New sensor data: two winters at Pharo Place, two very different floods

We now have hard numbers on what the creek work did. Since January 2025, sensors on a pasture at Pharo Place have been tracking standing water and groundwater every 15 minutes. The monitoring is run by O’Connor Environmental, working with the State Water Board and Big Valley Rancheria, and Matt O’Connor just shared the first full data set with us.

The two winters could not be more different. In 2025, the pasture sat under water for at least 135 straight days, peaking at 2.31 feet deep in February. The water was already a foot deep when the sensors went in at the end of January, weeks after the last real rain, so the true count is even longer. In 2026, after Lake County removed sediment and CCC crews cleared the channel, the deepest ponding all winter was 0.40 feet, and it drained within days. Here’s the kicker: both winters got almost exactly the same rain. Our backyard rain gauge measured 16.0 inches by mid-January in both years. Same rain, one tenth the flooding. The creek work is working.

We put the whole story on a new page with interactive charts and a downloadable report: Two Winters at Pharo Place. One good winter doesn’t mean the problem is solved, and the sediment that causes the backups is still building. But for the first time, we can show with data what a maintained channel does for our neighborhood.