San Clemente Dam to be Torn Down After All?

The silted-up, unsafe, San Clemente Dam

With its reservoir filled in, the San Clemente Dam is useless for water storage. It prevents steelhead from reaching their spawning grounds and, as the nearly 90 year old structure is fragile enough to fail in even a moderate earthquake, it poses a serious threat to downstream communities.

We wrote earlier this year about dam-owner, Cal-Am’s announcement that they were rejecting the nearly completed (and nearly fully funded) plan to remove the dam and moving forward with an alternate plan to inter it in concrete where it stands. We doubted the permitting agencies would allow Cal-Am to do this since, while buttressing the dam in place might make it safe for downstream residents, it could easily make a real recovery for the Carmel River steelhead impossible.

And, sure enough, Cal-Am is already abandoning the buttressing plan.

This bit of theater on Cal-Am’s part was apparently an attempt to pressure someone else (the government or the foundations providing dam removal funding) into accepting liability for the removal project. Although Cal-Am does not appear to have succeeded in shifting the liability, they have now announced that they are back on board with the removal project. Hopefully, this badly needed project can get rolling now without any further shenanigans.

 

Second Carmel Lagoon “Emergency” in Less Than a Month

The water rises

Heavy surf began throwing waves over the sandbar late last night and by four in the morning a new “emergency” had been declared and the County Dozers were back in action trying to breach the bar and keep the water out of the lagoon-bottom homes.

Gathering Boletes

King Bolete, Porcini, Cep, Steinpilz … no matter what language you speak, Boletus edulis is one of the world’s most prized mushrooms.

Order WR 2009-0060: State Water Board Cracks Down on Cal-Am’s Carmel River Water Addiction

The Carmel River

A few weeks ago, Monterey Peninsula residents were treated to an unusual spectacle as much of the local business and political leadership boarded busses for Sacramento for a humiliating session of begging and pleading with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).

Surf City Halloween Costume Cross

Waiting for the start of the Costume Cross

Secret Stimulus: Federal Transparency Policy Fails to Crack Forest Service Code of Omerta

Ventana Wilderness trails could use some work. How many of the 203 million stimulus dollars the Forest Service plans to spend in California will make it to places like this?

Waves Rebuild Carmel River Lagoon Sandbar

Less than a week after the County drained the Carmel Lagoon to prevent flooding, waves have thrown up a new sandbar

Bicycle Ride: Carmel to Morro Bay

We use our point & shoot camera to take a fuzzy video of an October 10, 2009 bike ride from Carmel to Morro Bay, add some irritating copyright-free music, and post it on the Internet:

Carmel Lagoon Breached in Annual “Emergency” Ritual

The Carmel River Lagoon drains into the ocean through the newly bulldozed cut

Every year when the Carmel River begins to flow it backs up behind the sandbar at the beach and threatens to flood homes built on the floor of the lagoon. And every year the County shows up with bulldozers and breaches the sandbar to protect the homes. The breaching empties the lagoon, saves the homes, and washes out to sea juvenile steelhead not yet prepared to survive in salt water.

Rivers Rise as Deluge gets Rainy Season Underway

Well, the remnants of Typhoon Melor proved to be every bit as wet as advertised. As it so often does, Mining Ridge (above Big Creek) took the prize with a whopping 21.34 inches of rain. Accumulations of over 10 inches were common at higher elevations in the Santa Lucia’s and, while we haven’t heard of any serious debris flow problems, the rivers and creeks went from trickle to torrent in only a few hours.