Emergency breach at San Lorenzo River sends water gushing into the ocean

Crews created quite a spectacle on Monday in Santa Cruz as they went to work on the mouth of the San Lorenzo River to stop flooding on city streets. They had to deal with a sandbar that had gotten too high near East Cliff Drive. Crews cut the sandbar in half to allow the river to flow through to the ocean.

Water seen running down Ocean Street wasn’t because of a leak. It was an overflow of water from the river because of an emergency breach.

“There is less water coming down the river so the sandbar between the river and the ocean gets bigger and wider and harder to push through from mother nature’s perspective so we have to kind of help,” assistant city manager Scott Collins said.

A quarter of the boardwalks beach was closed as crews were at work moving sand while the river made its way to the ocean. The city plans to lower the San Lorenzo River by three feet to prevent any flooding from occurring. The river’s water level was at seven feet and was re-directed into the ocean at a fast pace.

“We have biologists monitoring sensitive species in the area to make sure they’re not rushing out,” Collins said.

They’ve also outlined the mouth of the river with a net to keep any debris from going into the ocean. The river breach was a site to see, as many spectators gathered up top east cliff drive to watch the action from above.

“I was quite amazed the way they were cutting in through the sand…. looked like giant Tonka toys playing,” tourist Steven Smith said.

Crews started their work on the beach at 6 a.m., moving sand and monitoring the river.

“We want to come up with a different way to do this. We’re currently working with the agencies to come up with a pipe system that allows us to maintain water level at five feet throughout the year,” Collins said.

Once the river is at four feet crews will close up the sand bar. They hoped to finish the work by Monday.