While Monterey County officials are keeping a close eye on mud flows into Salinas Valley homes, others are watching the Salinas River and its potential impact on important farming regions.
The coronavirus pandemic has already made it a rough year for farmers and agricultural workers, but now what started out as welcome rain for the fallow fields of Salinas is threatening to push back critical planting deadlines.
The worry is contaminants from mud or flood water could delay the February planting schedule.
"It would be our spring crops, which is leafy greens, lettuce, spinach, romaine and then also some of the vegetable crops like the broccoli, cauliflower," said Norm Groot, head of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.
All that produce we look for in spring could be delayed if mud and flood water carry contaminants into the fields. The Salinas River meanders along with not very well defined banks, so heavy rains make it prone to overflowing.
New food safety rules require lengthy testing.
"(It’s a) minimum of 30 days up to 90 days," he explained. "It just depends on the testing results. There are a number of series of tests that need to be done for essentially pathogens and making sure that the soils and the water are clean."
Groot remembers in 1995 and 1998 when big rains pushed the Salinas River over its banks and flooded some 30,000 acres of prime farmland.
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