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Arroyo Grande Creek Floods
"Flooding streams bring terror to city dwellers
and raise havoc on farmlands. Every fire in the mountainous watersheds
means ravaging erosion and muddy silt in the streambeds that can overflow
covering precious farmland. Various federal agencies started to address
the problem of destructive floodwaters as far back as the 1891 order setting
aside the National Forest Reserves. The Soil Erosion Service was created
in 1933 in the Department of the Interior, " wrote John Dunlap in the Los
Angles Times on July 27, 1957.
In response to soil erosion and flooding damage
the United States Department of Agriculture started the Soil Conservation
Service (SCS) in 1935 and Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1937
which ushered in a partnership between local farmers and the Federal Government.
In 1937 states began to pass laws authorizing farmers to organize soil
conservation districts. The San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water
Conservation District (CFCWCD) was organized in 1944. The Arroyo Grande
Soil Conservation District (AGSCD) was founded in 1952.
"The flood of 1952 was severe and 450 acres
of rich farmland was flooded leaving behind silt and debris. Roads and
bridges were washed out and in the watershed raging water cut deep gullies
and the silt was carried onto the farmland. The cost of the flood totaled
$129,000, disrupting the economy of the Five Cities," wrote Mr. Dunlap. |
| Congress appropriated $5,000,000 in 1953
to start 60 watershed projects. "The act was designed for smaller projects
and to supplement present soil-water conservation programs and flood control
plans at the local level. In 1954 Congress passed the Watershed Protection
and Flood Prevention Act (Public Law 566). Each project is a local undertaking
with Federal help, not a Federal project with local help," wrote Mr. Dunlap.
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2)
"The Arroyo Grande Valley and the La Cienega
Valley have approximately 2,500 acres of prime vegetable cropland on the
valley floor that is threatened every time there is a flood. Damaging floods
occurred in the Arroyo Grande Valley in 1862, 1895, 1909, 1911, 1914, 1926,
1927, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1941, 1943, and 1952. Both property
and lives have been lost as a direct result of flooding," according to
John Dunlap.
Government Agencies Offer
Help |
| "A full scale coordinated approach to the
water problems of the entire Arroyo Grande Creek watershed was mapped at
a joint meeting of representatives of nine local, state, and federal agencies
on October 27, 1954, reported the Arroyo Grande Herald Recorder (AG Harold
Recorder) on 11/5/54. The meeting was held in the Arroyo Grande Soil Conservation
District office in the Brisco Building on Branch Street. Edwin Taylor,
Chairman of AGSCD stated, "Flood control and water conservation are probably
of equal importance to the watershed, with soil erosion control next in
importance."
The AGSCD directors called the meeting. The
AGSCD Board members assisting Taylor were: Keith Rapp, vegetable and cattle
farmer, Lester Sullivan and Manuel Silva vegetable growers, and Ed Campodonico
cattle and grain farmer. Keith Rapp spent many hours as District Secretary
and Bookkeeper. His dedication to detail can be seen in the AGSCD official
minutes and the documents he cataloged.
The AGSCD and CFCWCD Directors were confident
Arroyo Grande could qualify for the PL 566 Project funds because the benefits
to the community far exceeded the costs. They formed a partnership with
the federal and state government so that the Soil Conservation Service
and the Forest Service could provide financial aid and trained technicians.
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3)
The information on pages
3 and 4 of this report are from:
1953 Arroyo Grande Watershed
Report |
| Flood damage is prevalent along all major
channels due to debris stoppages and inadequate channel sections, and from
tributary overland flow across cultivated lands. The lower Arroyo Grande
Valley is flooded on a frequency of about once every five years. This damage
is attributed to inadequate channels and channels with poorly aligned gravely
embankments. Which fail to contain flood waters in the Los Berros and Arroyo
Grande Creeks, from a point approximately ¼ mile above State Highway
No. 56 (Hwy. #1) to the Pacific Ocean, an area of about 1,685 acres.
Truck crops and commercial flower seeds are
damaged during flood flows by debris, inundation and sedimentation. In
the years 1911 and 1914 deposition and gullying required releveling of
the entire area. Releveling of portions of the area was required in the
years 1936, 1941, 1944, and 1952.
During the 1952 floods, 12 residences in Oceano
area were damaged by floodwaters. The newly constructed Oceano airport,
a San Luis Obispo County owned and operated installation is situated in
the flood area. State Highway No. 56 (Hwy. #1) is inundated during flood
flows and a portion of the Halcyon Road, an improved County Road, was washed
out during the 1952 flood. Telephone and power lines are rendered inoperative
and the Southern Pacific Railroad main line is placed in jeopardy during
flood flows, page 2 of the 1953 AG Watershed Report.
The main thread of the Arroyo Grande Ceek,
¼ miles above State Highway No. 56 (Hwy. #1) upstream to the City
of Arroyo Grande has been observed to be deepening. It is presently 30
to 50 feet in depth and 100 to 300 feet in width, while downstream in Arroyo
Grande and Los Berros Creeks, deposition has been occurring to the extent
of inadequate channel capacity. Disposal of runoff
waters along all principal streams causes fingering into adjacent farmlands.
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Accelerated erosion exists along the upper
sloping lands adjacent to the valley bottoms where winter peas and pole
beans are or have been grown, page 3 of the AG watershed Report.
District Assessment 1953
The present district assessment, based on
benefits to zone No. 1, San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water
Conservation District, has been levied annually since 1946, 1949 excepted,
and raises approximately $5000 annually. A bond issue has recently been
passed bonding Zone No. 1 for $40,000. Those funds are available plus $5,000,
which will be available in this tax year, a total of $45,000, page 8 of
the 1953 Watershed Report. In 1942 the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, investigated
a multiple purpose dam structure on Arroyo Grande Creek below the junction
of Lopez Canyon and found the site satisfactory, but not economically feasible
at that time, from the Arroyo Grande Watershed Project Report.
R. D. Perry of the SCS complimented the local
board on its approach to the watershed problem and on the start made. He
said that the Department of Agriculture regards the control of erosion
as an important object of the Watershed Protection Act, reported Mr. Newell
W. Strother, Editor AG Harold-Recorder.
According to Clark Moore, retired SCS District
Conservationist, The main channel of the Arroyo Grande Creek was
studied by SCS Engineer F. Earl Ross. He documented the watershed involvement
in the channel erosion and sediment deposits. The new information was added
to previous investigations and surveys by all organizations. Mr.
Ross developed a comprehensive flood control plan for the entire valley. |
| People worked together to get the project
underway. Of the farmers, particular credit goes to Edwin Taylor, large
scale vegetable grower in Oceano and Lompoc. Edwin was president of the
Arroyo Grande Water Conservation District (AGSCD), served as trustee on
both the Arroyo Grande High School and on the Elementary School District.
Taylor devoted long hours to district meetings, right-of–way conferences,
inspections and other responsibilities of his volunteer assignment, wrote
Mr. Dunlap.
Please Note: Due to extensive
erosion, old car bodies were used to try to stabilize the creek banks and
they had to be removed when AG PL566 Project was built.
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5)
"Edwin Taylor is a native son whose grandfather
settled in Arroyo Grande in 1876, so he knows the need of protecting the
2000-acre valley from flooding," continued John Dunlap in the Los Angeles
Times. Edwin’s son John Taylor is carrying on the family tradition of farming
in the Arroyo Grande Valley,
Edwin was also chairman of the FCWCD along
with J. Vard Loomis, John Enos, Joe T. Silva, Emmett Montgomery, Kazuo
Ikeda and C.L. Conrow. Kazuo Ikeda served on the FCWCD Board. His sons
Vard and Stan farm their land in the Arroyo Grande Valley and La Cienega
valley.
DESIGNATED CONSULTANT
Clark
Moore was assigned by SCS to help the Arroyo Grande farmers on their flood
control project. He arrived in Arroyo Grande in 1954 as the District Conservationist;
Moore was a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Counting his 16 years
of service with the SCS and his Army Corps of Engineer work during World
War II and the Korean War, Clark Moore was well qualified to be the designated
consultant for the proposed 566 Project.
“Moore
is largely responsible for the educational efforts and guidance, which
inspired the Arroyo Grande farmers to organize the district and get the
project moving,” was written in a San Luis Obispo newspaper on August 2,
1957. Clark Moore conducted on site interviews with local farmers to determine
how much damage was done by past floods. This information was needed to
show that benefits of a flood control program would be greater than the
cost. |
Section
II (1952-1961)
