In today's newscast:
A new resilience plan outlines challenges facing the Pajaro River watershed.
It was one of five pilot programs funded by the California Department of Water Resources.
Marcus Mendiola with the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency says the plan took 18 months and 20 partner groups to create.
“We were asking the community, 'where are you concerned about, what are you concerned about, what should we be modeling, how should we be quantifying the future hazards?'" he said. "And then, 'what plans should we make to mitigate those hazards?'”
The plan considers climate change scenarios of up to three degrees Celsius of warming over the next 70 years. Some of the issues are sea level rise, hotter weather, flooding and seawater intrusion.
Mendiola says while the watershed is unique, its problems represent a lot of the world—like using too much groundwater.
"We still have an overdraft issue, and we have the ocean water filling in the space," he said, "and there is a global problem of too much groundwater extraction."
The plan also includes some solutions like native plant restoration, levee construction and land-use changes. The group expects to know more about implementing projects later this year.
A new economic study shows travel spending in Monterey County reached $3.3 billion last year.
The tourism nonprofit See Monterey says that’s a 4% increase from the previous year and the highest amount ever. But it’s not clear how much of it was driven by inflation.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 3% increases in the price of food and recreation over that time. And some categories, like beverages, rose by as much as 11%.
