County Issue: Locating a New Jail

The Board of Supervisors voted recently to begin proceedings to seize property for a new jail. The site is on Todd Road near Santa Paula. Some people worry that the complex would be too near the Freeman Water Diversion Project and could pollute the Santa Clara River. Should Ventura County build a new jail on that site?

* John V. Gillespie, Ventura County sheriff

Absolutely. There is very minimal chance of problems environmentally or aesthetically in that area, and it will be a substantial boon to the area and help us maintain our low crime rate. We have now reached 1,100 inmates in a jail originally designed for 430. The overcrowding is severe. We have had the lowest crime rate in the Western United States, west of the Ohio River, for eight straight years. In order to maintain a nationally low crime rate, even though we’re bordering Los Angeles, we must have someplace to put the culprits. I’m very concerned about the environment, but my environment--the environment I’m speaking of anyway has to do with people feeling safe on the streets and in their homes from violence, gangs, drugs and other urban blight--that certainly needs to be considered as much as any other part of the environment. I want to see trees grow, but I also want to see young children grow. YOu can cut trees down, and you can also cut young children down by feeding them cocaine. We need the new

* Arthur E. Goulet, Director, Ventura County Public Works Agency

We do not believe that a project at that location causes any concern with respect to pollution associated with the Freeman diversion project. That issue has been raised by some opponents of the project who are searching for an issue. They’ve talked about two things. One is if we have a sewage treatment plant on the site, discharge, if upstream, could contaminate the Oxnard aquifer. We’ve told the United Water Conservation District that we’re willing to discharge anywhere they’d like. That is if we discharge at all, which we may not, because our plan is to attempt to reclaim all of the treated sewage for irrigation of the agriculture we plan to maintain at the site. The second issue is the potential discharge of pollutants from the site, such as motor fuel, lead, asbestos, any number of things. We plan to install facilities to capture the first flush after a rain and to separate those pollutants. When we find out if any of these problems are real, we will work to change them. We’ve worked too long to take any action which would detrimentally affect their efforts at recharging the ground-water basin.

* Fred J. Glentke, General manager, United Water Conservation District

We have two principal issues here. One is that an increase in liability to United could result from flood damage to any county facilities at the construction site. We’ve made all our prior decisions based on the fact that the land would be used as a lemon orchard and not as a facility for several thousand inmates and jail personnel. The liability to a facility and these people is much broader and deeper. United needs to have a release of liability. The second area of concern is the environment. We are aware that the site previously had oil-producing facilities on it and adjacent to it an oil sump. We’re also aware of the nearby earthquake fault, the Oak Ridge. We have asked the county to first prepare a site-specific environmental impact report so any environmental concerns may be addressed. We have not found any ground-water pollution problems in that area, but that’s our preliminary finding. You see right now considerable amounts of contaminated soil have been stockpiled at the site for disposal. We would prefer a site-specific environmental impact report be finished before the property is purchased.

* Robert C. Pinkerton, Farmer

No. Building the jail there is breaking the greenbelt, and that is precisely why I’m against it. We recently sent a certified letter to Supervisor Erickson asking 10 specific questions about he project. We’re wanting specific, meaningful answers. In keeping the greenbelt, we prevent the Santa Clara River Valley from becoming another Irvine Ranch or another San Fernando Valley. a federal policy says you don’t jump into unincorporated land far out from a municipal center of influence. In other words, don’t jump into the middle of ag land. You invite industry into an agricultural area, and industry and agriculture are not really compatible. There are problems with trespassing, vehicular flow . . . and irrigation. And the heavy traffic creates dust, which is a detriment to our crops. This is very serious and causes brown mite infestation. In order to keep that down, we have to do more spraying and we don’t like to do anything unnecessary to the produce we raise. I’m not opposed to the need for a jail, I’m just opposed to the present location, which is in the middle of the greenbelt.

* Maggie H. Erickson, Supervisor, Ventura County

Yes. Ventura County is facing serious overcrowding problems in our jail. We are involved in many diversion programs, such as work release and furlough, but it is not enough to relieve the overcrowding in the main jail. So the decision has been made to build a new jail. The Todd Road site between Ventura and Santa Paula was selected after many, many months of study, including looking at environmental issues. The cost of building at the government center was prohibitive. Now we are in the process of having a site-specific environmental impact report done. One of the issues to be addressed is the protection of the Freeman diversion project from any possible pollution. Other issues to be addressed include the access road, the possible flooding, the earthquake hazards and myriad issues that are included in environmental impact reports. The board wants to be very certain that every possible hazard has been identified and addressed so that there is no danger to people or to the environment.