Dara Farms is famous for their organic walnuts, but this year’s crops could be damaged due to a levee breach on the property.
Recent rainfall and flooding in previous weeks caused San Benito County to declare a local emergency due to flooding in the areas around the Lovers Lane area, as well as Shore Road and San Felipe Road properties. Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency for the county shortly after.
On Jan. 12, county inspection teams discovered a Pacheco Creek levee breach northeast of the bridge on Lovers Lane. According to the county office of emergency services, the breach is about 100 feet long by 50 feet deep. Spillover from the Pacheco Reservoir also contributed to the flooding. Two more levee breaches have occurred since then.
Dara Farms Co-Owner Mahassa Altafi said the farm was notified of the original breach by someone who lives on the property. Dara Farms is spread out over multiple parcels, but has been family-owned for 25 years.
“We knew about (the levee breach) after the first storm, but we were just told about it via one of the people who lives on the property,”x Altafi said. “Myself, I found out about it during the second storm.”
County officials hired two contractors earlier this month to clear creek debris and fix the levee breach. Granite Construction will handle clearing debris piles, while Don Chapin Co. will handle fixing the levee. The county also contracted with Granite Rock to fix potholes in roads damaged by recent storms. Granite Rock will first focus on the Lovers Lane area and will move south from there.
Emergency Services Manager Kevin O’Neill has been the only county contact for Dara Farms, Altafi said.
“The only person I’ve had contact us and has been helpful has been Kevin O’Neill,” Altafi said. “He’s been really the person behind getting all this resolved. But as far as the rest of the county, no one’s initiated anything with us.”
O’Neill had nothing but positive things to say about Altafi and Dara Farms.
“They’ve been awesome to work with, always open and accommodating,” O’Neill said. “We’ve got a good team trying to get this solved.”
The levee breach and subsequent flooding caused damage to agricultural machinery and a fairly new palm tree irrigation system, Altafi said.
“It’s done a lot of damage to the agriculture and some homes got water in them,” Altafi said. “It damaged a lot of palm trees and walnut trees… The water keeps coming back. Underneath some of the homes, there’s about four feet of water. Over time we drain it, but it comes back. We need to wait for the levee to be fixed.”
Altafi said her damages alone are almost $100,000. Damage costs for the entire farm are under $200,000 total.
“We’re trying to see what the county can do to help us with repairs,” Altafi said. We’ve submitted our info to FEMA to see if they can step in. We started on our own repairs at our own costs because we have to be functional and people have to be able to live and move on.”
While it’s unclear what the business impact of the damages will be, Altafi said it could be significant.
“It’s probably going to be significant,” she said. “We’re not sure at this point. We’re waiting to see what happens as it’s not the season yet. As far as walnuts go, we’ll have to wait and see. I know the palm trees, at least 20 of them have fallen over and those are pretty valuable. We have a farmer on the property that grows all different kinds of vegetables and does the farmer’s market every weekend. All of his crop got affected.”
Despite damages to Dara Farms, Altafi said other locals have been supportive.
“The great thing about the area is the community is supportive of each other and everyone steps in and helps,” she said. “We’ve been fortunate that the people who are there are good at being supportive of each other.”
