Difference between revisions of "Conversion of Carr Lake to a Multi-Use Park"

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(Stakeholders)
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* The [[Big Sur Land Trust]][http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/]<ref name="Big Sur Newsletter 2015">[https://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/userfiles/file/BigSurLandTrustNewsletter11-2015.pdf Big Sur Newsletter 2015]</ref>
 
* The [[Big Sur Land Trust]][http://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/]<ref name="Big Sur Newsletter 2015">[https://www.bigsurlandtrust.org/userfiles/file/BigSurLandTrustNewsletter11-2015.pdf Big Sur Newsletter 2015]</ref>
 
* City of Salinas[http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/]
 
* City of Salinas[http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/]
* National Park Service [http://www.nps.gov/]
+
* [[National Park Service]]
 
* Planning and Conservation League [http://www.pcl.org]
 
* Planning and Conservation League [http://www.pcl.org]
 
* [[The Nature Conservancy (TNC)]] [http://www.nature.org/]
 
* [[The Nature Conservancy (TNC)]] [http://www.nature.org/]
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* Return of the Natives Restoration Educational Project [http://watershed.csumb.edu/ron/roncor/cor/]
 
* Return of the Natives Restoration Educational Project [http://watershed.csumb.edu/ron/roncor/cor/]
 
* Salinas Residents
 
* Salinas Residents
 
  
 
== Laws, policies, & regulations ==
 
== Laws, policies, & regulations ==

Revision as of 22:46, 28 March 2017

A watershed-related issue examined by the ENVS 560/L Watershed Systems class at CSUMB.

Summary

Carr Lake, the largest wetland area in the lower Salinas Valley, is located in the heart of the City of Salinas. Historically, James D. Carr drained most of the lake for agricultural use as part of the Reclamation Ditch project in 1910. This project was part of a nationwide trend to drain wetlands to create more available lands for agriculture and urban development [1]. The resulting reclamation ditch continues to drain approximately 157 square miles of land into Monterey Bay. Currently there is an effort to purchase the agricultural land and convert it to a regional park with recreational areas for the people of Salinas, a wetland area to improve water quality and mitigate flooding during high storm years, and an educational place where people can explore and study nature (Cameron et al 2003)[2]. In January 2017, the Big Sur Land Trust purchased 73 acres of farmland from the Ikeda family for $3.95 million [3].


Location

Carr Lake is located at the confluence of three tributaries: Gabilan Creek, Alisal Creek and Natividad Creek. It drains into the the Gabilan / Reclamation Ditch Watershed which flows to the Pacific Ocean at Moss Landing Harbor. It is located in the center of the City of Salinas and bounded by Laurel Drive, Sherwood Drive, Natividad Road and Highway 101. Most of Carr Lake has been converted to agricultural land [citation needed].


Resources at stake

  1. Community

According to the Trust for Public Lands, Salinas has less than a quarter of the amount of recommended open space for healthy communities; adding Carr Lake would nearly double its park space (Anderson 2008). There is a hope that the recreational facilities, community gardens, bird habitat areas and other features of the park could provide a healthy outlet for local youthful energy (Anderson 2008). Combined with adjacent parks, it would be about the size of Golden Gate Park, with potential economic benefits of drawing in tourists for Salinas (Watershed 2008).

  1. Ecology

With the proper design, restoring Carr Lake's wetlands could provide habitat for the threatened tiger salamander and red-legged frog as well as for sensitive bird species (Casagrande and Watson 2007). The proposed wetland could potentially diminish pollutants and the agricultural nutrients, sediments and pesticides found in the discharge that enters Carr Lake from its three tributaries (Casagrande et al 2006). This would benefit the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which is home to otters and other marine life.

  1. Flood protection

The agricultural land of Carr Lake is commonly flooded, however during El Nino events flooding extends into the adjacent trailer park area. Photos of flooding in 1998 can be viewed at the link (Watershed 2008): [1]

  1. Economics


Stakeholders

The Carr Lake Project has banded together an array of government, non-profit and citizen groups to promote its path forward. Its Advisory Council is composed of the following members (Watershed 2008):


Laws, policies, & regulations

The Clean Water Act of 1972 makes polluting our nation's waters illegal, however regulating non-point source pollution has been slow, difficult and largely ineffective to date. Water quality monitoring of the three incoming tributaries revealed excessive nutrients, pesticides and sediment above TMDL standards (Casagrande et al. 2006). Although federal law does not require agricultural to obtain permits for water discharges, California Water Code now requires requires monitoring of agricultural drainage and requires regional water boards to assess their efforts to stem pollution (Dowd 2008). In 2009 the status of the agricultural waiver program comes up for review and the water board may make changes to existing permits and waivers (Doud 2008).

Currently available bond money from two propositions passed by state voters, Propositions 84 and 1E, may potentially provide the money to purchase the land from current owners, the first step in developing the park. The Big Sur Land Trust has begun negotiating with the three Japanese-American families (Higashi, Hibino and Ikeda) who own the land (Anderson 2008).


Science

  • Extensive monitoring of water quality of the Carr Lake watershed (the tributaries, drainage ditch and Tembladero Slough) has been conducted by CCoWS (Casagrande et al. 2006).
  • An investigation of the biophysical benefits of creating the park analyzed its value from a hydrological, biological, and water quality perspective (Casagrande and Watson 2007).
  • The Cal Poly student design team assessed the potential social, economic, flood control and educational value that could be gained from the park (Cameron et al. 2003).


Scientific Tools

  • Photography has been used to capture images of flooding events, erosion, fish and other ecological and social problems associated with Carr Lake and its watershed.
  • GIS has been used to project flooding event changes if the proposed flood controls are implemented. GIS was also a design tool for alternative models and proposals of the layout of the park.
  • Added tools that could help make the case for Carr lake would be to model contaminant removal by the proposed wetlands area. As there are different proposals for how much acreage out of the total 480 acre park area to devote to wetlands, modeling concentration removal of known pollutants could help predict the water quality improvements for each proposal and enable better decision making.


Future research

  • Knowledge gaps:
    • NOAA has classified the upper Gabilan area as steelhead habitat, but it is unknown whether there is a steelhead population in this region (Casagrande and Watson 2007). Research to determine the presence (or absence) and extent of such a population would be a help to determining protective measures. The other nine lakes were once wetlands and animal habitat and there may be other areas in the watershed that could be ideal locations for constructed wetlands to improve water quality. A study to determine appropriate locations and efficiencies of wetlands to provide improved water quality to mitigate pollution from agricultural and urban runoff could be helpful for future planning.
  • Potential CWSP MS thesis topic:
    • Possible CWSP thesis topics could be a population study of steelhead trout in Gabilan Creek. A second helpful thesis could be to model restored Carr Lake as a wetland for reducing pollutant concentrations. Another thesis topic could be a watershed approach to locating wetlands to improve water quality from nonpoint source pollution. A third topic could be an analysis of the influence of agricultural best management practices on reducing agricultural pollutants. Methods for managing urban runoff and for reducing or removing pollutants in the City of Salinas could also be a useful topic.
  • Potential study if resources were unlimited:
    • If resources were unlimited, a study of the economics and biophysical benefits of reconstructing all ten lakes for habitat and for wetland areas to control pollution would provide a vision of how to recover and restore the land both in coincidence with its original nature and in ways that would help with water quality problems created by modern ways of life. Research into pollutant cycling and transformation and effects on wildlife would be useful to determine how best to manage a living water treatment system.


Notes and References

  1. History of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States
  2. http://php.csumb.edu/watershed/carrlake/
  3. Big Sur Land Trust Buys Carr Lake
  4. Big Sur Newsletter 2015


Links


Disclaimer

This page may contain student work completed as part of assigned coursework. It may not be accurate. It does not necessary reflect the opinion or policy of CSUMB, its staff, or students.