Chorro Creek has been known to flood nearby areas during heavy rains, but a new project in the works is designed to change that.
The winter storms of 2023 caused levees around the Chorro Creek area to breach.
“The 2023 storms were really catastrophic for this area. Some of the homes on Chorro Creek Road were flooded more than once, and there were several breaches in the levees behind us, so we are looking to alleviate that happening in the future,” said Hallie Richard, Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District executive director.
“One night we had five inches of rain, which broke all the creeks around here,” said Russell Banner, Morro Bay resident.
Russell Banner lives near Chorro Creek and says his home saw $100,000 in damages due to the 2023 flooding.
“I was trying to fight it. I have walls all around here and three auxiliary pumps, but there was no hope. It got in the house,” Banner said.
The Lower Chorro Creek Watershed Floodplain Resilience Project is being led by the Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District. The project is currently in its planning phase.
“One of the projects that we are proposing in the first sweep of implementation would be on the city’s parcel,” Richard said.
The first phase will cost about $4.5 million, which Resource Conservation District Executive Director Hallie Richard says will hopefully be grant-funded.
“We are looking at potentially setting back some of the existing levees or reconnecting floodplains, so that would remove strategic parts of the levees so that the high flows can access the existing floodplains,” Richard said.
“If we could sit here comfortably and not worry about the floods. It would be great,” Banner said.
Construction is expected to start in 2027.
