River May Wind Up as Recreation Area

To Spanish explorers entering the Santa Clarita Valley in the 1700s, the Santa Clara River was the fount of a lush, green haven. In their chronicles they told how deer and antelope drank at its banks and even likened one stretch of river--near what is now Magic Mountain--to a swamp.

To many modern suburbanites who do their exploring in shopping malls, most of the Santa Clara River is a dry and dusty ditch cutting through the heart of the city. The only water flowing through it year-round is reclaimed water dumped daily by two sewage treatment plants.

Nonetheless, Santa Clarita city officials have high hopes for the river. Last month, the City Council agreed to pay BSI Consultants of San Diego $74,000 to study the potential recreational uses of the river and its tributaries.

The aim is to take advantage of a unique and little-known resource that flows from Acton through Ventura County all the way to the sea, said Laurene Weste, chairwoman of the city Parks and Recreation Commission.

Although most city residents are familiar with the dry sections of the river visible from roads in the eastern half of Santa Clarita, the western half is a secluded, vibrant and watery habitat for birds, animals and wide variety of reeds, trees and flowers. Currently, there are no recreational facilities along the river’s banks.

“This is the best we’ve got,” Weste said as she recently strolled along a trail leading to the river with city Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Kolin.

They were walking along an area just north of Magic Mountain Parkway and east of the Golden State Freeway. It is, she said, pristine and primitive.

Weste noted tall poplars and cottonwoods casting shadows over the gurgling stream. “You’re seeing it at the beautiful time of year,” she said.

Animal tracks crisscrossed the soft sand. Birds chirped and a rabbit bolted into the brush as the hikers approached. Weste said only a small number of the city’s estimated 150,000 people know about the bucolic section of the river.

The only reminders of urban sprawl were the constant hum of freeway traffic and the peaks of roller coasters of Magic Mountain far off in the distance.

The Santa Clara River channel begins in mountains east of Acton. It then heads west, roughly following Soledad Canyon Road and Magic Mountain Parkway as it winds through Santa Clarita.

As late as the 1930s, local residents could fish for golden trout in the river. But then water agencies built dams on the river’s major tributaries, Weste said. These days, most of the flow is underground, except for the area fed by 14 million gallons of effluent from the sewage-treatment plants.

There are no specific plans for the river yet, Kolin said. The consultants are charged with exploring the potential opportunities--and problems--the river presents for the city.

It’s a complex task, he said, because the river is owned by a variety of private landowners and several agencies--from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the state Department of Fish and Game--have some jurisdiction over the area.

Some of the river’s tributaries are home to the unarmored three-spine stickleback, a tiny fish on the endangered species list.

City officials also are aware that any development of the river in Santa Clarita could affect communities downstream in Ventura County. “A river is like a long row of dominoes,” Kolin said.

Complicating matters is the river’s violent history.

Jerry Reynolds, a local historian, said major floods ravaged the Santa Clarita Valley in 1937, 1969, 1977 and, most recently, in 1982, when the rampaging waters tore out two lanes of Soledad Canyon Road next to the Saugus Speedway.

The flood of 1969 was especially bad, Reynolds recalled. “Some people’s barns went clear down the river,” he said.

City officials hope the study will determine whether, for example, water can be restored to dry sections of the river. Perhaps a lake could be formed by excavating the riverbed, provided it does not harm the water table, Kolin said. The area obtains about 40% of its drinking water from local sources underground.

Ideally, the lush western half of the river would become a park with trails. “We hope to keep it pretty much the way it is,” he said.

Although the streams are fed by sewage plants, the effluent is technically safe enough to drink. Even so, sanitation officials have posted signs warning people to avoid swimming in or drinking the water.

As Kolin and Weste finished their hike, a station wagon passed along the wide sandy trail. Eli Beltran of Reseda had brought his wife and three children for a day at the river.

Beltran said he spotted the water once from the roadway and decided he would bring his family back someday.

“I would love this to be turned into a park,” he said.