is the lower 7.5 miles of the Pajaro River mainstem beginning west of Murphy Road crossing and ending east of the Highway 1 bridge.

The Committee found the Mitigated Negative Declaration to have significant flaws and wish to get the Sponsors to be more specific about several significant items. Please read the PDF to learn about concerns the Committee has with the Bench Excavation project planned for the Pajaro River.